Abstract
Major challenges facing cities globally stem from rapid urbanization, population increase and city development driven on oil with complex systems, functions and economy. Rhodes (2008) illustrates how in the 20th century, various urban planning movements evolved to create energy intensive and oil-dependent cities with the spatial extents that are directly proportional to the energy required to move people and goods around. The socio-economic and environmental effects of oil dependency such as mono-economy and environmental degradation are evident in developing countries, where space contestation and illegal development result to brownfields, which are devoid of greenery and adequate basic services. Current realities indicate the depletion of oil and price crashes resulting to dwindling revenue and increasing difficulty in tackling prevalent urban problems. In Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria and Port Elizabeth, South Africa respectively, the incessant rate of public space encroachment and land occupation are manifested in the poor state of the environment and unhealthy living conditions. The need arises to protect the environment through innovations from non-oil sources, improve living standards and curtail climate change. This paper examines the factors responsible for space contestation, illegal development and brownfield degeneration, and evaluates the effects on livelihood and the environment. It intends to adopt green landscaping and green technologies as interventions to create liveable places, stimulate local economy, and promote overall sustainability in the cities. Wiley (2019) sees green landscaping as a synonym to sustainable or eco-landscaping: a method used to design, create, and maintain the landscape to save resources; nurture wildlife; reduce pollution; and provide healthy places for recreation. Green technologies are environment friendly, involving energy efficiency, safety and health concerns, recycling, and renewable resources (Soni, 2015). Laffta and Al-rawi (2018) describe green technologies as tools to help make cities sustainable and provide inhabitants with a good quality of life. These green initiatives conform with the policy objectives of the Green Economy Initiative (UNEP, 2008), and the series of ‘Green’ development initiatives and innovations launched by the United Nations and some developed countries; and supports the United Nations Environment Programme’s opinion that the green economy is an inroad to poverty eradication and achievement of sustainable development (UNEP, 2011). The multi-stage sampling technique is used to obtain firsthand information to supplement data gathered from secondary sources to build literature on the physical and socio-economic attributes as well as the causes and effects of uncontrolled development in selected study areas in the cities. Research findings show some variations in socio-cultural and political backgrounds between the two cities. It exposes residential development as the common dominant land use depleting vegetative cover. Public space contestation and encroachment, illegal developments using substandard construction materials, informal sector commercial activities, have degenerate the landscape to brownfields. The study established that landscape devoid of greenery reduce urban comfort and liveability, while the high incidences of poverty and unemployment impact negatively on living standards. The paper recommends green landscaping and economic revitalization through the adoption of green landscaping and green technologies as indispensable tools to create liveable places and promote green growth in Ado-Ekiti and Port Elizabeth. The study argues that green transformation and the complete adoption of green technologies through structure planning are pathways to conducive environment, inclusive green growth and economic diversification for long-term prosperity in the post-oil cities. It is hoped that urban greenery propagation and the consistent implementation of green innovations with community participation will reduce dependency on oil and the effluents. This is guaranteed to provide livable environment, improve livelihood, build climate resilience, promote overall sustainability and green city transformation in Africa and the Global South.
