Geospatial Analysis of Car Parks' Adequacy in Obafemi Awolowo University Campus, Ile-Ife

Abstract

Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is located in Ife Central, Local Government Area (LGA), Osun State, Nigeria. Car parks adequacy and their mode of utilization is a challenge to the University community, hence the use of geospatial techniques to analyse car parks adequacy in OAU campus academic areas. Google earth image covering the study area was captured, the Geographic Positioning System (GPS) points of the existing parks was taken, the capacities of the park were noted and the inflow and outflow of cars from existing car parks for a period of one Month, within the study area was also taken. The image was georeferenced, mosaicked, and after this, the following features were vectorized; roads, buildings and the car parks and this information were stored in the geodatabase. These data was now incorporated with existing literature for geospatial analysis. Result indicates that the University has twenty nine car parks in the academic area. Almost all the car parks were over utilized while few were under-utilized. It was also noted that some areas where people parked their cars were not designated by the University authority as car parks. None of the parks has space for motorcycle, bicycle, or designated place for people with physical challenges. Larger car parks with provision for all and sundry should be put in place and underground car parks should be considered for future or ongoing structure while enforcing the university rules with respect to car parks.