Land Use Land Cover Change in Barkin-Ladi, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
Auwal Garba; Abdullahi Mohammed Jalam & I.H. Gital
Department of Environmental Management Technology
Abubakar Tafawa University, Bauchi, Nigeria
Correspondent Author: Auwal Garba
ABSTRACT
This study was a research carried out to detect the change in land use/land cover of Barkin-Ladi area of Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. Three Land sat images of 1975, 1985, and 2005 were subjected to various image processing techniques and a supervised classification was carried out on the various images. The classification schemes used are rock outcrop, built-up, farmland and vegetation. Ground truthing was carried out to confirm the results of the classification. The results were subjected to various statistical analyses and it shows natural vegetated area coverage reduced from 173.77sqkm in 1975 to 121.005sqkm in 1985 and still reduced to 26.119sqkm in 2005. The rate of change of natural vegetation between 1975 and 1985 was 5.277sqkm per annum, and 2005. Loss of naturally vegetated area in Barkin-Ladi is mainly as a result of urban growth and expansion, farming and gully erosion. Land cover of the study area during the period between 1975 and 2005 changed from a forested area to other land uses as a result of increase in population, demand for land for agricultural purposes and increase in the demand for fuel wood.
Keyword: Land use, Land use, Classification, Remote sensing, Barikin-Ladi
