Urban Heat Island and Land Use/Cover Dynamics Evaluation in Enugu Urban, Nigeria

This study specifically estimated the effect of land use/cover change (LULC) processes on land surface temperature (LST) in Enugu urban and its suburbs. With Landsat images and supervised classification technique, four LULC classes comprising built-up areas, vegetation, rock outcrop, bare ground/farmland areas were delineated. The LST was extracted from the thermal bands of the images. The rate of change in land cover classes between 2009 and 2018 showed that from 2009 to 2013, built-up areas increased from 31.65% to about 47.5%, while vegetation cover decreased from 18.43% to 11.23%. Also, the periods witnessed about 8.69 km2 of vegetation being converted to other land surfaces. The trend in the LST in Enugu urban showed the highest mean temperatures of 34.5°C in 2018 and 32.26°C in 2015. However, in 2013 there was a slight decrease in mean LST to 31.65°C which further decreased to 31.26°C in 2009. This change in temperature suggests that urbanisation could have significant effect on the micro-climate of Enugu city. Result also revealed weak relationships between LULC classes and the LST throughout the years. The results of the surface heat intensity for the urban and rural areas showed general increase over the years and this suggests that rural areas are also experiencing high temperature which could be due to the loss of vegetation, increase in artificial surfaces and urban encroachment. Findings from this study could be useful for effective urban land-use planning, policy development and management in Nigeria, and elsewhere.