Dynamics of Landuse Change: A Case Study of Warri and Environ, Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

Dynamics of landuse change was carried out in Warri and environ, Delta State, Nigeria to ascertain the level of changes in the land between the period 2000 and 2020. The imageries used include LANDSAT ETM of 2000 and NIGERSAT -1 of 2020. The various classes of landuse adopted are; cultivated area, bare surface, built-up area, natural vegetation and water bodies. The supervised method of landuse analysis was used in the extraction of the information from the imageries in ArcGis 9.3 environment. The results obtained showed that bare surface accounted for 0.72% in 2000 and increased to 1.91% in 2020, built up area occupy land cover of 2.63% in 2000 and by 2020, it increased to 3.55%, cultivated area covers 27.88% in 2000 and in 2020, it increased to 56.57%. Natural vegetation, which includes all forested area and grass land in was 57.34% in 2000 and decreased in 2020 to 25.43% and water bodies, which include all the surface water found in the study area such as ponds, streams, rivers, and marshes covered 9.43% in 2000 while in 2020, it increased to 12.53%. It can be concluded that despite the adverse effects of the changes on the environment, the study area can be seen as developing as there is increase in the built-up areas as this is reducing the vegetation of the study area, a deliberate attempt should be made to incorporate tree planting as part of the building policy in the study area.