Analysis of Landuse/Landcover Change in Southern Part of Kaduna Metropolis, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Landuse and landcover change drives changes that limit availability of products and services for human and
livestock, and can undermine environmental health as well. This paper analyzed landuse/landcover change
(LULCC) in the southern part of Kaduna metropolis. The data used were; Landsat (4) Thematic Mapper (TM)
of 1990, Landsat (7) Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM +) of 2001 and Landsat (8) ETM + of 2014 all
with 30m spatial resolution. Erdas Imagine Software version 9.2 and ArcGIS version 10.1 were used for the
analysis. Supervised classification technique with Maximum Likelihood Algorithm was used to classify the data
into landuse/lancover classes. An overlay analysis was carried out in order to determine the changes in the
landuse/landcover classes. The results revealed an overall change in landuse/landcover status of the area. Urban
landuse witnessed an overall increase of 186.29% with an annual expansion rate of 7.76% within the study
period (1990-2014). Agricultural land which was the most dominant in 1990, decreased by 25.64% in 2014.
Similarly, vegetation and bare surfaces decreased by 48.13% and 18.81% respectively within that period. The
study recommends that there should be periodic monitoring and modelling of landuse and landcover changes in
the study area for formulating effective environmental policies and management. There is also the need to
control urban development by by relevant agencies in the area in order to avoid harphazard developments that
may have negative consequences on the environment and the people.