In ]978, the International Geographical Union will hold its Regional Conference in Nigeria. In cooperation with Nigeria's National Committee on Geography, the conference will focus on the theme, Resources and Development in Africa. It is appropriate that papers related to this theme should appear as a special issue of GeoJournal commemorating the IGU conference. Both the conference and the papers included here reflect the academic and technical maturity that scholars world-wide are bringing to the problems of African development of natural and human resources with a view toward the longterm ecological consequences of today's decisions. In studies of the African environment 1) as well as scholarly conferences, the increasing impact of man's activities in Africa has received considerable, but as yet insufficient attention. By mentioning but a few among the many issues of resource development in Africa, we may suggest some themes which lend unity to the papers which follow. Two major themes are developed in this special-topic number. In the first, the role of formal models and planning in the African setting is explored. The first four papers are most closely related to this issue, including, respectively, urban models and planning; water resource management; development of transportation infrastructure; and model versus reality in regional planning. The second theme, resource management, is best represented by the last three papers, all of which parallel world-wide concern with "environmental impacts" of development activities. The specific topics addressed are land use malpractice, energy resource development, and the viability of alien agricultural technologies in tropical forest environments. Nevertheless, the role of scientific research and a concern with the quality of man's environment is a theme common to all papers, as well as to the IGU conference itself. Both issues can be usefully viewed with two broad questions in mind: first, what is the role of universal or global models and approaches to the diagnosis and prescription of remedies for African environmental and development problems; and second, how must these approaches, if useful, be modified in the context of contemporary African reality? In examining the themes of planning and resource management, we are encouraged that while Africa may benefit from world-wide scientific expertise, significant contributions to her own as well as global dilemmas are indicated by papers such as those included here.
Effective planning is predicated upon scientific analysis and the building of models which allow both research scientist and planner to explore the consequences of policy alternatives. This basic strategy toward management of resources is well illustrated in Bola Ayeni's work on modelling African urban environments (p. 393). Drawing upon urban systems models developed for distinctly Western settings, Ayeni is able to demonstrate the validity and utility of these models