Urbanization and 3D City Moelling for Developing Countries: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The study examines urbanization and its associated effects in terms of infrastructure, planning and congestion in two West African cities: Ibadan in Nigeria and Accra in Ghana. A comparative planning scheme for Accra, Ibadan and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is also analysed. Quantitative and qualitative approach in the form of orthophotos and satellite imagery, planning schemes and questionnaire were used for the study, 519 respondents were randomly sampled. Results from the study reveal that more than half of the respondents from Accra and Ibadan stated that the level of provision of sanitary facilities is not adequate or in most cases not present at all, while majority of respondents from Kuala Lumpur stated that sanitary facilities are adequate. Similarly, findings from the study show that majority of respondents from Accra and Ibadan stated that the provision of transport and recreational facilities is poor as compared to Kuala Lumpur. In the three cities more than half of the respondents claimed that they spent over 21 minutes to and from their work place. Overall impression about the physical infrastructure was poor in Accra and Ibadan. Also, it was observed from the findings that respondents incur both human and material losses due to traffic congestion in both cities. Some of the causes of traffic congestion identified especially in Accra and Ibadan in the study include: high number of vehicles plying the roads, narrow road networks, bad roads, lack of alternate routes, erection of structures near some major routes in the city and impatience on the part of some drivers. The cities of Ibadan and Accra are sprawling in a horizontal direction thereby taking a lot of land space with no effort being made by building and planning agencies to start building structures in the vertical direction above and below the city surface. The two cities therefore cannot boast of any significant landmarks in the category of the Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur, hence the tourism potential of these cities cannot be maximally utilized. The study suggests the adoption of 3D city modelling and techniques in Accra in Ghana and Ibadan in Nigeria for spatial planning, also a generic framework is presented so as to overcome some of the transport and infrastructural problems to improve the quality of life as observed in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Urbanization and Urban Sprawl Issues in City Structure: A Case of the Sulaymaniah Iraqi Kurdistan Region

“…The same as in case of Altieri et al [61], they say that on top of the rapid urbanization in the country, there exists low-level economic growth in many of the cities. Frick et al and Duncan et al [20,23] were of the same view that such conditions led cities to emerge as unplanned centers dominated by informal settlements haphazardly located close to urban growth centers. Another understanding from the findings is that the implication of the cities has a complex mix of urban land use types such as residential, industrial, commercial, and public areas often displaying disorganized spatial patterns.…”

“…In addition, the cities with high economic development level have opportunity to control urban sprawl [22]. However, the context of primary element such as the growth rate or population density could be used as preferred by some countries in grouping urban population [23]. In addition to this, some locations perceived to be grouped as urban in one country may be classified as rural in another [10,16].…”

Towards a Sustainable Transport System: Exploring Capacity Building for Active Travel in Africa

“…These countries' choices were linked to their recent developments in terms of increased population, economic activities, and pressure on the transport infrastructure. Ghana and Nigeria were chosen because of their rapid urbanization and emerging transportation issues [35,36], whereas Kenya and Ethiopia were selected because of their innovative approaches to transportation policy and infrastructure development [37][38][39][40]. Mozambique was chosen because of its distinct socioeconomic dynamics and their impact on urban transportation systems [41,42].…”

Preliminary building information modelling adoption model in Malaysia

“…Epic advancements have also been experienced in Scandinavian regions, as Finland Senate (property services agency) carried out BIM pilot since 2001 to produce their product model and eventually implemented full BIM in 2007 (Khosrowshahi and Arayici, 2012;BIWG, 2011), Norway Directorate for Public Property and Construction Management uses IFC BIM for automated code checking from experiences gained in The Norwegian Defence Estates Agency BIM pilots ran from 2007 to 2009. While, in Denmark, 3D/BIM is used for design, call for tender and an electronic handover of information to clients (Duncan et al, 2012). The Palaces and Properties Agency, The Danish University and Property Agency and Defence Construction Service are continuously exploring wider BIM requirements (BIWG, 2011 (Faithful Gould, 2009;Wong et al, 2011).…”