Urban Sprawl and Loss of Agricultural Land in Peri-urban Areas of Lagos

Examinations of ‘peri-urban’ remain elusive and often neglected by urban planners. However, these transitional zones are constantly under pressure by increasing populations from inner cities and migrants from the surrounding rural areas. The result in most developing countries is uncontrolled or unplanned landscapes. Although urban growth is inevitable and land use changes are imminent as peri-urban expansions of cities, peri-urban areas are pivotal regarding the agricultural resources necessary to urban survival. Understanding the development patterns, emerging urban forms, and their influences on peri-urban areas require an understanding of development decisions. Such knowledge will help decision makers and urban managers develop appropriate policies to address growth in ‘edge’ cities. This study focuses on the organic growth of Ikorodu, a peri-urban municipality on the outskirts of Lagos that emerged from a sleepy farming community with a population less than 100,000 in 1975 to a vibrant city exceeding one million residents in 2015. The study employs a multi-temporal remote sensing and GIS analysis to detect the urban pattern and emergent form over a 40-year period from 1975 to 2015. An empirical analysis was performed using survey data on 300 homeowners in 61 communities to identify the influences of rapid growth and the responses of planners to the city’s growth.