Appraisal of Road Network Spatial Connectivity in Abuja City, Nigeria

Road network creates a pivotal base for social co-existence, resource exploitation, production and consumption opportunities. These in turn lead to attainment of enhanced lifestyle and overall growth of cities. However, the pattern of road network and its performance on transportation, urban form and land use in Nigerian cities remain scarcely explored. This study investigates the spatial connectivity of road network and its influence on transport and urban form in Abuja city. Forty planning districts were used as spatial units for the analysis. GIS approach was applied to generate the road network spatial structure from open street map imagery. Graph theory indexes were used to evaluate road pattern connectivity. The study confirms that there is spatial disparity of road connectivity across the districts of Abuja metropolis. Although majority (72.5%) of the districts have fair (4.17 – 11.72 km/ km2 ) distribution of road density most (60%) of the districts have 6.66 – 46.23 Aggregate Transportation Score (ATS) values, indicating low road network connectivity. Generally, road density and connectivity are high in the inner-city centre and sparse in the outer-inner city and city (edge) peripheral regions. The outcome of this research could aid the planning authority in detecting and finding solution to the problems associated with the physical road network in Abuja metropolis. Thus it would encourage the development of more roads to enhance economic growth, social stability, unity and quality of life within the entire city.