Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Land use and Land Cover Change of Birnin Kebbi for Sustainable Development

Abstract

The challenge of humanity in the 21st Century is clearly to meet the needs of the people, within the means of this extraordinary unique living planet, so that we and the rest of nature can thrive. Humanity is faced with a complex situation, at the same time we are solving for climate change; we are going to be building new cities, towns and urban centres for 3 billion people. If we fail to plan our cities right, then all the climate solutions in the world might not prevent mankind from the worst effects of carbon in the atmosphere. This study is aimed at assessing the land use and land cover change in Birnin-Kebbi between 1991 and 2018 and stimulate the 2027 land cover change using Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing methods. Supervised classification was applied to Landsat image of the study area from 1991, 2000, 2009 and 2018. Population growth and government policies within the period under review are the major underlying causes for LULC change in the study area. The results indicated an increase in urban/built-up from 1,687 hectares in 1991 to 7,725 hectares in 2018 and agricultural land cover types from 9,270 hectares to 43,921 hectares, while vegetation and bare land cover decreased respectively. This study recommends the deliberate measures to control natural increase in population through government partnering with NGOs such as Gate foundation, UNICEF and other aid organisation to invest more in the state in the area of family planning, education, poverty alleviation and green technology to improve child survival rate and ensure sustainable development.