ASSESSMENT OF FORMS AND EXTENT OF INFORMAL CHANGES TO THE GEOMETRY OF A LOW DENSITY GOVERNMENT LAYOUT IN BAUCHI TOWN, BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

In spite of being prohibited by the contemporary land policy (Land Use Act) in Nigeria, the mutation of the geometry of statutory land parcels without official approval is taking place. Such mutations create differences between the geometric attributes of the parcels concerned as recorded in land registries and what obtains on the ground. By comparing the sizes of parcels as officially allocated and as developed, this paper attempts to provide evidence of the mutations that have taken place in a low density residential layout in Bauchi metropolis, the administrative headquarters of Bauchi State, Nigeria. The designed layout plan was obtained from the Ministry of Works, Lands, and Housing, while the corresponding Google Earth satellite image of the layout was downloaded using Terra Incognita 2.4 software package. Geo-referencing, digitization, creation of layout plan – satellite image overlay and computation of areas of the parcels as designed and as built was done with ArcGIS 10.5 Software package. The results indicated that the layout was designed to have 307 plots with a mean area of 2680.56m². A rock outcrop, approximately at the centre of the layout, occupy 72,842 m². 164 of the designed plots (inclusive of the rock) have been subdivided into 1473 smaller plots, 35 have been extended in 99 instances, while 7 have been merged into 3. Together, the geometric changes have altered the configuration of the layout from its conceptual design. Employing GIS techniques to update the plans of all government layouts for systematic registration of associated non-spatial attributes of