Spatial Analysis of Urban Street Lights Infrastructure in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria

The importance of urban streetlight infrastructure to the growth and development of any economy cannot be undermined judging from numerous advantages accruing from it. However, the studies on streetlight distribution pattern are rare in the literature. The present study, therefore, examined the spatial analysis of urban street lights infrastructure in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria. The study made use of 120 copies of the questionnaire, administered on people living and doing business in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas of Rivers State, Nigeria, along the three major selected roads (Ikwerre Road, Port Harcourt-Aba Road and Rumuola Road). Also, GPS was used to capture the locations of the streetlight along these major roads which were used to produce the distribution pattern of the streetlight. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the data analysis. For instance, the Nearest Neighbour Analysis was used to depict the significant distribution pattern of the functional streetlights and non-functional streetlights. Findings showed that 40 streets in the metropolis have functional streetlights while 19 streets have non-functional streetlights. Further evidence from the study reveals that the causes of streetlight vandalization are non-maintenance of streetlight infrastructure, absence of security, absence of power, unemployment, reckless driving, violence, youth restiveness and theft. The study recommended that streetlight should be constantly powered using gas turbine and solar because of the abundance of gas reserve and sunlight in the country. It also recommends that streetlight and its infrastructure should be monitored with adequate technologies to protect it against vandals. Furthermore, adequate funding should be provided for training of personnel to man the GIS equipment and for maintaining streetlight infrastructure.