Analysis of Landuse, Landcover Change and Urban Expansion in Akure, Nigeria
Keywords:
land use / land cover, urban expansion, remote sensing, GISAbstract
Land use and land cover are important phenomena in understanding the
interactions of human activities with its environment. In order to manage these phenomena,
it is necessary to map different themes from time to time. The land use and land cover
dynamics of Akure, the Ondo State capital for a period of thirty years, was analyzed using
multi-temporal and multi-source satellite imageries of Land sat (MSS) images of 1972,
1986 (TM) and Land sat Enhanced Thematic Mapping (ETM+
) image of 2002. The study
employed supervised digital image classification method using ILWIS 3.2 and Arcview 3.1
GIS software and classified the land use into built up area, vegetation, bare lands, exposed
rocks and water bodies. The results obtained shows that the built-up area has been growing
rapidly for the periods (1972-2002). The results also show increase in the bare land
cultivation and exposed rock out crops while vegetation decreases, the water bodies were
stable between 1986 and 2002. Based on the GIS analysis, future prediction/ trend of the
urban land use and land cover and its subsequent development was modeled between 2002
and 2022. These results could help city planners and policy makers to attain and sustain
future urban development.
