Lagos metropolis, the current economic capital of Nigeria is a low-lying coastal city endowed with a number of lagoons and wetland ecological assets. Lagos/Lekki Lagoons being the largest with a combined size of 646km2 are fringed on many sides by wetlands. Many of these wetlands have undergone severe spatial changes from rapid urbanization in the past three decades. The precise nature of these changes is largely unknown and unreported. As the area is experiencing intense development pressure, this study therefore examined the spatial changes in the wetlands fringing these lagoons using the integrated approach of remote sensing data and GIS with topographic maps providing baseline data. The objective is to quantify and establish the precise location and magnitude of these changes over the years from 1984 to 2006. Two types of wetlands are prevalent in the Lagos area namely: the swamps and mangroves. ENVI software was used along with parallelepiped supervised classification in processing the Landsat images. Results show that the mangrove wetlands decreased from 88.51km2 to 19.95km2 at -3.12km2 annually while swamps decreased from 344.75km2 to 165.37km2  at - 8.15km2 annually both between 1984 and 2006. Results further show that mangroves which were widespread in seven council areas around these lagoons in 1984, have dwindled to only four councils in 2006. These decreases are attributable to urban development pressures. Some of the implications of these losses and conservation issues are briefly highlighted.

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Lagos State, which is home to Lagos metropolis and the eighteenth largest urban agglomeration in 2018 in the world, has been characterized by rapid urbanization. An earlier study of the eastern segment of the state revealed dramatic urban growth in previously rural local councils where it replaced mostly ecological assets. For a statewide view of the landscape pattern changes, this study examined the western segment of the state to characterize the magnitude and trend of these changes. This was done with Landsat images for 1984, 2006 and 2015 along with ENVI 5.0 software and FRAGSTATS v.4.2 spatial pattern analysis program. Results show that cumulatively, the ecological assets, which comprised 75% of the area in 1984, have been whittled down to about 34% by 2015 having been lost through urban development. At the council level in 2015, the highest growth areas, in decreasing order of magnitude, were Alimosho, Badagry, Ojo and Amuwo Odofin local government areas. Both class and landscape-level metrics confirmed the dominance and fragmentation of the resultant landscape in 2015 by urban development. In 1984, vegetation dominated the landscape at 55% coverage and was the largest feature with the highest area-weighted contiguity or connectedness index. Thirty-one years later in 2015, built-up areas were the dominant patch with 54% coverage and the highest contiguity and area-weighted contiguity index, higher than vegetation. These findings have narrowed the information gap about the spatial and temporal changes in the ecological assets of the western segment of Lagos State as a result of rapid urban expansion.

Background: Tracking every child for polio eradication in the African region has been an ambitious objective in respose to the recommendations of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to enhance information gathering in areas with sub-optimal and challenging performance. Achieving this objective require real-time information on active surveillance. Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) case searches were captured on mobile phones to monitor polio eradication programme through a digitalised platform developed by the Polio Geographic Information System Centre at WHO Regional Office for Africa. The system generated a huge dataset and influenced the development of several information products that was critical for managing the polio programme within the African region which was acknowledged by Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) as a key support to acheivng eradication of wild polio virus which was celebrated in August 2020. Objective: To document and assess the impact of interactive visualisation infographic platforms to guide decision-making in achieving polio eradication in the African continentMethod: The study reviewed retrospective prototype data from a web-based interactive visualization platform sourced from real-time active case searches (ACS) conducted in the African region from June 2017-2020 using android mobile phones. The study participants used the platform via smart screens and touch wall projections for decision making and gap analyses. The study evaluated the tool using the informal user experience evaluation method combined with an automated relay monitor on the active surveillance web-based applications, which cached every visit to the geographic entity. The method employed required platform users to interrelate with ACS and AFP surveillance data via visual displays for their programmatic interventions and accountability. The study also captured their feedbacks through a structured interview and automatically-cached pages. Results: Communicating field level indicators in real-time and interactively to decision-makers is a powerful and veritable tool to solve geographical representation of surveillance gaps at the lowest level of reporting, and reach a wider diversity of audience. These interactive visualisations also solve the problem of complexity in interpretation, which can lead to an impaired understanding of surveillance blind spots, information misinterpretation, which occurs when users of the surveillance data ignore or do not know why, where, and how the data has been produced, or where and how it can be used.Conclusion: The digitalization of disease surveillance, particularly, ACS for Poliomyelitis permits decision-makers to conduct a strategic evaluation of surveillance situations and gaps via interactive visualisations. In this context, these interactive visualisations provide polio programme in Africa wih a platform to visualise interactive imageries of geographical evidence of active surveillance at focal sites using interactive charts, maps and dashboards for all polio surveillance processes. Other considerations, such as cost, ease of use, learnability, and efficiency of those tools were comparatively better than the traditional system.