An Evaluation of the Spatial Dimension of Landscape Consciousness among Residents in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is a survey of residential houses, to evaluate residents’ conscious imputs to qualitative and nature-sensitive housing environments in Ogbomoso. Three relative objects of the built environment are focused for the study. The first is the conscious provision of open space. Open space considered acceptable in this study should not be less than the 3.0, 1.5 and 3.0 metres, mandatory set backs at the front, to the property fence and to the next neighbour’s outer wall, respectively; constituting the approval requirement for housing development by the Town Planning Authority - the development control agency in Nigeria. The second is the documentation of any evidence of residents’ conscious attempt at landscape, indicated by any landscape deliberately located in the housing environment. The third is the overall state of the housing environment with respect to all landscape element by the reckoning/assessment of the households themselves-for the quality and nature-friendliness of their housing environment. The availability and resulting state of these three are noted in each and compared across the zones of the city. The results show that incidence of open space, conscious landscape elements and general nature-friendliness of housing environments are significantly better in the lower density residential zones of the city.

Keywords: Landscape, consciousness, spatial, dimension, evaluation, resident