ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGE IN EKITI CENTRAL SENATORIAL DISTRICT
Abstract
This study assessed land use and land cover (LULC) changes in Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Nigeria, from 1985 to 2025 using multi-temporal Landsat imagery and the Random Forest classifier in Google Earth Engine. Six cloud-free images representing 1985, 1991, 1999, 2005, 2015, and 2025 were classified into built-up area, light vegetation, thick vegetation, bare land, and water bodies. Classification accuracy exceeded 93 %, with Kappa coefficients between 0.9085 and 0.977.
Built-up areas expanded from 37.49 km² (2.3 %) in 1985 to 46.52 km² (2.9 %) in 1999 and 94.67 km² (5.8 %) in 2025, while thick vegetation declined from 1,190.96 km² (72.9 %) to 861.97 km² (52.8 %). Light vegetation and bare land increased to 626.97 km² (38.4 %) and 96.63 km² (5.9 %) respectively, whereas water bodies remained nearly constant. Urban growth radiated from Ado-Ekiti along major corridors, and a brief vegetation recovery occurred between 1999 and 2005. The findings highlight urbanization as the key transformation driver and emphasize the need for improved land-use planning, forest restoration, and sustainable management..
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