URBAN GROWTH AND THERMAL ENVIRONMENT DYNAMICS IN KADUNA, NIGERIA: LAND USE CHANGE, UHI, UTFVI, AND A NOVEL VEGETATION COOLING EFFICIENCY INDEX
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2026-1001-4116Keywords:
Urban growth, Land surface temperature, Urban heat island, UTFVI, VCEI, Kaduna metropolisAbstract
Rapid urbanization has accelerated land use/land cover (LULC) changes and accompanying thermal stress in cities across sub-Saharan Africa. This study investigated the relationships between urban growth and ecological thermal conditions in Kaduna Metropolis, Nigeria, between 2004 and 2024 via Landsat data and remote sensing indices. LULC was divided into five classes—bare terrain, built-up areas, cultivated lands, tree cover, and water bodies—through multiresolution segmentation and a decision tree algorithm. The land surface temperature (LST) was derived via thermal bands, whereas the urban heat island (UHI) intensity and the urban thermal field variance index (UTFVI) were employed to measure spatial changes in thermal stress. This study introduces the Vegetation Cooling Efficiency Index (VCEI) to evaluate the cooling impact of vegetation. The results demonstrate strong increases in built-up areas (+121.04 km²) and bare fields (+596.19 km²), mostly at the expense of cultivated lands (–525.54 km²) and tree cover (–191.91 km²). The mean LST rose from 32.2 °C in 2004 to 35.7 °C in 2024, with significant geographic differences in surface heating. UHI hotspots persisted in urban cores; however, the maximum intensity decreased significantly (from +5.27 °C to +3.72 °C), whereas the UTFVI suggested moderate and rather stable ecological thermal stress. The VCEI confirmed the continuous cooling effect of vegetation, while its efficacy diminished with vegetation removal. These findings reinforce the importance of unplanned urban growth in modifying thermal settings and highlight the necessity of green infrastructure and vegetation preservation in promoting ecological resilience and thermal comfort.
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