Remote Sensing and GIS Mapping of Land Use/Land Cover Change (LU/LCC) of Akure South, Southwestern Nigeria

This study explores the application of GIS and Remote Sensing in land use/land use change mapping of Akure, a humid rainforest zone of Nigeria using Landsat imagery from the years 2015, 2020, and 2025. Four land use classes: Vegetation, Developed Areas, Barren Land, and Outcrops were mapped using a supervised classification technique (Support Vector Machine). The results showed a noticeable increase in developed areas and a decline in forest areas (vegetation), pointing to urban expansion and increasing human influence on the environment. The use of GIS for spatial analysis and map production, alongside remote sensing for periodic observation, enabled a clear visualization of land cover changes across the years. Marked reduction in vegetation was noted during the study, with only 117.91 km² remaining unchanged, while losses to developed land were 14.57 km², and 42.15 km² land area was lost to barren land, while 21.93 km² was lost to outcrops. Barren land was either a source or a recipient of land transformation. Stable barren surfaces amounted to 14.68 km², but large inflows came in from vegetation (42.15 km²) and outcrops (6.18 km²). Land use/Land cover change from vegetation to other purposes poses severe ecological risks, including loss of biodiversity, reduced agricultural productivity, and diminished carbon sequestration capacity, which ultimately could result to increased food poverty and climate depletion. The accuracy for each classified map exceeded 85%, with Kappa coefficients greater than 0.80, which is more than the threshold for land cover change studies.