Effect of Urban Centre Growth on Vegetation Cover: A Case Study of Ebony State, South-eastern, Nigeria

Abstract

Most cities around the world are experiencing growth as a result of increased economic activities. Worse hit will be the vegetation cover which has to pave way for this development to take place. Landsat imageries of 1984, 2000, 2007 and 2015 were analyzed using Erdas Imagine 9.2 and ArcGIS 10.2 tools for changes. Results indicate that vegetation cover lost as much as 48.4662 % in the 31 years period the study covered. The reduction in vegetation cover was found to have been replaced majorly by increases in built–up areas. The built–up domain increased from 42074.39 hectares in 1984 to 212762.3 hectares in 2015 representing an increase of 35.8487 %. The R2 of 0.9708 shows that 98 % of the vegetation loss in the study area was accounted for by increases in built-up areas. The study also revealed that the area was expanding at the rate of 13.0 % yearly within the analysed period, while within the same period 44.95 % representing 1.45 % of vegetation cover was lost yearly. If this trend is allowed to continue, vegetation by 2025 shall be reduced by an additional -23.49 %. Therefore, adequate measure must be put in place to lessen the rate at which vegetation cover is been exploited.