Gis – Supported Assessment of Land Use Dynamics of Abeokuta Metropolis From 1960 T0 2005

Abstract

The study identified and analyzed land use patterns between 1960 and 2005, and examined the forces underlying land use change and projects the future pattern of land use change in the study area. Both primary and secondary data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and geospatial techniques of GIS and Remote Sensing. The results showed that settlement land use which was 1253.12 hectares (3%) in 1972 increased by six fold to 7684.27 hectares (16%) in 1984 and by tenfold to 12842.11 hectares (27%) of the total land area in 2005. Farmlands reduced from 8751.21 hectares (19%) in 1972 to 7144.32 hectares (15%) in 1984 to 3824.80 (8%) in 2005. The result equally showed that between 1972 and 1984 the population grew by 75.16% while settlements increased by 513.21%. Also between 1972 and 2005 the population grew by 206.70 % and settlements increased by 924.81 %. The result of the predictive model developed for this study showed that settlement, bare surface, shrub and water body will increase by 60.30%, 57.68%, 53.79% and 8.03% respectively while non-forested, farmlands, forested wetlands and light forest will decrease by 9.5%, 28.55%, 12.35% and 26.76% respectively. There were continuous changes among the various land use classes identified.