IMPACT OF AIRPORT LOCATION ON LAND USE LAND COVER AND SOCIO- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE HINTERLANDS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the impact of airport location on the socio-economic development of the hinterlands in Nigeria. The objectives of the research are to: examine the impact of airport location on the land use development of the adjoining lands; assess the pattern of economic activities on the development of the adjoining lands; evaluate the impact of airport location on socio-economic development of the adjoining lands; and assess the effect of government land use planning policies in controlling the physical development of the adjoining lands. The study deployed questionnaire, field observation and focus group discussion to collect the required data. Structured questionnaire was administered to nine hundred and twenty-eight (928) residents and business owners to elicit information on their perception of the impact of airport location on the socio-economic development of its adjoining lands. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis. The inferential statistics deployed was the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) which was adopted to test the hypothesis. ArcGis 10 was deployed to show land use development. Global Positioning System (GPS) was deployed to identify the location and distribution of economic activities, while SPSS was used for data coding. The findings of the study show that land use development in the study areas have undergone a substantial level of changes, with built-up, becoming more prevalent. In conjunction with this, airport location impacted on land use development through the construction and expansion of urban road networks. Findings revealed that recently, Port Harcourt International Airport has the highest land consumption change rate of 7.72% followed by Abuja Airport location with 6.42%; while Lagos has the lowest record of land consumption/change rate of 3.16%. Findings from the use of GPS revealed that Lagos has the highest level of economic activities totalling two thousand three hundred and twenty-three (2,323). Seven hundred and ninety-one (791) for the core, nine hundred and thirty-six (936) for the transition and five hundred and ninety-six (596) for the periphery zone. The study further revealed that airport location has a significant impact on real estate value. The impact of airport location on residential property sales was highly significant at 57%, 50% and 51% in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt, while the impact of airport location on landed property value was highly significant at 56%, 51% and 53% in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. The findings further revealed that on business development, airport location influenced the start-up and relocation of businesses to the adjoining land with 72.8%, 64.2% and 78.5% in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt, and propelled business growth and business development. The hypothesis results tested shows p=0.000.