Original Contributions to Urban Environmental Management Theory: Synthesis from Nigerian Megacity Evidence

This dissertation makes original contributions to urban environmental management theory by developing novel theoretical constructs grounded in systematic empirical synthesis from Nigerian megacity evidence, specifically drawing on Lagos, Kano, and Ibadan as cases that embody urban environmental management challenges at scale and institutional complexity not represented in the foundational literature. Urban environmental management theory has been developed predominantly from European and North American city contexts and applied, often with limited adaptation, to cities in the Global South. This dissertation argues that the distinctiveness of Nigerian megacity conditions, including the scale and density of informal governance, the dominant role of uncoordinated private provision in environmental services, the coexistence of acute environmental crisis and dynamic economic growth, and the fragmentation of environmental management responsibility across multiple state and non-state actors, generates environmental management dynamics that require original theoretical explanation. The research programme combines longitudinal case analysis of environmental management trajectories in the three cities over fifteen years using documentary and statistical sources, ethnographic research embedded in environmental management institutions and communities over eighteen months, comparative institutional analysis across forty-seven environmental management institutions, and network analysis of inter-institutional coordination relationships in each city. Original theoretical contributions include a theory of polycentrism without coordination, explaining why multiple overlapping environmental management actors in Nigerian megacities fail to produce coherent governance despite their collective capacity; a dynamics model of environmental management innovation diffusion through informal governance networks; and a theory of environmental management legitimacy construction in high-inequality urban contexts. Keywords: urban environmental management, megacity, Nigeria, governance theory, institutional analysis.