Geospatial Assessment of Land Cover Dynamics in the Guinea Savannah Ecological Zone

Abstract

An attempt is made in this study to examine the geospatial analysis of land cover/ land use changes between 2000- 2016 in the North Central region including the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Multispectral satellite images of Landsat 7 ETM and 8 OLI/TIRS of 2000, 2008 and 2016 with three land-use types were identified and analysed using Geographic Information System ArcGIS 10.5 software. The land-use types are Urban representing the built-up area, Vegetation and water bodies. The area of each land use type per year was calculated and the result was used to compute land-use change and percentage change in square kilometres. The outcome of the analysis reveals that built-up area (Urban) land use increase from 10.64% in 2000 to 22.44% in 2008 and later 29.01% in 2016 while Vegetation reduced from 84.99% in 2000 to 73.24.% in 2008 and 62 .74% in 2016. In the same vein, water bodies which stood at 4.37% in 2000 reduced to 4.32% in 2008 before declining again in 2016 to 4.27% respectively. The results have therefore highlighted the nexus between climate change and resource depletion and further provided valuable information for a robust assessment of the changes in vegetal resources of the study area over time. The study recommends sustainable forest resource management, vegetation monitoring and promulgation of vegetation control laws to improve the vegetation cover of the study area.