Abstract
This paper is aimed at identifying the land use/cover types in Awka in relation to their temporal dynamics, the extent of land use change in the city and effects of land use change on surface temperature. Multitemporal Landsat TM, ETM+ and OLI imageries were obtained at 15 years interval for 1986, 2000 and 2015 respectively. Image classification was conducted using supervised classification method. The result showed that built-up area has been on the increase, expanding from 9.55 sqkm in 1986 to 21.3 sqkm in 2000 and 21.45 sqkm in 2015. Cultivated lands have maintained a steady decline since 2000 having lost about 3.29 sqkm of its area. Similarly, vegetation, made up of dense, savanna and riparian, has been on a decline from a total of 33.69sqkm in 1986 to 21.407 sqkm losing about 12.29 sqkm of its area and increased by a mere 4.07 sqkm in 2015. These alterations had given rise to an average increase of 2.2°C in surface radiant temperature. This study recommends that relevant government planning agencies (ACTDA, ASHDC, etc.) should factor in the concept of greening and green spaces into their development policies and strategies to ensure that fair, conducive microclimate and sustainable environment is maintained in the Awka urban area.
Highlights
This paper is aimed at identifying the land use/cover types in Awka in relation to their temporal dynamics, the extent of land use change in the city and effects of land use change on surface temperature
Multitemporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), ETM+ and Operational land Imager (OLI) imageries were obtained at 15 years interval for 1986, 2000 and 2015 respectively
This study recommends that relevant government planning agencies (ACTDA, ASHDC, etc.) should factor in the concept of greening and green spaces into their development policies and strategies to ensure that fair, conducive microclimate and sustainable environment is maintained in the Awka urban area
Summary
Which has invariably led to increased encroachment on natural vegetation. The consequence of this change is characterized by the various land use types that dominate many human habitations resulting to changes in land cover characteristics. As these activities combine to alter the geometry of the earth’s surface, they have enormous ramifications such as in inadvertent climate modifications resulting from surface vegetal cover removal peculiar to urbanization and agricultural purposes [3]
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