The Nation Newspaper

Tag: GIS

  • How GIS can resolve urbanisation challenge, by expert

    How GIS can resolve urbanisation challenge, by expert

    An expert, Yetunde Adesiyan, has called for the deployment of Geographic Information Science (GIS) in resolving the challenges of urbanisation.

    She said, “Urban Change Detection and Machine Learning Techniques’ can be used to determine suitable sites for building roads for an effective transportation network within the Lagos metropolis.

    “Lagos is the largest urban agglomeration in Nigeria and one of the biggest and fastest-growing megacities in the world, with population estimates ranging from 12 to over 20 million people

    “As one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa and the world in general, it becomes imperative to visualize and analyze the changes and patterns of urbanization over time in this megacity.

    “By understanding urban growth patterns, urban planners can make informed decisions about infrastructure development, such as an effective road network, resource allocation, and environmental impact mitigation within Lagos State.”

    Adesiyan said in a statement that “one of the spatial analysis techniques that can be used in urbanization trend analysis is urban change detection.”

    Read Also: Why registration of new parties is delayed – INEC

    She described urban change detection as a process of monitoring and identifying changes within an urban system over time, using technology that compares satellite images of an urban system taken at different times and analyzes how the urban landscape has evolved.

    Justifying the need to determine urban trend analysis, she said: “A sample case of using Urban Change Detection and Machine Learning Techniques to determine suitable sites for building roads for an effective transportation network within the city.

    “With increased urban growth comes increased building footprints, and in turn comes an increase in demand for transportation. The need for an effective road network, in line with urban growth trend analysis, becomes paramount to mitigate environmental impact and ensure improvements in transportation accessibility and connectivity.”

    Adesiyan added, “As traffic volume increases due to urban growth, effective road planning helps distribute traffic, reduce congestion, and improve the overall flow of vehicles.

    “In planning an effective road network, it is imperative to find suitable sites to construct these roads. This will involve analysing road location selection parameters like proximity to settlements and land use zoning.”

  • Why housing gap hasn’t been bridged, by stakeholders

    Why housing gap hasn’t been bridged, by stakeholders

    Operators and stake -holders have suggested  ways of moving the sector forward.

    Rising from a workshop on the Fourth National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, participants said there was need to scale up the national cadastral and township mapping.

    This would be by facilitating the provision of Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS), adopting singular mapping control network and establishing an Enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS) for the country.

    The theme was Creating enabling environment for private sector participation in affordable housing delivery in Nigeria. The forum   agreed that the Office of Surveyor-General of the Federation should be supported to provide at least one CORS Station in four states to fast-track cadastral mapping and create an Enterprise Geographic/Land Information System (GIS/LIS). They called for a National GIS/LIS summit shouldbe organised early this year to enable the placement of state and various agencies’ GIS to operate on the same template  to facilitate inter-operability.

    Approval was also given for the use of exchange of letters,  supported by a survey plan, signed by the state surveyor-general.This is to serve as a uniform and standard instrument for transfer of land between the states and the Federal Government to overcome the procedural and administrative lapses.

    The exchange of letters is to be circulated to the states before the end of the first quarter of this year for their input to ensure uniformity of application.

    The workshop, which was presided over by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mr. George Ossi, had in attendance 182 delegates (including 23 commissioners responsible for lands, housing and urban development matters in the states, as well as 159 senior officials of relevant federal and state Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), representatives of professional/regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders).

    At the end of deliberations, the Council adopted some resolutions on some issues.

     

    Housing finance

    It was noted that despite the significant progress made by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and management of mortgage industry, the bank is still constrained by the failure of some states to embrace the National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme, non-passage of critical mortgage related bills, and delay in the recapitalisation bank, urging the six  non-participating states (namely Lagos, Kano, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo and Oyo) to return to the NHF Scheme. The Federal Government was also implored to consider the  recapitalisation of FMBN.

     

    Adequate /affordable housing delivery

    The Council noted that there were serious factors militating against delivery of the housing stock in Nigeria. It added that Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects could be better deployed in overcoming impediments to affordable housing delivery if the government comes up with policies to overcome the challenges of high cost of land, transfer fees and registration processes as well as promotes training of labour, provision of ancillary infrastructure and recapitalisation of mortgage institutions.

    Besides, it also noted the need to promote the unfolding paradigm shift in national housing delivery by further creating the enabling environment for private sector participation in affordable housing with special emphasis on the use of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient appliances as viable options for reducing the costs of buildings.

    It urged the need to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), anchored on Home Ownership Property Development Cooperative Societies driven by partnership with land donors, cooperative members as ‘off-takers’, contractors, investors/financiers, shareholders, Primary Mortgage Institution (PMIs), and Bank of Industry (BoI) as  practised by Ondo State Development and Property Corporation.

    The council regretted that the impact of the housing deficit is, particularly grievous on the low income group, resulting in more urban slums and higher crime rates, and approved the setting – up of a Joint Action Task Team (JATT) of stakeholders to work out the modalities for implementing the proposed Social Housing Programme.

     

    Urban development

    The council praised the proactive initiatives of the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing    and Urban Development towards the preparation of the National Physical Development Plan(NPDP) aimed at engendering sustainable and integrated development of the nation as well as ensuring regional balance and optimisation of the use of national resources.

    It also urged the populace to desist from engaging the services of non-town planning professionals in carrying out town planning functions, urging the state governments and other key stakeholders to further support and collaborate with FMLHUD in its efforts to prepare and produce the first National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) as well as its efforts at eradicating slums across the country.

     

    Others

    Other issues raised in the communique include that the National Building Code Advisory Committee had concluded action on the review of the National Building Code and that the approval of the Code by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is awaiting the incorporation of additional input by other MDAs and relevant stakeholders as suggested by FEC. Approval of  the draft housing roadmap outlining the sets of actions to be undertaken for the sustainable Transformation of the Housing and Urban Development Sector in Nigeria over a 30-year period (2014-2044).

    Also, the forum gave approval to MDAs to demand for Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria (COREN) Licence as a condition for the pre-qualification of engineering frirms, offering services in engineering contracting, manufacturing/ production, fabrication/repair/maintenance, service provision, and as vendors of engineering machinery, equipment, plants and materials.

  • Ogun Land Bureau embraces automation

    Ogun State Government has announced the  computerisation of its registry to develop it into a Geographic Information System (GIS).

    This is to capture, store, analyse, share, manage and display all types of geographical data in the Bureau and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

    The Special Adviser/Director General, Bureau of Lands and Survey, Mr. Adewale Oshinowo, said the aim of the Ogun Geographic Information System (GIS) and Land Management System  (LAMS) project is to ensure that land administration in the state meets the  global standards.

    “This will help the state government to enforce prudent use of government land and ensure compliance with the various land use policies and building regulations, eradicate double allocation of land, ensure easy processing of title documents and prevent loss of land to other states and the neighbouring Benin Republic,” he said.

    Oshinowo listed the  benefits of the project to include the increased survey accuracy, faster local searches for property titles, online search facilities, digital archive of valuable land documents and easier processing of title documents.

    He pointed out that the project would also assist the government to respond quickly to increased demands for land by investors who intend to establish businesses in the state.

    Oshinowo unveiled the scope of the project, which includes implementing an enterprise process and work flow automation system for the Bureau, the Deeds Registry, a functional revenue administration  to complement the revenue administration run centrally by the state government; the physical and digital archiving of documents in the Bureau of Lands and retrieval of the documents in the entire lands registry installation of a Document Management System for archiving of  documents.

    He added that the implementation of a comprehensive Land Information System and an enterprise GIS system with cadastral and base map for the entire state, the geospatial data analysis for the state and the geospatial enterprise operations of the GIS system; the framework for administration of survey controls in the state and executing the correction of second and third order survey controls in the State, acquisition of processed Satellite Imagery of the whole State, execution of the Geoid-computation and framework of entire State and installation and operation of a Continuous Reference Stations (CORS) Network in the State.

    He said the re-engineering of the Bureau’s business processes and work flow will lead to efficient processing of title documents.

    The Work flow Transaction Information Management System, he said, would prevent fraud and ensure that senior management can see exactly what stage and where each document is in the process (no more missing files), and with the Single User Sign-on for each transaction, all activities have audit trails and are traceable to Individuals.

  • Graduate training scheme coming

    The Federal Government will soon come out with a policy framework on Graduate Internship Scheme(GIS) to make it stronger and more enduring, the Project Director, Peter Papka has said.

    GIS is one of the programmes under the Subsidy Re-Investment Programme (SURE-P).

    Speaking to The Nation at the last phase of the sensitisation programme of the scheme in Lagos, Papka said the decision to provide policy for the scheme was borne out of the need to make it consistent with the government’s plans to check unemployment.

    He said when the policy comes out, the National Assembly will able to legislate on issues of graduate training and if possible backed it with a bill.

    He said the government may review the scheme to achieve its goals of improving productivity and enhance the employment prospects of graduates, if it found the need to do.

    Papka said the government had reviewed the monthly stipend paid interns from N18,000 to N25,000, following a report on people’s observations, comments and reservations on the scheme.The review, he said, was carried out through the involvement of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and other members of SURE-P’s committee.

    He said: “The scheme may be reviewed because similar things have been done in the past. There was a time the monthly stipends paid interns was reviewed upwardly. We will submitting the comments and input of Nigerians on the scheme to the Minister of Finance. The SURE-P initiatives are the government way of providing safety net programmes for Nigerians. As far as I’m concerned, the SURE-P is spread over three years (2012-2015). We have the believe that the programme will exist up to 2015.

    ‘’As long as the Ministry of Finance exists, the project among others will continue to exist. The government does not want the GIS initiative to be one-off thing, hence the huge amount of money allocated to it. This is one of the reasons why the government is planning to issue a policy framework on the scheme.’’

    According to him, unemployment problems cannot be solved, but checked as evident by measures introduced by governments.

    ‘’Globally, no government has an antidote to the issue of unemployment. What governments are doing to is to put in place measures to reduce it. The scheme is part of government’s contributions to the issue of solving unemployment in the country. People should not expect the government to proffer total solution to unemployment.’’ he added.

  • NCF, Chevron others launch GIS

    Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF), Chevron and Birdlife International have launched the Geographic Information System (GIS) to create awareness for their activities.

    At the event, a scientist, Mr Ogunsesan Adedamola, described GIS as a computer-based tool for managing and analysing data that has a spatial or geographic dimension to aid work flow.

    Prof. Seyi Fabiyi said GIS helps in managing the security of data in a given area.He added that low internet density is a major factor militating against the country from benefiting from Geospatial technologies.

    The Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited, who was represented by Mr Muyiwa Agboola, praised the initiative promising to do more.

  • Lagos Land Information System set to go online

    •To train surveyors on e- registration

    The Lagos State Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and digital mapping would go online before the end of the year to speed up land documentation.

    The present land documentation system is slowed down by physical submission and retrieval of land information for processing land titles, particularly Certificate of Occupancy (CofO). The base station is ready and would become operational once some issues are resolved.

    Surveyor General of Lagos State, Mr Joseph Olorunjuwon Ajenla, who stated this at the weekend, said his mission is to integrate data from the land registry, land information systems and GIS to have a robust land registry.

    “At the punch of a botton we will have the characteristics of all land in Lagos State, the government will not only earn money but the public will have ease in identifying their properties and the issue of multiple C of O will be a thing of the past.”

    He said very soon, the GIS system would be operational, explaining that the takeoff was delayed by some logistics beyond anybody’s control. “The state governor has done a lot in that line. The package has been uploaded and everything is set. It is just some gray areas that are being fashioned out now.”

    The control centre, he said, ought to be in the office of the Surveyor General with backup from the ICT centre. “This will be the control area from which everybody will access it from outside through the web. We have the officers on ground to manage all resources the public will need. Once you pay by using the card system, you will have access to the web page.”

    He said the surveys for public land was always on time since they had some zonal offices to take care of this and that more would be created. The existing ones include, Eti Osa, Epe, Ibeju Lekki, Ikorodu, Badagry, Amuwo and Ilupeju, adding that all these offices are on ground.

    “We are trying to create two more at Ojo to manage the riverine area to Agbara and Badagry will just have a stopover at Oke Afo and those in Ojo will take over from there down to FESTAC. Amuwo will take care of Apapa and environs. We can monitor all the land in Lagos State so that cases of encroachment will be minimised.”

    I supervise survey practice in Lagos State as Chairman of Ethics Committee. You can control but can only give directives to private surveyors except we make legislation to enforce the status that says 40 days after surveying a land the surveyor must bring the red copy (survey information, showing beacon numbers, among others) to the Surveyor General’s office. We have about 500 land information applicants whose red copies are not here and this means the survey plan submitted is just an ordinary paper and they will be thinking that the Office of the Surveyor General has been delaying their application for CofO whereas we are not.”

    He said besides surveyors not submitting survey plans, there were some erroneous surveys the private surveyors do which they cannot submit to the records office. “So, these are the short comings that we have in the Surveyor General’s office. We will make legislation to ensure that the private surveyors practice ethically. Also, will talk to them to ensure they practice the right way.”

    Ajenla said there is a transition in place to ensure that surveyors submit their red copies online instead of submitting the hard copies. “So that our CofO will be e-CofO that is coded and unlike the yellow pages we now have it will not be more than A4 paper and information embedded there can only be read electronically.”

    On land acquisition, he said government acquires land for its projects for overriding public interest and to create wealth which was not just money but every other thing.

    He said people who fall within this acquired land were usually compensated but that those who bought the land after the acquisition in error were not entitled to compensation.

    He explained that there are two categories of acquisition. One is committed which means the government has planned to execute a project on a given land such as a road. Those that are not committed, he said falls within global acquisition to deter land grabbers.

    The system, he said incorporates the role of the traditional land owners known as omoniles. “They apply for excision of villages and the government has been very benevolent with them by giving them parcels of land which they must plan in conformity with the designs and layout of the government. They should go in accordance with the state’s schemes so that they will not be creating slums while we are creating civil societies. That is why we supervise them.”

    On the issue of high cost of land documentation, he said Governor Fashola has embarked on a reduction of the cost of land documentation. “The World Bank during their visit made the observation and the governor has said he would do all in his power to reduce this cost, not only for individual developers of housing but for every category of people who need land, including investors.

    The government, he said is trying to reduce the cost of purchasing land and the cost of building. These could be done through reduction in charges.