Abstract
Inventories on land use/cover changes are assessed at increasing importance in various sectors, like agriculture, settlement, environmental studies and urban planning. This research was carried out to analyse the changes in urban land use/cover of Lafia for the years 1986, 2000 and 2014. Remotely sensed data from Landsat TM and Nigeria sat 8 were classified using GIS technique, to which six categories of land use/cover were identified such as: bare surfaces, built up areas, cultivated lands, rocky outcrops, vegetation cover and wetlands. Population data of the study area for 1986, 2000 and 2014 were also used to compare the relationship between population growth and landuse/cover changes in the study area using descriptive statistics. The result revealed an increase in built up areas from 1.56% to 15% between 1986 and 2014 while vegetation cover showed decrease: from 25% in 1986 to 12% in 2014. Cultivated lands increased from 56% in 1986 to 67% in 2014. Others classes such as: bare surfaces decreased, as wetlands and rock outcrops seem to be fluctuated. Therefore results from the analyses indicate a general change in landcover for the periods under this study. This study recommends that: there is a need to monitor the changes that occurred on land use so as to provide proper planning and effective management of the land resources in a sustainable manner.
Highlights
IntroductionHumans through activities such as clearing forests for crop cultivation, road
The results of land use and land cover of the study area are presented in Table 2 & Table 3 and Figure 2 & Figure 3
The result of the analysis revealed that many changes had occurred in land use and land cover in the study area in 28 years (1986-2014)
Summary
Humans through activities such as clearing forests for crop cultivation, road. The result is that the vegetation cover we see today has little resemblance to the original cover in many years ago in places; these places have little natural vegetation present. Effective management of forest and land resources requires an understanding of the patterns and processes of land use and land cover change and the consequences affecting a particular management decision. Monitoring and evaluation provide basic data from which effectiveness can be determined and with which a plan can be modified to reinforce the components that are successful and to correct those processes that were not successful
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