Land-use and Land-cover Analysis of Kaduna South Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the land-use and land-cover changes of Kaduna South LGA, Kaduna State within the period of 30 years (1987 to 2016). Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System approach was employed in the study, where Landsat 5, 7, and 8 series images of 1987, 2001, and 2016 were classified into four categories; built-up, agricultural, vegetation, and water-body. The classification results, after accuracy assessment, provided the LULC makeup statistics at each epoch. The image classification results were crossed to ascertain the transitions between the study epochs. ERDAS Imagine 14.0 was used for the image bands combination, subset, classification and accuracy assessment while the analysis, manipulation and presentation were executed in ArcMap 10.3. The study revealed that the built-up land increased from 26.71% in 1987 to 59.41% in 2016, while agricultural land decreased from 44.14% to 11.56% in 2016. Water-body increased from 0.77% to 0.78% over the period. Also observed that vegetation increased from 28.38% to 31.36%, and then decreased to 28.25% in 2016. Therefore, the study recommends that land use/land cover change studies should be carried out and updated annually as it forms a basis for planning and decision making towards environmental sustainability.