Geospatial Assessment of the University of Maiduguri Campus Master Plan

The recent funding of the Universities in Nigeria through Education Trust Fund (ETF), and latter Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) among others has brought about physical developmental projects such as buildings, roads, electricity and water on the campuses. Some of these projects were put in place without regard to the provision of the master plans which often results into the distortions of the master plan. This paper focused on the use of geospatial techniques in assessing the conformity of developmental projects with the University campus master plan from inception till January 2015. The 1984 master plan and the Google image of the University as at January 2015 were acquired, referenced and overlain. This enabled the actual locations of individual structures to be easily and conspicuously identified on the image. The planned landuse types were digitized from the 1984 master plan. The existing structures were also identified, delineated, digitized and calculated from the 2015 Google image. This assessment revealed that as at January 2015, a land area of 351.52 hectares has been developed from the total University‟s land area of 4131.07 hectares. From the 351.52 hectares, projects on distorted areas occupied a total land area of 79.04 hectares. This means that 22.5% of the already developed lands in the University campus are not in conformity with the master plan. Some of the planned roads were also discovered to have been distorted by physical structures. The proposed gate 3 in the 1978 master plan and the reviewed 1984, has been heavily bastardized because the current Gate 3 and the entrance road through the gate do not conform to the master plan. It was recommended that the University of Maiduguri master plan should always be taken into consideration before any new structure is erected. Regular review of the master plan was also suggested as the University master plan has not been reviewed since 1984. Lastly, it was suggested that all ongoing projects on gate 3 and the roads linking the gate to the University should be according to the master plan. It is hoped that the findings of this study will be useful for the physical planning unit of the University in particular to be conscious of the locations of future projects within the university campus in order to maintain sustainable utilization of the campus land.