Urban aesthetics encompasses the visual and spatial quality
of a city, significantly affecting residents' well-being and economic growth.
Theories of urban design emphasise the importance of spatial organisation,
green spaces, and architectural coherence in fostering aesthetically appealing
cities. Nigeria’s economic diversification hinges on transforming its urban
centres into aesthetically vibrant, sustainable hubs, moving beyond reliance on
crude oil. Geospatial technology has been shown to be affordable and efficient
in understanding the varying forms of cities, their continuous expansion, and
the processes responsible for their growth pattern. Cities like Lagos, once
celebrated for their cultural and architectural heritage, now grapple with
aesthetic decline driven by rapid urbanisation, inadequate planning,
environmental degradation, and socio-economic disparities.
This study critically examines the challenges undermining
urban environmental quality in Nigeria, focusing on hotspot cities like Lagos,
Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano, among others, as a case study, and identifies gaps
in knowledge, infrastructure, and institutional support that exacerbate these
issues. Key obstacles include limited geospatial data, high costs of GeoAI
adoption, technical expertise deficits, and socio-cultural resistance to
technology-driven urban interventions.
Employing a multidisciplinary approach, such as a systematic
literature review, the study proposes novel contributions to innovative
solutions, integrating sustainable urban planning, inclusive governance, public
participation, and advanced geospatial technologies to restore and enhance
urban beauty. The systematic literature review involves an extensive
examination of 80 published academic sources, policy documents, and case
studies relevant to urban aesthetics, GeoAI, governance, and sustainable city
planning.
The study highlights the role of GeoAI in enabling precise
urban design, green space optimisation, and infrastructure monitoring, drawing
on best practices from cities like Singapore and Kigali that have successfully
revitalised their urban aesthetics.
Advanced GeoAI technologies— encompassing satellite imagery,
predictive analytics, and real-time urban monitoring—offer transformative
potential to redeem the environmental aesthetics of Nigerian cities, fostering
tourism, employment, and foreign exchange. However, incomplete data remains a
critical barrier, undermining the reliability of spatial predictive models and
their applications in urban planning and social sensing. Challenges such as
missing features, sparse observations, temporal snapshot limitations, and
mismatched spatial scales hinder GeoAI’s ability to capture the complex
interplay of human–environment interactions in cities like Lagos.
This study argues that successful implementation in Nigeria
demands robust policy frameworks, capacity building, and equitable technology
access to bridge systemic inequalities. Through addressing these challenges,
this study provides a new roadmap for policymakers, city planners, and
stakeholders to leverage GeoAI for urban renewal, ensuring Nigerian cities
reclaim their aesthetic allure while fostering economic and environmental
resilience. This study's recommendations underscore that structuring Nigeria’s
urban environmental aesthetics requires not only technological innovation but
also a commitment to social equity and community-driven urban transformation.
Author(s) Details
Ugochukwu Udonna
Okonkwo
Department of Geography and GIS / Department of Computer Management and
Information Systems, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, U.S.A.
Ezekiel Tosin
Babatunde
Department of Environmental Sciences, Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville, U.S.A.
Philip Ugbede-Ojo
Onuche
Department of Chemistry / Department of Management and Marketing, Southern
Illinois University, Edwardsville, U.S.A.
Enoh Martha Francis
Department of Geography and Geospatial Sciences, Oregon State University,
U.S.A.
Paul Osazuwa
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S.A.
Olumide S. Ogungbemi
Department of Geography and Geospatial Sciences, Oregon State University,
U.S.A.
Please see the book here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/crgese/v4/6261
