Construction technology from the West has played a vital role in building construction in the Tropics. Due to the level of organization, capital and personnel, some cities within Africa can absorb the latest technology faster and better than other cities; thus, their construction development projects using the western borrowed and learned technology has been verbatim and most times, excessively done. This trend, which cuts across many regions of tropical Nigeria leads to the neglect of folk wisdom. Local construction wisdom is usually substituted for new technology without the geography of the area being considered. In 1996, the economic crisis caused the construction business to come to a halt. The cost of oversea technology significantly increased due to the baht flotation policy. Several manufacturers and contractors went bankrupt at that time, including owners of small property in remote parts. While it seems that construction problems from the past are being alleviated, some signs of financial crisis are still evident in recent times. To prevent such future reoccurrence, the study focuses on appropriate construction technology to create social resilience and promote sustainable development. Utilizing literature review research methodology, the concept of appropriate technology is examined, highlighting the appropriate construction technology for the industry in Nigeria’s tropical environment. Photographs of existing building of historic and contemporary architecture were collected and used as a basis for analysis of building construction technology. Benefits and hindrance of appropriate technology are discussed and the research concludes that the only way to achieve economic, social and environmental justice and sustainability is by the adoption of this appropriate technology.

Globally, urbanization is now like a tidal wave sweeping the entire world and its impact is felt more in developing countries like Nigeria, where urban growth is marked by a dramatic shift with emphasis from rural to urban centers. Rural-urban migration which is one of the effects of urbanization has had grievous implications for urban housing delivery in Nigerian cities. Thus, the steady increase in her population over the years and its effect on the housing sector have become a problem of serious concern. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of urbanization and migration from rural areas on housing delivery in the city of Enugu in order to develop sustainable measures that will address the issue. It utilized a qualitative research method of direct observation and review of literature in which primary and secondary data were collected. The research results highlight some of the effects of Urbanization in the study area to include; gross housing shortage, increase housing rent and high land value in the city resulting to the emergence and expansion of many squatter settlements at the periphery of the city, incidence of haphazard situation of developments, change in land uses, violation of planning guidelines, suboptimal amenities and inadequate infrastructure as well as slum conditions. The study also identified 14 peri-urban squatter settlements with an estimated total population of 62,733 people; an indication of about 5.5% unaccounted spill over population with over 11,082 households in the city. Furthermore, it was observed that the current public housing provision in the city of Enugu over the period 1999-2020 is skewed away from low-income earners, who constitute a significant portion of the city's population. Conclusions and recommendations in the report include a call for strategic and comprehensive government intervention in the housing sector, as well as a demand for local building materials and a better use of union housing cooperatives with single digit interest loan for housing finance to ensure adequate provision of affordable housing to the growing population in the city.

The skyline of the developing world is decorated with medium and low rise structures and Nigeria is not an exception. Located in the tropics mainly characterized by an elevated air temperature and high relative humidity; obtaining the desired level of indoor thermal comfort without mechanical aid is a design challenge for most of her building structures in recent times. However, airflow inside a building depends not only on external wind velocity but also on a number of Architectural design features and principles. The study, aimed at identifying design element and strategies that modify the indoor comfort conditions as well as energy savings of tropical buildings. Through case study research approach and the review of existing literature, a comparison of the colonial and contemporary existing building designs were made in the study area based on seven architectural design features that can influence thermal comfort condition. The study found that contemporary building designs in the study area have in recent times departed from the traditional applications of passive design strategies used in colonial architecture and have taken a non-compactible design models for tropical climates like disappearance of eaves projections, shrinkage of balconies, reduced headroom heights and window sizes. Furthermore, the result highlights the need to evolve a climate responsive design as means of reducing heat stress in the contemporary Nigerian low-rise buildings. It concludes and recommends that architects and designers should review their design approaches in favour of functional building requirements for climate-responsive and energy efficient buildings, which will be less dependent on mechanical systems in order to achieve maximum thermal comfort levels in our buildings.

Due to the increasing environmental hazards of climate change phenomenon, it has become a major concern of most environmentalist. Currently the world struggles to manage waste which are generated from human activity and it affects the global climate either positively or negatively. Therefore, particular attention should be paid to sustainable waste management strategy so as to ameliorate the issue. To this end, the 3-R concept of waste management (reduction, reuse and recycle) have been variously pursued by municipalities towards a sustainable waste management system. This study focused on the waste-to-wealth activities across the urban neighborhoods in the colonial city of Enugu and adopted a qualitative survey research design. Using stratified and simple random sampling technique, a survey was conducted in eight selected neighbourhood and orally interviewed waste pickers within the study area. It discusses solid waste disposal method in Enugu metropolis with a view to facilitating sustainable practices for enhanced environmental condition and wealth creation. The paramount theme is on the socio-economic networking of the waste-to-wealth activities in the area and the derivable benefits towards addressing the effects of global climate change phenomenon in the city. Its research results highlight the ineffective waste management system within the metropolis and showed that huge financial gains could be harvested from waste product. Also it revealed that waste picking is done on informal scale across all neighbourhoods in the study area. It concludes and recommends measures towards enhancing waste-to-wealth as a strategy for addressing the global climate change in the city.