Seasonal Cycles in Environmental Quality of Peri-Urban Areas and their Variability in Nigeria: Some Preliminary Findings

Abstract

This paper aims to use residents' perceptual data to investigate the seasonality of environmental quality in three peri-urban settlements of Lagos state, Nigeria. This is expected to assist policymakers in how environmental education will focus on similar climatic attributes. The data collection for the study was through personal observation and questionnaire administration. The authors visited the different settlements in the four identified seasons to observe. Using a systematic sampling technique, a questionnaire was administered to respondents drawn from one of every twenty (5 percent) buildings in the peri-urban settlements. A respondent (preferably a household head) was surveyed from a floor of a selected residential building. Three hundred ninety-seven copies of the questionnaire were completed and returned for analysis. Information provided by the respondents was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed significant differences in residents' perception of air quality, street quality, electrical supply, water supply, waste collection, health services, and drainage systems in peri-urban settlements. The results showed that environmental quality in the dry seasons differs considerably from the quality identified in the rainy seasons in Ibafo and Mowe, while it was the same during the rainy and dry seasons in Isheri. It was established that residents derived little or no satisfaction from EQI, which they consider indispensable during the identified seasons. This study would reveal to policymakers the direction of policy initiatives on environmental education. It would also assist in planning the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in the different seasons of the year. The study's findings could guide the improvement of the ecological quality of peri-urban settlements of developing countries with similar socio-economic and climatic attributes.

Keywords: Environmental Quality, Environmental Quality Indicators, Seasonal Cycles, Peri-urban settlements