Abstract

There are so many problems confronting most contemporary cities in the recent time particularly among the less developed countries around the world. These problems have been recognized to be the product of lack of urban planning by the authority in-charge as well as individual members of the society. However, the negative relationship between urban population and urban development has been identified using different methodologies. The prime objective is to apply the technique of Remote Sensing and GIS technology to examine the trend, pattern, the relationship between sprawl and population as well as the socio-economic implications of urban sprawl in Ibadan. However, the population is estimated to increase by 68.5% between year 2000 and 2020 (2,207,829 – 3,223,429) while the corresponding projected land consumption is also expected to rise by 58.5% (52,220.3 – 89, 192.3 ha) which implies that both would have doubled but the population is likely to double itself much faster than the land mass. Similarly, there was a significant change in the land use of land cover between 1986 and 2000 and a good example was the farmland which had decreased by 67.9% between this periods. The implication of this growth on the socioeconomic well being of the population is that urban development would have encroached on the urban fringe where urban and periurban agriculture is being practiced leading to acute shortage of fresh food supply to the urban populace, while similarly the sprawl is likely to result in slums development.

Key words: Urban, land use, remote sensing, fringe, population.