GEOSPATIAL ASSESSMENT OF URBAN EXPANSION AND HEALTH CARE FACILITIES DISTRIBUTION IN AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the effect of urban expansion on the spatial distribution of Public Primary Health Centers in Awka between 1986, 2000 and 2015. The specific objectives of this study are to evaluate the Rate of Urban Expansion in Awka from 1986 to 2015, analyze the spatial distribution of Health Care Facilities in the Study Area and determine the adequacy of existing Public Primary Health Centers with respect to the rapid urban expansion in the study area. The study provides information on how urban expansion affects Public Primary Health Centres in Awka and identifies areas for intervention by other stakeholders. The study made use of primary and secondary data sets. The primarydata sets include field observations and GPS coordinates of Healthcare facilities. The secondary data sets include Landsat imageries of 1986, 2000 and 2015, administrative map at scale 1:15000 covering the area and Hospital records. False color composites were formed and enhanced for better visual perception and interpretation. Supervised classification employing the maximum likelihood algorithm was carried out on each imagery. Furthermore, relevant urban expansion parameters including Built-up Change Intensity Index, Built-up Dynamic Index, Built-up Rate of growth, Net Urban Density Index, Marginal Density Index and Expansion Index were computed and the spatial overlay was calculated. In addition, the GPS points and hospital records were used to map the spatial pattern of healthcare facilities in Awka. Thereafter, public primary health centers were queried and their spatial distribution pattern was analyzed. Finally, correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between urban expansion and spatial distribution of public primary health centers in Awka between 1986 and 2015 and a test of hypothesis was used to determine the effect of the former on the latter. The results showed that Awka has expanded at a very fast rate, increasing more in population density rather than area expansion from 1393 persons per sq km in 1986 to 8755 persons per sq km in 2015 with an expansion index of 76% in 2015. The number of public primary health centers for 1986, 2000 and 2015 are respectively 1, 4 and 5 indicating a slow progressive increase and evenly dispersed in the study area. They were not adequate to cater for the rapidly expanding city, based on World Health Organization and Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health standards. The study concluded that from the trend analysis of urban expansion and spatial distribution of public primary health centers in Awka from 1986 to 2015 there is no significant relationship between them meaning that the former does not influence the latter as proved statistically by the test of hypothesis. This study has expanded the research frontier in urban studies introducing new dimensions and concept in the area of applying GIS to awareness of lack of public infrastructure in Awka. The study has thrown up challenges, especially in linking urban expansion with spatial distribution of public primary health centers in Awka for management, valuation, and appraisal.