M.O.Olawole

Road traffic accidents and their related deaths have become a major health problem
and concerns. Studies have examined the impact of weather on road traffic accidents and
casualties. However, the effect of weather on road traffic accidents in the existing literature is
scanty in Nigeria. In the light of the growing interest in understanding the interrelationship
between climate change and transportation including road traffic accidents, this study
examines the impact of rainfall and temperature on road traffic accidents in Ondo State,
Nigeria between 2005 to 2012. Secondary data on monthly road traffic accidents, rainfall and
temperature were derived for the study duration from the Federal Road Safety Commission
(FRSC) and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). A total of 337 road traffic accidents
occurred between 2005 and 2012, 30.83% were fatal, 52.56% were serious and 16.60% were
minor accidents. The main finding is that the total road traffic accident is a function of
several other factors than rainfall and temperature. Specifically, correlations between road
traffic accidents and elements of weather were generally low and never exceeding 0.41. Both
rainfall and temperature were negatively and positively correlated on yearly bases. Similarly,
multiple linear regression models between road traffic accidents and the weather elements on
yearly bases show that the variations in road traffic accidents accounted for by rainfall and
temperature are equally low never exceeding 25.7%. In order to determine whether or not the
weather effects on road traffic accidents are significant, continued research using additional
weather and no weather variables is needed to replicate this study in the country.

Travel behavior and determinants of mode choice of university students in Nigeria are neither well
understood nor well represented in literature. This study model `modal choice of undergraduates, using data
from students travel survey and logistic regression to determine factors influence modal choice of
undergraduate students in Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The results indicate that walking
dominate modes for on-campus and commercial bus for off-campus students, while motorcycles taxi is used by
few of the sample. Mode choices are influenced by a combination of socio-economic and trip factors. A key
finding is extent that these variables positively affect the odds of using walk and commercial bus modes
especially with reference to student residence: on and off-campus. The results suggest investment in pedestrian
infrastructure and development of intermodal transport system as a means of making the university livable and
attractive.

Accessibility to health care facilities is one characteristic that have the potential
to impact the health and well-being of the elderly. Using data from a multistage
sample survey of 378 elderly, this study examines intra- urban mobility and
gender differences in hospital trips of elderly in the city of Ilesa, South-western,
Nigeria. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square and ANOVA.
The analysis reveals similarity in gender trip rates to hospitals - 63.14% of
elderly men and 66.29% of elderly women of the samples visited hospitals for
medical treatment during the period under study. Overall, occasional trips
frequency accounts for 96.71% of the trips to hospitals. The findings show
significant gender differences in trip frequencies, travel distance and mode
choices of the elderly. The research results reinforce the importance of intra urban
and gender variations in travel characteristics of the elderly to hospitals.

Older people are perceived to face different problems while commuting. Studies on mobility of the elderly and associated constraints are, in Nigeria, recent but scanty. Hence, this paper explores elderly mobility characteristics, commuting patterns, quality of transport services and problems associated with the use of public transport services. Questionnaires were administered to 250 elderly aged 60 years and above using a purposive sampling technique. Findings showed that 58.4% of the sampled elderly lack personal means of transportation. The study revealed that an elderly generates about 2.88 trips per day. Trip destinations within a distance of 2 km of respondents׳ residence accounted for 65.60% trips generated. Daily frequency accounted for 38.56% of the visits to four trip destinations (work, social, religion and market). Walking accounts for 36.89% of travel mode of the elderly. Transport constraints identified include high transport fare, lack of bus stops, poor nature of roads, traffic congestion, poor attitude of commercial transport operators and the absence of state owned transport services. There is also a low level of satisfaction with transport services with significant variation in satisfaction with transport service among the different age groups. The paper suggests that government should include issues of elderly mobility and safety in the nation׳s transport policy in addition to the provision of affordable public transport services for the elderly.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques are increasingly being used in agricultural management to more efficiently support emergency agro-climatic information needed in this century. Although several studies have been carried out on application of GIS and remote sensing for agricultural and rural development in other parts of the world, little research has been done in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of developing geospatial data infrastructure to enhance agricultural practices especially agricultural risk management in this age of climate change. This chapter therefore examines technological aspects of geographic information sharing as a useful platform for sharing information among agricultural agencies in Nigeria and to formulate relevant prescriptions for the future. The study shows how an integrated GIS modeling system can allow agricultural producer as well as policy makers to know the impact of variation in climate from one place/region to another for better management, productivity, and profitability. The study also develops agricultural GDI prototype for agricultural emergency management. This chapter concludes by suggesting that developing country (i.e. African countries) should embark on agricultural policy reform to enhance investment in ICT infrastructure in agricultural production.

Purpose
– Urban growth has increasingly drawn much attention of erudite scholars due to its central role in achieving a sustainable urbanization. Despite this awareness, studies on urban growth have continued to dwell on the traditional method of presenting geographical Information, which has proved to be slow and inadequate. The purpose of this paper is to adopt a Geographical Information System (GIS) in assessing the spatial pattern and the physical planning problems associated with the expansion of Ore township between 1964 and 2002. Moreover, the study tends to serve as baseline study for subsequent studies on medium‐sized and nodal towns.

Design/methodology/approach
– The study utilized data from secondary sources such as Landsat‐TM, February, 1986, Landsat ETM+, December, 2002; Topographical map of Ore 1964 and population census data of Ore 1991. The study employed ILWIS Academic 3.2 GISsoftware to process the imageries. Coordinates extracted from the topographical map in UTM were used to georeference the enhanced and filtered images upon which supervised classification was performed, followed by error matrix operation and ground truthing to ensure high level accuracy. This results in six domains, namely, built‐up, forest reserve, farmland, secondary forest roads and water bodies, which were analyzed on temporal basis. Predictive model was used.

Findings
– The study found that Ore township occupied an area of 1.2 km2 in 1964, expanded to 11.3 km2 in 1986 and 13.2 km2 in 2002 respectively. The prediction showed a possible expansion of 55.33 km2 by 2027. The results further revealed physical planning problems generated by these expansions – housing, inadequate waste disposal system, encroachment into agricultural lands, inadequate health facilities and poor drainage system. From field survey, 62 percent of 125 residential housing units sampled disposed refuse themselves, while 20 percent have no organized refuse collection and 18 percent dispose through other means. This suggests the vulnerability of inhabitants to health risks and environment problems.

Practical implications
– Urban growth data are useful in evaluating environmental impacts, delineating growth boundaries, developing land use zoning plans and estimating the expansion rate of a town to advise the government towards proper planning and distribution of utilities. These can be achieved through the adoption of GIS approaches to information gathering and analysis for regular monitoring and evaluation of development plans. Although it is capital intensive, it is worthwhile.

Originality/value
– The use of GIS and remotely‐sensed data integrated with population census data and topographical map data has demonstrated the capability inherent in the new tools, GIS and remote sensing, to generate to some extent base line data for the town planners, in order to proactively channel the urban development in an appropriate direction, particularly the medium‐sized and nodal towns that are somewhat neglected.

This study aimed at finding out and examining the forms of interaction among the rural and urban settlements in Ijesaland, Osun State in the forest region of southwestern Nigeria. The study revealed that interactions in the study area were influenced by factors such as distance, and availability of alternative centre outside the region. As economic interaction in the study area showed that people were more unwilling to travel to the service centres as distance increases from them, social interaction indicated a relatively low distance decay function suggesting that distance factor had little impact on social interactions among settlements in the study area. The observed
interrelationships among settlements of various hierarchies in Ijesaland were linked to historical ties that bind them. However, the observed patterns showed that settlements of the same hierarchy interacted more among themselves than with any other. With these results, it is hoped that the attentions of policy makers in Nigeria, as a whole, would be paid to the development of policies to address the specific needs of the urban and rural areas in the country. The study underscored that traditional ethnographic regions are often characterized by regional imbalance relating to Core-periphery Model of Freidman.