Geospatial analysis-based approach for assessing urban forests under the influence of different human settlement extents in Ibadan city, Nigeria

Abstract

Urban forests are an essential component of urban areas as they provide many environmental and social services that contribute to the quality of life in cities. Urban forests in most cities of Nigeria are gradually becoming bitty as a result of urbanization activities, thereby posing adverse effects. In this study, we assessed the changes in the urban forests cover under the influence of different human settlement (HS) extents across the urban area of Ibadan city using remotely sensed data. The pattern of change(s) in the urban forests cover over 20 years were examined by analysing and manipulating Landsat and Sentinel-2 datasets using Google Earth Engine, ArcGIS 10.1, and Erdas 2014 software. The extents of human settlement (for the year 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020) were extracted (from Landsat datasets), analysed, and mapped to evaluate the status of the urban forests cover under different human settlement extents. The result reveals a substantial land cover changes within the urban area of Ibadan. The urban forest cover decreased from 24.14% to 7.99%. Also, there is a significant decrease in the urban forests cover as a result of a substantial increase in human settlement extent (102,806 to 122,572 pixels). The study provides an opportunity to map the status of urban forest cover and extents of HS in a developing city using remotely sensed data and applications of GIS tools.

A GIS-Based Spatial Analysis Model Approach for Identification of Optimal Hydrotechnical Solutions for Gully Erosion Stabilization. Case Study

“…The most used software for modelling the necessary parameters for analysing ravine management studies is HEC-RAS. The HEC-RAS software offers a high performance in flood extend simulation [29,30] being able to accurately reproduce flow events in case of post-event modelling, in order to test the accuracy of the results, being dependent on the quality of necessary input data regarding the use of topographic data of the drainage basin at the highest possible detail and a database of land use as accurate as possible [31][32][33].…”