Spatial-Temporal Mapping of the Impact of Land Use Changes on Forest Cover and Cultivated Land in Awka: A Key Driver of Climate Change and Food Insecurity

Abstract The study used remotely sensed tools to map the impact of land use changes on Awka’s forest cover and cultivated land. These changes tend to impact the city’s forest cover and cultivated land, leading to climate change and food insecurity. The UN SDGs 2 and 13 outline plans of action that must be followed in order to attain sustainability and mitigate against the effects of climate change and food insecurity. The study aims to analyze the impact of land use changes on forest cover and cultivated land in Awka from 2010 to 2020. In this study, three remotely sensed satellite data sets (Landsat 7 ETM+ 2010 and Landsat 8 OLI 2015, 2020) were used to map the impact of land use change on forest cover and cultivated land in Awka. The remote sensing techniques adopted were image pre-processing and supervised classification. Ground-truth information was utilized for validation of the result. The classification analysis shows that built-up area had increased positively throughout the study period, while cultivated land decreased. Water bodies, bare land, forest cover, and grass land had also witnessed positive and negative changes. The NDVI and NDBI values also highlight negative changes in vegetation biomass and positive changes in built-up areas in Awka. The study shows that remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) are effective tools for studying land use patterns. It suggests using the tools as a foundation for planning and decision-making. Hence, land use analysis should be observed and updated periodically