Geospatial Planner · GIS & Remote Sensing Analyst · Urban and Environmental Planning Researcher
I am an Urban and Regional Planning graduate from the Federal University of Technology, Akure. I use GIS, Earth observation and spatial modelling to study how cities grow, where people struggle to reach essential services, and how communities are affected by flooding, drought, coastal change and environmental pressure.
My work sits between spatial analysis and practical planning. I am interested in producing evidence that planners, researchers and communities can understand—not maps without interpretation.
Research direction: geospatial decision support for sustainable, resilient and equitable urban and environmental planning.
My portfolio currently covers ten applied studies across Nigeria and Estonia. Three repositories are public, one is being reconstructed, and seven validated project repositories remain private while their publication packages are prepared.
| Theme | Project | Evidence and planning value | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transport accessibility | Lagos formal public-transport accessibility | Modelled walking access to 219 mapped formal/core transit points. 53.44% of the analysed population was within 30 minutes; 46.56% was beyond 30 minutes or within a structural network gap. | Public |
| Urban growth | Abuja urban-growth scenario, 2025–2035 | Allocated 183.45 km² of additional built-up land under a CA–Markov scenario. Modest historical validation is reported openly, so the output is presented as a scenario rather than a forecast. | Public |
| Land-cover change | Ibadan land-cover change, 2013–2023 | Rebuilding the classification after a forensic audit found that the original headline results were not adequately supported. The current leakage-free model achieved 78.57% overall accuracy and 0.639 Kappa, but final deployment review is still required. | Public · reconstruction |
| Healthcare accessibility | Kano primary-healthcare accessibility | Combined travel time and 15-minute 2SFCA modelling across 1,584 PHCs, 484 wards and 16,789 demand cells. Adding the top 20 candidate PHCs improved the statewide score by only 1.26%, showing that location expansion alone is not a complete solution. | Private · validated |
| Drought and land change | Northern Nigeria vegetation browning | Identified statistically significant vegetation decline without a corresponding rainfall decline in the LGP 180–239 day zone. Independent land-change evidence supports an interpretation beyond climatic drought alone. | Private · validated |
| Land suitability | Enugu near-urban expansion suitability | Built a leakage-audited Extra Trees model with independent spatial testing. The model achieved 0.727 ROC-AUC and improved PR-AUC over a distance-only benchmark, while retaining clear uncertainty limits. | Private · validated |
| Conflict and displacement | Borno settlement-change assessment | Screened 2,455 settlements and reviewed 13 detailed cases using built-up change, night lights, conflict and population evidence. No location is presented as abandoned without sufficient multi-source support. | Private · validated |
| Flood risk | Lokoja flood hazard and vulnerability | Developed an AHP/MCDA flood-susceptibility model validated against 2012, 2018 and 2022 flood evidence. High and Very High hazard captured more than 85% of the historical flood evidence in each year. | Private · validated |
| Urban green infrastructure | Tartu ecosystem-service deficit | Mapped capacity, demand and deficit across Tartu. 72.30% of built-up land fell within High or Very High planning-priority zones for green-infrastructure attention. | Private · validated |
| Coastal adaptation | Ayetoro 3D coastal vulnerability | Assessed 1,628 buildings using a five-indicator vulnerability index. 72.17% were classified as High or Very High relative vulnerability; the 3D component is clearly separated from the analytical model. | Private · validated |
Private projects are described here as portfolio work, but their repository links and internal files are not exposed. They will be made public individually after final publication checks.
Question: How easily can residents reach Lagos's mapped formal/core transit network on foot?
The study combines a pedestrian network, WorldPop population data and mapped formal/core transit access points. It also separates time-based access gaps from structural network gaps and states clearly that informal transport is not comprehensively represented.
Question: Where might urban expansion concentrate if the 2015–2025 transition pattern continues?
The project combines land-cover transitions, a suitability surface and quantity-constrained cellular allocation. Because historical CA–Markov validation was modest, the 2035 result is used for strategic scenario discussion—not parcel-level prediction or development approval.
Question: How can metropolitan land-cover change be measured with defensible reference data and validation?
A later audit found that the original accuracy and change claims could not be independently supported. I therefore withdrew those figures and began a full reconstruction with seasonally matched imagery, human-reviewed labels, leakage controls and nested validation.
- Planning perspective: I connect spatial results to land-use decisions, service access, environmental management and community needs.
- Scientific caution: I distinguish association from causation, scenarios from forecasts, susceptibility from hydraulic risk, and modelled access from actual service quality.
- Reproducible work: My repositories document data sources, methods, limitations, validation evidence and reusable outputs.
- Clear communication: I write for both technical and non-technical readers and use maps, charts and concise explanations together.
- Willingness to correct: When an audit exposes a weakness, I document it and rebuild the analysis rather than preserve an attractive but unsupported result.
| Area | Tools and methods |
|---|---|
| GIS and cartography | QGIS, ArcGIS/ArcMap, Google Earth Engine |
| Python and spatial data | Python, GeoPandas, Rasterio, Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, OSMnx, NetworkX |
| Remote sensing | Landsat, Sentinel-2, MODIS, Dynamic World, VIIRS, CHIRPS |
| Spatial analysis | Land-cover classification, change detection, network analysis, 2SFCA, CA–Markov, AHP/MCDA, vulnerability and suitability modelling |
| Data and research workflow | WorldPop, OpenStreetMap, Google Colab, Git, GitHub, SPSS, Zotero |
| Communication | Technical reports, project boards, maps, charts and planning-focused interpretation |
- B.Tech, Urban and Regional Planning — Federal University of Technology, Akure
- Environmental Planning Intern, Gbolabs Environmental Agency — contributed to land-use analysis, environmental assessment, neighbourhood planning and GIS-supported site studies
- Former planning intern, Ondo State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development
- Trained university IT students in practical GIS and spatial-data applications
- Participated in community sensitisation for a proposed Ondo State flyover, engaging residents and corridor users on its transport and traffic purpose
I am open to:
- master's and research opportunities in geospatial planning, remote sensing, climate adaptation and urban resilience;
- entry-level GIS, remote-sensing and environmental-planning roles;
- research collaboration involving spatial decision support; and
- projects that connect technical analysis with real planning problems.
- LinkedIn: Abdazeez Abdullah
- Email: abdazeezabdullah1@gmail.com
- Location: Nigeria
Planning better places with geospatial data.