Analysis of Land Use/Land Cover Pattern along the River Benue Channel in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Uncontrolled human development without adequate consideration for the environment has led to incessant loss of land cover and natural resources such as water in many parts of the world. Consequently, human and environmental challenges of varying magnitude are rapidly emerging. Interestingly, only few efforts are channelled towards the reclamation of the deteriorating land cover pattern and control of future environmental damages, particularly in the developing countries. This study analyses the land use and land cover pattern along the River Benue channel in Adamawa State, Nigeria between 1988 and 2003. Landsat TM satellite image of 1988, Landsat ETM of 2003, and Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) image of the Upper Benue Catchment area were utilize in the study. The study was carried out with a view of classifying the land use and land cover types in the area; examination of land use and land cover changes between 1988 and 2003; generation of contour and elevation maps for the area; and modelling of the terrain of the area using the Digital Terrain Model (DTM). The Upper Benue catchment area was extracted from the Nigeria catchment map, contour map and DTM were also generated in ArcView 3.2 GIS environment. Supervised classification method was adopted to classify the landsat imageries into six (6) classes using ILWIS 3.2 academic GIS software. The implication of the spatial pattern of land use and land cover in the area are accelerated socio-economic activities, shortage of food, prevalence of drought conditions, paralyzed inland water transportation, desertification and increase in temperature. The study concluded that there is need for a balance between human development, land use planning, and water resource management. Therefore, recommendations were given to ensure sustainable development in the region.