The use of computer and manual analysis in detection of land use changes in jos, Plateau state, Nigeria

The Land use changes of Jos region with assisted Computer and manual approaches has involved visual examining of the satellite image data which have been reprocessed to remove geometric distortions and radiometric errors. Land use interpretation accuracy depends on the land use classification scheme which was designed with regard to the cultural character of individual environment. The UGSG scheme designed by Anderson et al (1976) has a valuable guide for the design. The concept of different levels of land use land cover details interpretable according to the different scales of the imagery and hence the special resolution quality is adopted. Computer utilization involve computer trade offs of time and resources against projected benefits and designed to minimize the time required for researcher. The research material used are aerial photographs for 1976 and 1991 were scanned into the computer using mustek 600 111 Ep plus. The scanned imageries were concatenated and analyzed to assess the use of computer in related studies. The result shows that a lot of growths have taken place in the study area. It has the annual growth percentage of 0.95 in which more buildings of different types now occupy most of the open spaces with a reduction of-15.54% due to population increase. Comparisons were made between the applications of Satellite Remote Sensing tools to determine the reliability and capability of either for effective monitoring. Methods of inventorying and their relative advantages and principles are shown.