*4.5.3 Relationship between perception of safety and physical characteristics of the study areas*

To discuss the relationship between the Perception of safety and the physical characteristics of the study areas **Table 16** offers a simple way to go about this.

**Figure 31.** *View of Oyo-state, housing corporation; Basorun estate zone 4, GATE 2.*

**Figure 32.** *Gate and booms across a road, marking the entrance to an exclusive neighbourhood in Ibadan.*

**Table 16** combines, the perception of the safety of each of the study areas, and the physical characteristics of the neighbourhoods, namely territoriality, surveillance and milieu. The section discussed the relationship between the perception of safety and the physical characteristics of the neighbourhoods.

Therefore, the result shows that ALGRA seems to have the highest perception of safety categories of 'high' (52.9%). This shows that there appears to be some element of correlation between the perception of safety categories of the neighbourhood and physical characteristics. The result shows that OBS has the highest percentage in the high perception categories (48.0%).

OBS has the highest index in territoriality at 3.50 and also has the highest percentage of the 'high' perception categories (48.0%); this suggests that a good *Typological Analysis of Gated Communities Characteristics in Ibadan, Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97365*

#### **Figure 33.**

*A typical vertical closed condominiums; Wigatar Estate in Sabo Quarters.*


#### **Table 15.**

*Summary of indices for physical characteristics of GCs.*

showing on territoriality may translate to a better perception of safety in a neighbourhood. This seems to be further confirmed by the fact that NBS has the lowest territorial index at 1.91 the high percentage of the medium perception categories (53.2%). OBS & NBS seems to have the highest index on surveillance with 3.54 and 3.74; this coupled with the fact that OBS has a high percentage at the 'very high' perception categories of 52.9% seems to confirm the contribution of surveillance to the perception of safety. However, this is not to suggest that surveillance alone leads to high perception as demonstrated by ALGRA which has the lowest index on surveillance 3.17 and at the same time having 4.49 the highest percentage of the 'high' perception categories (59.2%).

In the case of milieu NBS seems to have the highest index (3.10) and that it has the highest percentage at 'medium' perception categories (55.3%) but not the highest perception of safety index. It, therefore, suggests that though milieu might contribute to the perception of safety, this may not be enough to solely determine the perception of safety. In summary, OBS appears to have the highest aggregate


**Table 16.**

*Relationship between perception of safety and defensible physical characteristics (DPCI).*

defensible physical characteristics index (3.49) further reinforced by Perception of safety index (4.08) with the high percentage of 52.9% of 'high perception categories. This suggests that this neighbourhood enjoys a sort of primacy when all these factors are considered. On the other hand, ALGRA seems to have 3.14 aggregates index of defensible physical characteristics but a relatively highest perception of safety index of 4.49 which was also further reinforced by the highest percentage at 'high' perception categories (59.2%). This suggests that the relatively weak defensible physical characteristics of the neighbourhood may not be enough to weaken the residents' perception of safety. This may mean that there are other factors which include: The physical condition /environmental design, social capital and experiences of safety indices which are at play in determining the strength of elements of physical defensible characteristics.

**Table 17** clearly shows the summary of the perception of safety (PSI) and defensible physical characteristics (DPCI) in the selected GCs in Ibadan and it can


#### **Table 17.**

*Perception of safety PSI and defensible physical characteristics (DPCI).*

be deduced from the **Table 17** that surprisingly OBS has the highest safety profile although the area has a lower perception of safety, image, physical and environmental design condition indices than KIS and ALGRA that have higher indices in these factors. From the study, it could be observed that OBS is having better social capital, territoriality, surveillance, milieu indices than these two GCs. The study has also shown that for safety to be achieved in a residential area all these factors must be followed.
