Mapping land use-land cover and change detection in Kafur local government, Katsina, Nigeria (1995-2008) using remote sensing and Gis.

Abstract

This paper assessed the Changes in land use/land cover in Kafur local government area of Katsina state, Nigeria over 13 year period. The study made use of Land use/land cover map of the study area for1995 and Google earth imagery of 2008. The image and the map were digitized into GIS environment using Arc view 3.2 GIS software for analysis. A paired t-test analysis was also used to see if there was significant change in the land use/land cover between 1995 and 2008.The results show that open space covered 13.56 square kilometers of the land area and constituted 34.00% in 1995 which constituted the most extensive type of land use/land cover in the study area. The increasing population and economic activities were noted to be putting pressure on the available land resources. This paper highlights the land use/land cover types, the change over the years and the causes of the change. The importance of remote sensing and GIS techniques in mapping and change detection was also highlighted.