A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF LULC OVER NIGERIA BETWEEN 1991 AND 2016 (ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of study
Land is a specific area of the earth surface with physical entity in terms of its topography and spatial nature (Ashaye, 1987), and one of the characteristic of space that is widely recognized as significant for planning and management purposes (Anderson, Hardy, Roach and Witmer, 1976). Land is therefore, a key element for any developmental processes that takes place on the earth surface but land in urban areas suffers unique ecological and economic pressures (Drescher, 2000), leading to a lost in its land based. Land is the most important natural resources on which all activities are based. Land cover (LC) according to Campbell (1996), refers to the physical cover of the earth including natural vegetation, crops, artificial constructions that cover the land surface On the other hand, land use (LU) refers to the actual use of the land which is the purpose for which man exploits the land cover (Omojola, 1997); land use describes the use of the land by the people usually with emphasis on the functional role of land on economic activities (Campbell, 1996): and man‘s activities which are directly related to the land (Anderson, Hardy, Roach and Witmer, 1976). Therefore, Land use and land cover (LULC) are treated jointly. They represent both the physical cover and the human imprints on land. Therefore, Land use-land cover (LULC) is among the most important phenomenon of the earth‘s land surface (Lambin and Geist, 2001). The land use/ land cover pattern of a region is an outcome of natural and socio – economic factors and their utilization by man in time and space. Land is becoming a scarce resource due to immense agricultural and demographic pressure.
