Geospatial Analysis of Land use Land Cover Change in Osogbo, Nigeria

Abstract

Osogbo became the administrative headquarters of Osun State, Nigeria, in 1992, and since then, the city has experienced unprecedented rapid urban growth and development. This study attempted a geospatial analysis of land use land cover (LULC) change in Osogbo, Nigeria, from 1988 to 2018 to improvingto improve land use management. The methodology adopted for the study involved data acquisition and pre-processing, extraction and validation of LULC information. Atmospheric and topographic correction methods were used for pre-processing operations. Four LULC types were identified for the study which included Built-up Area, Vegetation, Water/Wetland and Bare Surface. Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to obtain the coordinates of some land use features for boundary demarcation and ground-truthing, while secondary data used included Landsat 4-5, 7 and 8 imageries, respectively. Maximum Likelihood Classification was used to classify imageries to identify the land use types. The minimum classification accuracy for all land use was 88.2%. Results showed that the built-up area increased from 29.59km2 to 63.20km2 while vegetation decreased from 102.09km2 to 39.84km2, water body decreased from 2.85km2 to 1.75km2 while the bare surface increased from 11.24km2 to 38.11km2 from 1988 to 2018. Understanding this trend will help policymakers and planners mitigate the major challenge of indiscriminate land utilisation in Osogbo. The need for urban land development planning agencies to monitor, regulate and control the pattern of development and public education on proper land use, which helps city authorities to keep abreast with the changes that may occur, suggested.