Abstract:
The natural land cover in Lagos coastal communities have changed over time and still
experiencing change. Due to profound pressure on housing, infrastructure and continued
growth in the population of Lagos, there have been challenges relating to unregulated land
use.The social and environmental repercussions of a loosely planned urban city could be
catastrophic. Lagos coastal communities especially Lekki and environs has experienced
remarkable urban expansion in a short period of time.Therefore, there is the need to put
forward appropriate policies and monitoring strategiesfor the sustenance of urban quality of
life. This underscores the need to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban
expansion on the temperature of Lekki and environs. Thus, the study assessed the dynamics of
land use/land cover of the study area from 1984 to 2015 using multi-date satellite imageries.
The analysis of the Land Surface Temperature of the study area was also carried out over the
same period so as to determine the relationship between the Land Surface Temperature,
Vegetation and Land cover types of the study area.Thereafter, time series analysis was used to
analyze the dynamics of Land Surface Temperature of the study area. The Near Infra-red and
the Red Bands was used to derive the Land Surface temperature patterns of the classified
Land Use/ Land Cover types.It was discovered that the commercial/high density residential
areas exhibited the highest land surface temperature, followed by the medium density
residential areas. The lower land surface temperature values are characteristic of minimum
density residential and vegetation covered area. This signifies a linear relationship between
Land Use/Cover change and Land Surface Temperature. This study identified the tree
planting as a cost effective LST regulation tool in the study area. This research will provide
guidance on how to manage thermal environment of big cities in accordance with Land use
management.
