Land users have been charged to explore the rich potentials of land by using it properly as a way to enhance its value.
Prof. Iyenemi Ibimina Kakulu gave the charge during her Inaugural Lecture on the theme “The Land Use and Value Nexus” recently at the Faculty of Law Auditorium, Rivers State University.
She said that land, in the parlance of Estate Management profession is considered as natural capital with useful potentials which can be harnessed through careful planning and investment of human and financial resources that can transform it to higher valued land.
She noted that Land is a natural resource which can be put to beneficial use, can also be abused, misused, underused and overused.
Prof. Kakulu who is a Professor of Land Management and Valuation said that land abuse is associated with activities on land that destroys its original state, leading to degradation or damaged lands. She said the activities include poor environmental sanitation, oil pollution, sporadic and uncontrolled development.
On the concept of land misuse, she stated that it is the incorrect and improper use, cruel treatment to land, use of land for dishonest purpose and harmful use of land.
For land underuse, Prof. Kakulu described it as when its potentials cannot be harnessed due to lack of good infrastructure or few infrastructure in a given area, explaining that the absence of basic amenities like access roads, water supply, electricity and security, can discourage people from using a particular land and this will lead to the overuse of other areas.
Speaking on land overuse, Prof. Kakulu said that it is the continued fragmentation of land into smaller plots, stressing that the quality of life in overused environment is poor and that crime level is high.
In her quest to address some of these challenges associated with land, Prof. Kakulu stated that in the last 34 years of her academic journey, she has conducted research with a view to contributing to knowledge in the area of land use. Some of her works include “Housing, Street Crime and City Regeneration”, “Variation in Crime and Property Values”, “Occupant health and Property Use”, “Indoor Air Quality and Residential Property Use”, “Weak Governance and Land Values”, “Ancestral Land Boundaries and Land Use Conflicts”, “Traditional Land Delineation and Property Value”, “Building Maintenance Management”, “Construction Patterns and Property Value”, “Compensation and Property Value”, “Pipeline & Urban Development”, “Technical Collaboration Benefits” and “Land Access in the UNEP Ogoniland Study”.