THE TREND OF LANDUSE CONVERSION FROM RESIDENTIAL TO COMMERCIAL IN ILESA METROPOLIS

The Central Business Districts (CBDs) of African cities are undergoing transformation; the formerly residential land uses and buildings are being replaced not by new ones but by commercial ones. The trend of this development inspired the researchers to investigate and project into the future of the (CBDs). The primary data on the physical attributes of the three key- conversion types for this study were obtained based on three decadal variations in land use conversion from residential to commercial. Hand-held GPS equipment was used to obtain the coordinates for points of observation. The secondary data were sourced using remote sensing imageries acquired from Global Earth Geo-system (Landsat imageries). ArcGIS (Arcmap 10.1) was used to bring into view the three conversion types in the study area. The result revealed and projected rising number of fully converted buildings against declining number of partially converted ones within one kilometre radius of Ilesa CBD. With confirmed enforcement of planning regulations, the work radically recommended continued full conversion of blighted CBD residential neighbourhoods to commercial uses.