The sprawling nature of urban development on the fringe areas of big cities in developing countries particularly Nigeria
has received much attention to the neglect of rapidly growing medium-sized cities despite the recent observation that
African cities with less than 500, 000 inhabitants are absorbing two-third of all urban population growth. It has been
argued that to understand the impact of new urbanization on the environment and people, these processes need to be
examined in medium and small cities rather than restricting our inquiries to the large and mega-cities. This study
assesses the trends and spatial patterns of urban sprawl in Osogbo between 1962 and 2011 with a view to generating
base line geo-spatial information that may be used for effective and efficient urban planning and development policies.
The study employed Aerial Photos, Satellite Imageries and population Census data to achieve the purpose of the study.
Digital image techniques were utilized in the processing of the images, statistical tools of GIS technologies, land use
development index, land consumption rate index and land absorption coefficient index were used to analyze the data on
temporal basis. Overlay operation was performed to integrate the urban land use to reveal the trends in the urban
development over the study period. The emerging sprawling growth was further investigated by quantitatively mapping
the metrics of manifestations using Erdas Imagine 9.1 and Arc GIS 9.3 Software. The results showed that urban sprawl in
Osogbo was at a rate of 4.9Km2
per annum, indicating that the city which was 3.95Km2
in 1962 had increased to
241.79Km2 by size in 2011. Also, the pattern of sprawling was linear, leapfrogged and scattered along the major
transport arteries thus, reflecting a star-shaped pattern. The study therefore advocates integration of the on-going
urban renewal programme in Osun State into a consciously evolved digital master plan and set up a task force to
enforce compliance. This can be strengthened by institutionalizing the recently adopted Geographic Information System
(GIS) to evaluate, monitor and manage land development in the peri-urban areas of the city.