Abstract
The paper employed Remote sensing data in a multi-decadal assessment of vegetal to urban land cover transition along Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The forty-year assessment commenced in 1980 and ended in 2020. Landsat imageries acquired for the respective periods were subjected to supervised classification. Results reveal massive conversion of vegetated areas into built-up areas. The transition became pronounced from the second decade with 30,226 and cumulative of 48,455 Hectares of vegetation transforming into built-up area. During the third decade (2000 to 2010), additional 44,780 and cumulative of 93,235 Hectares of green area was converted into built-up areas. The largest transition was recorded in the last decade (2010 to 2020) during which vegetated area covering 50,827 Hectares was converted to living or industrial areas giving a cumulative transition of 141,065 in year 2020 Pearson moment correlation showed a high negative correlation with a coefficient value of -0.86. Hectares of vegetal areas into built-up or bare surfaces.
Highlights
The combination of satellite remote sensing and geospatial technics has been very useful in monitoring urban sprawl, forest transition and vegetation dynamics (Xie et al, 2008; Kumar, 2011; Mensah et al, 2019; Lechner et al, 2020)
The land use/ land cover classification of the respective images acquired for 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 are presented in figures 3 (a-e); representing the five periods required to provide an overview of the land cover changes in four decades
As built up areas were increasing, the land cover types can be observed from one period to vegetated areas were reducing while water bodies appeared not to record any significant changes
Summary
The combination of satellite remote sensing and geospatial technics has been very useful in monitoring urban sprawl, forest transition and vegetation dynamics (Xie et al, 2008; Kumar, 2011; Mensah et al, 2019; Lechner et al, 2020). The creation of the Lagos-Ibadan express way in 1978 in response to the crucial need to link the seaports to other parts of the country, led to opening up of a major part of lowland rainforest region in South-west Nigeria (Falako, 2017). The construction of this major corridor through the jungle of south-western Nigeria, led to large scale degradation of its forest over the decades. There is a very urgent need to protect the remaining precinct environments as part of the conservation plan in the country
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