Dynamics of Land Use Land Cover Change in Enugu City of Enugu State, Nigeria

Résumé

Abstract As far as urban expansion is concerned, there is no city in the world that is static. One of the effects of this expansion is vegetation loss and its attendant ecosystem disequilibrium. The aim of this paper is to analyze urban expansion and loss of vegetation cover in Enugu city in Enugu State. Land use and land cover (LULC) in Enugu city has undergone constant change over the past few decades due to major changes caused by anthropogenic and natural factors and the impacts of their activities on the environment and climate of the city. This study used techniques of Remote Sensing and GIS to identify the rate of urban expansion and the degree of vegetal loss using the Landsat imageries of 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2019. The maximum likelihood classification algorithm in IdrisiSelva software was used to extract three major land cover classes i.e. Built up, Vegetation and Non-vegetation. The average rates of change were elicited for each of the land cover types.Vegetation had diminished from 430.75km2 (77.26%) in 1989 to 313.18km2 (56.17%) in 2019. Conversely, built-up areas had increased from 67.28 km2 (12.07%) in 1989 to 170.71km2 (30.62%) in 2019. Non-vegetation increased from 59.53km2 (10.68%) in 1989 to 73.67km2 (13.31%) in 2019. Results also revealed changes in temperature with respect to vegetation changes. The temperature has increased from average of 27oC in 1989 to average of 29.1oC in 2019. This has led to an increase of about 2.1oC. Therefore, the State Development of Environments and other relevant agencies should as a matter of urgency, start working with planners to establish urban greenery as mitigating measure against vegetation loss, environmental and climate change.

Citer ce document

Accès au document

Ce document est hébergé sur son dépôt institutionnel d'origine.

Auteur(s)

Statistiques

Consultations : 1

Téléchargements : 0