Spatial suitability of urban land use models for poverty alleviation in the cities of Nigeria

Many models depicting the spatial dimensions of poverty are based on cities in developed countries, raising questions about their appropriateness for urban spaces in developing countries. This study evaluates the spatial suitability of these models in understanding poverty distribution and informing alleviation efforts related to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). One in cities of developing nations. A grid sampling technique in ArcGIS 10.8 was used to select 1098 households across 56 wards in three mid-sized Nigerian cities. Household data were collected through structured questionnaires using GeoODK, and Maxar high-resolution imagery was used to assess urban building density. The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty indices and Pearson correlation were applied for analysis. Results showed that over 29 wards had a poverty incidence and gap index greater than 0.20, while poverty severity remained below 0.20 in most wards. High building density was more prevalent in the city's interior. Significant correlations were found between the income poverty gap (p = 0.005, r = 0.367), poverty severity (p = 0.009, r = 0.346), and building density. The study concludes that these models are suitable for informing poverty alleviation policies in mid-sized cities of developing countries, especially Nigeria.