Land Use/land Cover Change Detection in Ikwuano Area, Abia State Nigeria Using Landsat Data

The use of remotely sensed data through Geographic Information System template for land use evaluation and classification is relatively cheap with less drudgery. Landsat satellite imageries covering Ikwuano area were acquired and processed with ERDAS Imagine. These were applied in mapping land use changes in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. Three major LULC types: forest land, agricultural land and built-up land were identified. Over the 14 year period, the quantitative analysis of the imageries showed that 10.2% of the total land area changed from forest land to agricultural land; 4.5% changed from forest land to built- up land; 10.9% from agricultural land to forest land. About, 18.1% of agricultural land remained unchanged; 9.9% of agricultural land changed to built-up land; 4.5% from built-up to forest; 9.4% from built-up to agricultural land. Anthropogenic factors were identified as playing a significant role in land cover change. A similar remote sensing approach could be used for monitoring temporal and spatial aspects of other regions as well as employed in the development of the natural resource database of the country.