PROPERTY ARTICLES

GIVEN the "serious breakdown in major infrastructure" in the country, a situation that has resulted in social, economic and developmental problems in the country, planning professionals and their students have been taking a closer look at the relationship between economic recession and city development in the search for new solutions.

Meeting at the 4TH National Conference of Urban and Regional Planning (NACRURP 2009), organised by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the School of Environmental Studies, Yaba College of Technology, in Lagos recently, participants discussed the theme: 'Global Economic Recession and Sustainable City Development in the Developing Countries' and its impact on the arts, technology, science, humanities and other areas of the nation's endevour.

While examining the concept of a city, Dr. Iyiola Oni of the Department of Geography, University of Lagos, noted that in the global perspective, large cities have suffer more in the recent recession, especially in the United States of America, which is one of the biggest economies in the world. "In the same vein, various cities in Nigeria cannot be exempted from this global trend," he said.

He noted; however, that despite the impact of the recession on the economy, there had been some positive developments.

For instance, he said that the cost of land in the city centre had influenced the rapid physical development experienced in the rural and semi-urban areas, such as Mowe, Ibafo, Agbowa, Epe, Badagry and some other remote areas on the Lagos-Ibadan axis.

Another positive impact, according to him, was that because cities had little control on rural areas in the short run, the inward movement had attracted infrastructure and facilities that were lacking in these rural areas. These included electrification, water supply, road network and the rest of them.

Among the negative impacts were that the fast growing centres might be bereft of proper planning, the crash in housing regulation, slow pace of putting in place the necessary infrastructure development needed for housing growth and decline in house ownership rate in the cities as a result of depression.

Oni's recipe for city development during recession included participation of all stakeholders by engaging in discussions and collaborating in all stages of the developmental processes, developing a vision statement to meet challenges of economic recession, conducting a strength weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), analysis, discussing strategies for future development and identifying sources of revenue for projects, among others.

While noting that recently discussions about sustainable city development and globalisation had focused on poverty, Dr. C.O. Olatawura, of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan stated that urbanisation, though the driving force for modernisation and economic development, had raised increasing concern about the effects of expanding cities principally on human health, livelihood pattern and the environment, with special concern for housing.

His words: "In today's urban centres, spurred by contemporary perceived or actual economic recession, social and economic disadvantage is a growing concern as we see an ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. The question that arises is whether the current trend in urban growth is sustainable considering the accompanying urban challenges such as unemployment, under-employment, slum and informal housing development, poverty, environmental degradation, insecurity, coupled with policy somersaults and the emerged global recession."

Olatawura noted that most cities and countries, especially in developing countries, were struggling with the challenges of economic and financial globalisation and with policies that were prescribed for integrating them with the global economy. These policies, he said, despite having fuelled the recent and unprecedented creation of wealth in global economic terms, had failed to ensure a more equitable distribution of the benefits of economic growth.

He said that the situation had created the worsening plight of hundreds of million of people living in appalling shelter conditions, the situation that was recognised as one of the major problems facing mankind, which Nigeria shared a significant percentage.

To Olatawura, though a major component of the development equation, the urban environment was more than ever before bedeviled by the compelling need to achieve.

To him, a healthy urban environment would require effective urban environmental management and protection, balance population, environmental resources and developmental interaction, improved quality of life and urban environmental quality, and above all, sustainable people-oriented development in the face of current global economic recession and its associated challenges.