ASSESSING LAND USE-LAND COVER CHANGES OVER AFRICA (2001-2009) USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUE

Abstract

There is the need for Africa as a continent to fight the consequences of Ecosystem changes to have a sustainable development that is all encompassing. As a result, this study was geared towards making Africa fight the causes and respond to the various changes for the needed development. The study used combined Terra and Aqua MODIS combined land level 3/level 4 yearly tiled products of 2001, 2005 and 2009 data in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment to assess the Ecosystem status for the three dates and the changes that have taken place over the period. The study also predicted the ecosystem situation from 2010 to 2020 using Markov Chain analysis. The result shows that barren lands decreased at an annual rate of 0.74% between 2001 and 2005 while it increased at an annual rate of 0.1% from 2005 to 2009; savanna lands increased at annual rate of 0.71% from 2001 to 2005 but decreased by annual rate of 0.1% between 2005 and 2009; farmlands decreased annually by 0.05% in the period 2001 to 2005 but increased annually by 0.09% between 2005 and 2009; forest decreased annually by 1.1% between 2001 and 2005 but increased at a marginal annual rate of 0.01% within 2005 and 2009; wetlands increased annually by 1.12% between 2001 and 2009 and also increased significantly by annual rate of 3.06% within the period 2005 and 2009; and waterbodies decreased at an annual rate of 0.61% between 2001 and 2005 and also decreased by annual rate of 0.42% between 2005 and 2009.