Decadal Analysis of Land Cover Trend of Federal University of Technology Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria Using Medium Resolution Multi-Temporal Satellite Images

Abstract

The environment is very important to man. Its continuous existence and sustenance depend on the ability to avoid its mismanagement. Land cover is a fundamental parameter describing the Earth's surface, which is a considerable variable that impacts on and links many parts of the human and physical environments. Thisresearch sought to analyse the trend of Land cover transformation of Federal University of Technology Akure over a decade using medium resolution multi-temporal satellite images (Landsat 1987, TM 2002 and ETM 2017) with the help of satellite remote sensing and GIS techniques. Spatial data were collected over the study period to determine the transformation of the landcover in the study area. The satellite images were subjected to radiometric and atmospheric distortion corrections, pan sharpening enhancement and processing using ENVI 5.3 software; and further subjected to supervised image classification using ArcGIS 10.2 software into five land cover classes which are thick vegetation, light vegetation, grassland, bareland and built up. Land cover maps for each study year were produced and analyzed. The analysis showed that thick vegetation had an increase of 6.9% from 1987-2002, and a further gain of 4.1% from 2002-2017. Grassland increased by 6.2% in the year 1987 to 2002 and diminished with 0.8% loss from year 2002 to 2017 while bare land experienced a 0.1% increase from 1987- 2002 and a 3% increase from 2002 - 2007. Built up areas increased by 10.4% from 1987-2002 and 2.2% from 2002-2017. Light vegetation on the other hand had a -15.7% decrease between the year 1987 and 2002 and a further -8.5% loss between 2002 to 2017. The study observed a steady infrastructural development on the campus responsible for these changes and predicted more transformation by the year 2030. The study recommended a regular and consistent conduct of the analysis of land cover trend for environmental monitoring towards sustainable planning and development.