Assessing smart infrastructure for sustainable urban development in the Lagos metropolis

The challenges of sustainable urban development increases daily and the usual planning approaches to ameliorate these challenges are ineffective. This study assesses the applicability of ‘smart infrastructure’ to achieve sustainable urban development in Lagos metropolis. The study theoretical framework is based on ‘smart’ principles. The study adopts a mixed method of data collection and analysis with multi-stage sampling techniques of 460 households in six communities of Eti-Osa and Ikeja local government areas of Lagos metropolis. The objectives of the study were to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of the residents and assess the infrastructure, the building uses and the environmental conditions of the study areas in relation to smart principles and smart infrastructure application in the study areas. The data were analyzed using inferential statistics and the findings reflect that the building use is sprawl development in nature with the informal settlement and infrastructure inadequacy as the major challenges. Smart infrastructure approaches are identified as applicable for achieving sustainable development in the study areas with smart interventions in socioeconomic status of the residents, the environment, the building uses and the basic facilities and services in the study areas.