Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, Cameroon
Using LULC change detection analysis, it is possible to identify changes due to urbanization, deforestation, or a natural disaster in an area. As population growth and urbanization increase, real-time solutions for the effects of urbanization on land use are required to assess its implications for f...
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MDPI AG
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/15/2631 |
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| author | Lucy Deba Enomah Joni Downs Michael Acheampong Qiuyan Yu Shirley Tanyi |
| author_facet | Lucy Deba Enomah Joni Downs Michael Acheampong Qiuyan Yu Shirley Tanyi |
| author_sort | Lucy Deba Enomah |
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| description | Using LULC change detection analysis, it is possible to identify changes due to urbanization, deforestation, or a natural disaster in an area. As population growth and urbanization increase, real-time solutions for the effects of urbanization on land use are required to assess its implications for food security and livelihood. This study seeks to identify and quantify recent LULC changes in Limbe, Cameroon, and to measure rates of conversion between agricultural, forest, and urban lands between 1986 and 2020 using remote sensing and GIS. Also, there is a deficiency of research employing these data to evaluate the efficiency of LULC satellite data and a lack of awareness by local stakeholders regarding the impact on LULC change. The changes were identified in four classes utilizing maximum supervised classification in ENVI and ArcGIS environments. The classification result reveals that the 2020 image has the highest overall accuracy of 94.6 while the 2002 image has an overall accuracy of 89.2%. The overall gain for agriculture was approximately 4.6 km<sup>2</sup>, urban had an overall gain of nearly 12.7 km<sup>2</sup>, while the overall loss for forest was −16.9 km<sup>2</sup> during this period. Much of the land area previously occupied by forest is declining as pressures for urban areas and new settlements increase. This study’s findings have significant policy implications for sustainable land use and food security. It also provides a spatial method for monitoring LULC variations that can be used as a framework by stakeholders who are interested in environmentally conscious development and sustainable land use practices. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-026ed9e7a2bf458a8740f2571e188107 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj-art-026ed9e7a2bf458a8740f2571e1881072025-08-20T03:36:22ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922025-07-011715263110.3390/rs17152631Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, CameroonLucy Deba Enomah0Joni Downs1Michael Acheampong2Qiuyan Yu3Shirley Tanyi4School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USASchool of Geosciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USACenter of Urban Ecology and Sustainability, Suffolk University, Boston, MA 02108, USAPlant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USADepartment of Education, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé 00237, CameroonUsing LULC change detection analysis, it is possible to identify changes due to urbanization, deforestation, or a natural disaster in an area. As population growth and urbanization increase, real-time solutions for the effects of urbanization on land use are required to assess its implications for food security and livelihood. This study seeks to identify and quantify recent LULC changes in Limbe, Cameroon, and to measure rates of conversion between agricultural, forest, and urban lands between 1986 and 2020 using remote sensing and GIS. Also, there is a deficiency of research employing these data to evaluate the efficiency of LULC satellite data and a lack of awareness by local stakeholders regarding the impact on LULC change. The changes were identified in four classes utilizing maximum supervised classification in ENVI and ArcGIS environments. The classification result reveals that the 2020 image has the highest overall accuracy of 94.6 while the 2002 image has an overall accuracy of 89.2%. The overall gain for agriculture was approximately 4.6 km<sup>2</sup>, urban had an overall gain of nearly 12.7 km<sup>2</sup>, while the overall loss for forest was −16.9 km<sup>2</sup> during this period. Much of the land area previously occupied by forest is declining as pressures for urban areas and new settlements increase. This study’s findings have significant policy implications for sustainable land use and food security. It also provides a spatial method for monitoring LULC variations that can be used as a framework by stakeholders who are interested in environmentally conscious development and sustainable land use practices.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/15/2631urbanizationland use/land coverchange detectionagriculture lossdeforestation |
| spellingShingle | Lucy Deba Enomah Joni Downs Michael Acheampong Qiuyan Yu Shirley Tanyi Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, Cameroon Remote Sensing urbanization land use/land cover change detection agriculture loss deforestation |
| title | Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, Cameroon |
| title_full | Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, Cameroon |
| title_fullStr | Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, Cameroon |
| title_full_unstemmed | Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, Cameroon |
| title_short | Urban Expansion and the Loss of Agricultural Lands and Forest Cover in Limbe, Cameroon |
| title_sort | urban expansion and the loss of agricultural lands and forest cover in limbe cameroon |
| topic | urbanization land use/land cover change detection agriculture loss deforestation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/15/2631 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lucydebaenomah urbanexpansionandthelossofagriculturallandsandforestcoverinlimbecameroon AT jonidowns urbanexpansionandthelossofagriculturallandsandforestcoverinlimbecameroon AT michaelacheampong urbanexpansionandthelossofagriculturallandsandforestcoverinlimbecameroon AT qiuyanyu urbanexpansionandthelossofagriculturallandsandforestcoverinlimbecameroon AT shirleytanyi urbanexpansionandthelossofagriculturallandsandforestcoverinlimbecameroon |