Urban Land-Use Dynamics in the Niger Delta: The Case of Greater Port Harcourt Watershed

Urban Science

Clark, AndrewP.¹  Metzger, MarcJ.²  Dan-Jumbo, NimiG.³ 

[1]Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

[2]School of Environment and Life Sciences, The University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK

[3]School of Geosciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK

关键词: l;    -use/l;    -cover change;    impact;    urbanisation;    change detection;    post-classification;    l;    -use dynamics;   

DOI  :  10.3390/urbansci2040108

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Cities in developing countries are urbanising at a rapid rate, resulting in substantial pressures on environmental systems. Among the main factors that lead to flooding, controlling land-use change offers the greatest scope for the management of risk. However, traditional analysis of a “from–to” change matrix is not adequate to provide information of all the land-use changes that occur in a watershed. In this study, an in-depth analysis of land-use change enabled us to quantify the bulk of the changes accumulating from swap changes in a tropical watershed. This study assessed the historical and future land-use/land-cover (LULC) dynamics in the River State region of the Niger Delta. Land-use classification and change detection analysis was conducted using multi-source (Landsat TM, ETM, polygon map, and hard copy) data of the study area for 1986, 1995, and 2003, and projected conditions in 2060. The key findings indicate that historical urbanisation was rapid; urban expansion could increase by 80% in 2060 due to planned urban development; and 95% of the conversions to urban land occurred chiefly at the expense of agricultural land. Urban land was dominated by net changes rather than swap changes, which in the future could amplify flood risk and have other severe implications for the watershed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY