Rapid urban growth and land use change in Kano metropolis in Nigeria

Abstract

The study employed four (400) structured questionnaires and Geographical Information System (GIS) was used for the study which covers 35 years (1984 to 2019) and it employed Remote sensing technology and the Landsat images of 1984, 1998 together with 2019 were classified into four major categories. Aim of the study is to assess environmental impact of rapid urban growth in Kano metropolis. The result depicts that changes trend in farm land/open fields within 1984-1998 indicates significantly cut down by (-49.94%), in 1998-2019, it deeply dropped by (-84.90). On the other hand, built up area growth as reveals more obvious trends within 1984-1998 (23.59) positive growth also within 1998-2019 (5.18). Annual Changes records are 1984-1998 (1.67) and 1998-2019 (0.25). The trend of changes in built up areas is 5,563.816 Ha in 1984 but tripled in 1998 with 15,594.642 Ha. Ordinary least square (OLS) explains that coefficient of determination (R2) (0.947663) shows that about 94% of the changes in the dependent variables (environmental impact of urban growth) was accommodated for the changes in the explanatory variables (Number of households per house (NHH), number of people per house hold (NPH), number of rooms per house( NRH), materials used for constructions (MTC), number of rooms rented (NRR) and Monthly rent per room (MRR). The study indicated significant environmental impacts of pre-construction and post constructions activities together with locations, sizes of plots and ages of buildings with the study area. Recommendation is drawn based on the identified spatial planning principles.