Authors : Abubakar Mahmud and Anjide Simon Achide
Abstract: Unprecedented population growth couple with unplanned development activities has result in urbanization with haphazard housing arrangement. The aim of the study is to identify the manifestation of sprawl to access its magnitude and to deduce its potential effects on land resource. The method used for the study involved utilization of Remote Sensing imageries obtained from Landsat ETM and Nigeria Sat-1 which were used in an Ilwis 3.2a raster data environment to obtain quantitative data. The magnitude of sprawl was determined and the built-up themes were compared with the population data to observe the rate of growth. It was observed that while population is increasing by 25.15%, built-up areas are increasing by 96.18% which is almost 4 times the rate of population growth. The study concluded that sound land use planning has to be providing by the relevant planning authorities to monitor growth boundaries for urban sprawl in order to archive a sustainable city.
Abubakar Mahmud and Anjide Simon Achide, 2012. Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Changes to Monitor Urban Sprawl in Keffi-Nigeria. Environmental Research Journal, 6: 130-135.