The research team, led by Chinyelu D. F. Onyia of the Centre for Environmental Management and Green Energy at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, surveyed 366 residents across the Asaba Capital Territory, which comprises the Oshimili North and Oshimili South local government areas. The region sits at a strategic crossroads between southern and southeastern Nigeria, and its proximity to Onitsha, one of the country’s largest commercial hubs, has fueled a construction boom in residential estates, shopping malls, hotels, and an airport. That growth, however, has come at an environmental cost, as urban sprawl consumes the vegetated land that once buffered communities from heat, flooding, and erosion.

The study employed a comparative cross-sectional design, splitting participants evenly between neighborhoods with dedicated parks and green spaces and those without. Using the Cochrane formula with a prevalence estimate drawn from earlier green space research, the investigators calculated the required sample and then applied stratified systematic random sampling to select households. In areas with parks, every sixth household was approached; in areas without, every fourteenth, reflecting the larger household pool of roughly 2,551 compared with about 1,167 in green space zones. The first consenting adult in each selected home was interviewed with a researcher-administered, semi-structured questionnaire adapted from prior studies in Ghana and Kenya.

Methodological rigor was a priority. The 16-item perception scale was pre-tested on 20 participants from a nearby town outside the study area and achieved very good internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.90 and corrected item-total correlations ranging from 0.52 to 0.81. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed that all items loaded above 0.50 on their respective factors, supporting the instrument’s construct validity. Responses were captured on a five-point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree and analyzed in SPSS using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and chi-square tests, with effect sizes calculated for the overall perception indices.

The headline result is striking: residents in areas with parks and green spaces recorded a mean Perception Index of 4.13, compared with 3.71 among those without, a statistically significant difference with a medium-to-large standardized effect of Cohen’s d equal to 0.75. At the population level the effect was more modest, with an r of 0.144, but the pattern was consistent. Nearly 79 percent of residents near green spaces showed an overall high perception index, versus half of those in areas without, a difference confirmed by chi-square analysis. In practical terms, people who can walk to a park see its value far more clearly than those who must travel by bus or car.

That accessibility gap was evident in the spatial data. Almost half of respondents living near parks were within 200 meters of a green space, while most residents in areas without such facilities were more than 1,000 meters away. Walking was the dominant mode of access in park-rich neighborhoods, whereas public and private transport dominated elsewhere. Notably, both groups reported that entry fees were required to use these facilities, raising equity concerns the authors say planners must address so that low-income residents are not priced out of public amenities.

The perception differences extended across nearly every domain the researchers probed. Residents near parks rated green spaces significantly higher for leisure, tourism, nature conservation, recreation, events, peace and quiet, and their social, economic, and environmental value. Health perceptions diverged as well: those with nearby parks were more likely to believe that green spaces reduce stress, insomnia, mental strain, and high blood pressure. Interestingly, both groups agreed equally that parks help relieve headaches, a finding the authors attribute to the multifactorial nature of headaches, which stem from dehydration, eye strain, sleep problems, and medical conditions that green exposure alone cannot address. Awareness of parks as venues for exercise and family picnics was uniformly high in both groups.

Perhaps most consequential for global policy, the study tied green space access directly to awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. Residents near parks showed significantly greater recognition that green spaces support SDG 3 on good health and wellbeing, SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities, and SDG 13 on climate action through environmental cooling. Both groups acknowledged the contribution of green spaces to SDG 15 on life on land, suggesting that biodiversity’s value is widely understood even where parks are absent. The World Health Organization recommends at least half a hectare of green space within 300 meters of homes, a benchmark the authors note remains largely unmet, especially in low-income neighborhoods.

The study’s context is sobering. Nigeria has long struggled with deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and land scarcity, with rapid urbanization once estimated to consume roughly 400,000 hectares of vegetative cover annually. Weak enforcement, corruption, low public awareness, and the conversion of designated green areas to other uses have all contributed to the scarcity of parks in Nigerian cities. In Asaba, the influx of people into Oshimili North and South has accelerated conurbation to the point that parks and green spaces have been nearly eroded from the urban fabric. The authors caution that their cross-sectional design captures perceptions at a single point in time and cannot establish causation, and that self-reported data may not reflect actual use or objective health outcomes, while the focus on Delta State may limit generalizability.

Still, the implications are clear. The researchers recommend strategic policy interventions, enhanced public engagement, and sustainable urban planning practices to protect and expand parks and green spaces across Delta State and Nigeria more broadly. They argue that green infrastructure should be elevated within state urban development agendas, funded on par with roads and drainage rather than deprioritized in favor of grey infrastructure, and designed with resident input, including features such as quiet zones and wellness programming. Community involvement in planning, design, and maintenance, they contend, builds the local ownership needed for long-term stewardship. As cities across Africa and the developing world grapple with heat, flooding, and public health pressures, this study offers a simple, evidence-backed message: when people can walk to a park, they not only live better, they understand better why green cities are essential to a sustainable future.

Subject of Research: Residents' perceptions of urban parks and green spaces and their contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Delta State, Nigeria

Article Title: Residents’ perception of the benefits and relevance of parks and green spaces in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Delta State, Nigeria

Article References: Onyia, C. D. F., Onyia, O., Ani, C. D., Mba, E. J., Okereke, M. O., Onyia, S. C., Onwuchekwa, C. E., & Madu, C. N. (2026). Residents’ perception of the benefits and relevance of parks and green spaces in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Delta State, Nigeria. BMC Environmental Science, 3(1), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s44329-026-00053-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s44329-026-00053-x

Keywords: parks and green spaces, Sustainable Development Goals, urban planning, public health, Delta State, Nigeria, perception index, sustainable cities, climate action, community engagement, green infrastructure, Asaba