Inclusive Sustainable Urban Design Using the Owerri Urban Village, Imo State Nigeria: Fid-Bau Portal

Inclusive Sustainable Urban Design Using the Owerri Urban Village, Imo State Nigeria

Agoha, Basil

Urban settings many a time seem to disadvantage the indigenous and vulnerable people. Owerri is not left out in this problem. Owerri ‘Nchi-Ise’ is an ancient historic community that served as old Owerri provincial colonial headquarters and in 1976 became the Imo State Capital. With the indigenous people, it has historically heritage buildings, features, and sites, some of which have been decimated and defaced. These are ‘Ugwuekwema’ ancestral site, ‘Otamiri’ and ‘Nworie’ rivers, community squares, waterfronts, wetlands, shell camp, colonial military shooting range, Douglas Road, and lake Nwaebere. The paper identifies these so as to preserve them as part of the urban village assets. Geographic Positioning System was used to identify the actual location of these while Geographic Information System, GIS, was used to identify the components, photographs, and interviews for more data collection. A carnival route is used to link most of the heritage and historical sites used by the indigenes during the annual ‘Oruowerri’ festival. This is to reduce road blockade associated with the festival procession. Created along the route are parks, urban forests, wetland, and beaches along ‘Nworie’ and ‘Otamiri’ rivers. It was discovered that the project would not only improve tourism, climate change, renewable energy, the urban economy, tourism, historical preservation, and community participation in planning and recreation but would preserve the ecology of the place and create urban forest with the two rivers’ wetland, indigenous flora and fauna re-established, re-discovered, and protected. The project gives a sense of belonging to the indigenous minority and vulnerable people while accommodating the larger urban population. It would also preserve the culture of the people, vernacular architecture, improve the urban agricultural potential of Owerri, and improve communal lifestyle and inclusivity for both human and non-human elements of the ecosystem.