**4.1 Physical characteristics of GCs in Ibadan**

This section aims to describe the physical characteristics of GCs in the study areas. In other to achieve this, 10 randomly selected experts from academia and practising firms who are members of Nigeria Institute of Architects and who are conversant with the study areas were selected for the study. The selection requirements for the panel are that such personality must be a design expert and urban planner from academia in addition to professional practice based on their technical know-how and proficiency. These were selected from catalogue of Architect Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON). These experts comprehensively and objectively measured the subjective physical characteristics of the neighbourhood using ratings from an expert panel from the variables that comprised: the four (4) key elements of physical characteristics which are territoriality, surveillance, milieu and image. These were used as parameters in describing the characteristics of the study areas. This means that the study measured these elements in the areas to be able to describe the characteristics of each area.
