SPATIO - TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF ROAD ACCIDENTS IN ABUJA MUNICIPAL AREA COUNCIL

Abstract

Road traffic accidents (RTA) have been recognized as one of those adverse elements which contribute to the suffocation of economic growth in the developing countries due to the high cost related to them, hence causing social and economic concern. In Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), accidents are regular occurrences. So far, there has not been much study to evaluate the cause and nature of these accidents in AMAC. Also, road users need to be aware of accident hotspots in AMAC. This study was therefore carried out with the aim of describing the pattern of road accidents in the study area with the view to developing a spatial decision support system for road traffic management in which effort was made to identify the factors responsible for RTA, identifiy the black spots in each district of the study area for the period of three years and examine the spatio – temporal pattern of RTA with a view to making recommendations for RTA management in Abuja, Nigeria. Topographical map and Quick bird image of the study area were acquired and processed to produce the base map of AMAC on which the major analyses were based. Both primary and secondary data were processed and analysed using spatial analysis techniques in the GIS environment. The results show ways by which GIS can provide spatial and temporal pattern of accidents and presents a spatial decision support system for RTA management. The work recommends that a GIS structure in addition to existing traffic management techniques should be put in place to monitor road crashes in the city.