Land Characterization for City’s environmental intelligence

Abstract:

This study attempts to characterize the key land uses in Ile-Ife city, Nigeria. The study aims to identify the key land uses, produce a land characterization map and offer city environmental intelligence for Ile-Ife based on historical evidence and present land use patterns and scenarios. In order to achieve the above aim, we undergo land use surveys to familiarize with the study area and took coordinates of important features needed in the characterization process. Landsat Enhanced Thematic mapper (2002) imagery of Ile-Ife was classified into key land uses and covers based on the information gathered in the field using remote sensing and GIS capabilities; the statistics of the different land uses were extracted. In the course of our study, we identified five key land cover types namely: built-up areas or built-up settlements, vegetation, bare soil, water body and wetland. We also identified three key land use types namely: residential, commercial, and institutional land use areas. Based on the image analysis, the estimated total land area of the study area is approximately 668.83 Km² with 407.07Km² (61.16%) of it covered by Vegetation, mostly secondary vegetation. About 172.59Km² (25.81%) is covered by residential built-up settlements, about 37.63 Km² (5.63%) is covered by institutional built-up settlements, about 35.27 Km ² (5.27%) is covered by Bare soil, about 8.00 Km² (1.20%) is covered by wetlands, about 5.29 Km² (0.79%) is covered by commercial built-up settlements while remaining 0.15% ( about 0.98 Km²) is covered by pockets of water bodies. The total area of built-up settlements in Ile-Ife is about 215.51 Km² representing about 32.22% of the total land in the area. Although, vegetation covers most of the ground surface of the study area (about 61.16%), the ecosystem of the study area is still under threat because of the secondary nature of the vegetation and the continuous rise in land use for urban purposes; therefore an efficient land use planning and monitoring structure that makes use of relevant technologies and information from remote sensing and GIS platforms is needed to provide environmental intelligence for the city i.e. predict and model future city scenarios and proffer alternatives for ensuring sustainability.