Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria was created when Lagos failed to function as the Federal Capital due to the resultant urban problems as a result of land availability. Currently, the rate of implementation of the master plan and urban development is outpaced by the rate of urban growth due to urbanization, as a result exerting a lot of strain on the urban facilities of the city which affects the life of the residents. This study is aimed at identifying a suitable site for future

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... urban growth in Abuja. The study evaluates urban growth policies namely; social equity, compact growth and environmental protection into spatial layers as the framework for multicriteria evaluation using the geographical information system. The spatial layers are the distance to road, distance to the central area, distance to educational facilities, distance to green/open spaces, soil, slope, vegetation, natural features, and pollution sites were evaluated and prioritized as per judgment of relevant experts. The influencing weights among the layers were computed using Analytical Hierarchy Process. The overall Consistency Ratio (CR) of the module was 0.04 and fulfilled the tolerable threshold (i.e., CR ≤ 0.1). The Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) function of ArcGIS model builder has been applied to generate a suitability map. The map clearly presents the areas that are suitable for future sustainable urban development and also areas that are not, reducing the possibility of future disaster.