GIS analysis of the spatial distribution of public infrastructure in Calabar metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a very important system which can be used in data collection, entry, development, management and analysis of spatial information. It has the ability to record, store, query, update and retrieve at will when necessary in all infrastructure related information in a database. The study is aimed at assessing the inventory of public infrastructure in Calabar metropolis, Cross River State using GIS techniques. The method of data collection were obtained from the field using a handheld Global Positioning (GPS) receiver, public infrastructure datasets were obtained from the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID³). The data obtained from the portal include; school, health facilities, road, administrative boundary shapefile, water point, fire stations, police, settlement and markets. The coordinates obtained from the field were collated in EXCEL spread sheet and transformed to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system. They were used to plot the digital Map in ArcGIS 10.8. The finding of the study revealed that public schools covered 51.93% of the study area, while fire station and heath care centers covered 12.9%  and 61.03% respectively in the study area. The result also revealed that most of the infrastructures are located mostly in the southern part of the study area because of the high concentration of socio-economic and political activities. The study has established the capability of GIS in creating a Geodatabase for assessing the public infrastructure inventory within the study area. It is, therefore, recommended that Geospatial techniques be adopted for proper planning and development of public infrastructure and management system for easy management and control of its facilities.