A Correlation Analysis of the Relationship between Land Use and Land Cover/Land Surface Temperature in Abuja Municipal, FCT, Nigeria

This study adopted Remote Sensing and GIS in assessing Land Use and Land Cover (LULC)/Land Surface Temperature (LST) variation in Abuja Municipal, FCT from 1986 to 2016. The thirty-year study period was chosen with the specific objective to determine the relationship between LULC and LST using a correlation analysis. Three Landsat TM/ETM+ images of the study area (1986, 2001 and 2016) were used to carry out the study. LULC was found to increase by 246.96 km2 (86.4%) in areal extent of built-up between 1986 and 2016; the spatial extent of the LST was found to increase on average from 23.5°C to 30.2°C. The correlation analysis showed a strong coefficient of determination (r2). The correlation analyses proved that the LULC classes were strongly related to LST. A strong correlation between the LULC classes and LST was observed at 0.8266, 0.9486, and 0.77 for 1986, 2001, and 2016. The coefficient of determination (r2) for 2016 was 0.77, being a strong indicator that a strong relationship existed implying that built-up areas were major drivers of the variation in the LST in Abuja Municipal. To promote thermal comfort in Abuja Municipal, urban planning, and control of building patterns tree-planting exercises are some of the recommendations made.