Geospatial analysis of urban sprawl in Ile-Ife city, Nigeria

This paper assesses the effects of urban expansion of Ile- Ife city and appraises the changes that occurred in the landscape from 1986 to 2009. The study made use of information extracted from Landsat TM 1986, ETM+ 2002 and Ikonos 2009 images. GPS observations of notable points within and around the city were overlaid on the topographic map and on the satellite imageries in order to appraise the changes in the land use and land cover over the period. The land consumption was analyzed using the computed land consumption rate (LCR) and land absorption coefficient (LAC) from 1986 to 2009. The average annual rate of urban expansion of Ile-Ife is 3.5% which translated to a gain of 2256.7 ha in the surrounding rural areas from 1986 to 2002 and about 1434.7 ha between 2002 and 2009. The land is being transformed as shown by the land consumption rate which progressed from 1.1% in 1986 to 1.2% in 2002 and remained stable till 2009. The land absorption coefficient has increased from 0.013 to 0.014, confirming the high demand for land both within the city and in the suburbs.