Land Use Land Cover Changes Detection in White Nile State, Sudan Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Land use / land cover is an important component in understanding the interactions of the human activities with the environment and thus it is necessary to be able to simulate changes. The aim of this study is to identify change detection of land use / land cover (LULC) in the study area during the time periods of 1974 to 2008 with emphasis on accuracy assessment to judge the applicability of maximum likelihood classification method in this case of study, and to ensure the accurate change detection. The study has been done through remote sensing approach using multi spectral and temporal satellite imageries covering the study area over successive periods (MSS 1974, TM 1986, ETM+ 2000 and 2008). The maximum likelihood method applied for mapping of LULC in the study area is based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and image fusion, which are used to enhance the change assessment. Ground truth observations were also performed to check the accuracy of the classification. The present study has brought to light that pasture land area that occupied about 27.79% of the study area in White Nile state in 1974 has decreased to 12.30% in 2008. Dense vegetation area, rain-fed agriculture on sandy soil area, rain-fed agriculture on clay soil area, irrigated agriculture and dune area also have experienced change. Settlement has increased from 1.57 percent to 5.28 percent of the total area. Proper land use planning is essential for a sustainable development of White Nile State.