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The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B6b. Beijing 2008 
land use land cover type although built-up (settlement) was 
later isolated in the study. 
5. RELATED WORKS 
Studies on settlements are vital because settlements are the 
result of man’s activities throughout the various stages of his 
evolution. They are dynamic and constantly changing with 
man’s changing social and economic needs. Settlements have 
held a dominant place in early statements, like that by Brunhes 
(1925) and contemporary reviews like that by Leong et al 
(1992). Forming such distinctive features on the landscape, they 
were viewed as a fundamental expression of “man-land’ 
relationship. 
In recent times, efforts on settlement studies is being directed 
towards its growth i.e. increase in the rate of landuse 
consumption. According to Meyer, 1999 every parcel of land 
on the Earth’s surface is unique in the cover it possesses. Land 
use and land cover are distinct yet closely linked characteristics 
of the Earth’s surface. The use to which we put land could be 
grazing, agriculture, urban development, logging, and mining 
among many others all which culminate to form what we know 
as settlement. An essential ingredient in the study of settlement 
which is growth is its ability to affect biodiversity. Many 
shifting land use patterns driven by a variety of social causes, 
result in land cover changes that affects biodiversity, water and 
radiation budgets, trace gas emissions and other processes that 
come together to affect climate and biosphere (Riebsame, 
Meyer, and Turner, 1994). 
Globally, land cover today is altered principally by direct 
human use: by agriculture and livestock raising, forest 
harvesting and management and urban and suburban 
construction and development. There are also incidental 
impacts on land cover from other human activities such as 
forest and lakes damaged by acid rain from fossil fuel 
combustion and crops near cities damaged by tropospheric 
ozone resulting from automobile exhaust (Meyer, 1995). 
Hence, in order to effectively monitor settlement growth, it is 
not only necessary to have the information on existing land use 
land cover but also the capability to monitor the dynamics of 
land use resulting out of both changing demands of increasing 
population and forces of nature acting to shape the landscape. 
Conventional ground methods of land use mapping are labour 
intensive, time consuming and are done relatively infrequently. 
These maps soon become outdated with the passage of time, 
particularly in a rapid changing environment. In fact according 
to Olorunfemi (1983), monitoring changes and time series 
analysis is quite difficult with traditional method of surveying. 
In recent years, satellite remote sensing techniques have been 
developed, which have proved to be of immense value for 
preparing accurate land use land cover maps and monitoring 
changes at regular intervals of time. In case of inaccessible 
region, this technique is perhaps the only method of obtaining 
the required data on a cost and time - effective basis. 
Change detection is the process of identifying differences in the 
state of an object or phenomenon by observing it at different 
times (Singh, 1989). Change detection is an important process 
in monitoring and managing natural resources and urban 
development (settlement growth) because it provides 
quantitative analysis of the spatial distribution of the population 
of interest. 
The basis of using remote sensing data for change detection in 
settlement is that changes in land use result in changes in 
radiance values which can be remotely sensed. Techniques to 
perform change detection with satellite imagery have become 
numerous as a result of increasing versatility in manipulating 
digital data and increasing computer power. 
Arvind C. Pandy and M. S. Nathawat (2006) carried out a study 
on land use land cover mapping of Panchkula, Ambala and 
Yamunanger districts, Hangana State in India. They observed 
that the heterogeneous climate and physiographic conditions in 
these districts has resulted in the development of different land 
use land cover in these districts, an evaluation by digital 
analysis of satellite data indicates that majority of areas in these 
districts are used for agricultural purpose. The hilly regions 
exhibit fair development of reserved forests. It is inferred that 
land use land cover pattern in the area are generally controlled 
by agro - climatic conditions, ground water potential and a host 
of other factors. 
Furthermore an analysis of land use and land cover changes 
using the combination of MSS Landsat and land use map of 
Indonesia (Dimyati, 1995) reveals that land use land cover 
change were evaluated by using remote sensing to calculate the 
index of changes which was done by the superimposition of 
land use land cover images of 1972, 1984 and land use maps of 
1990. This was done to analyze the pattern of change in the area, 
which was rather difficult with the traditional method of 
surveying as noted by Olorunfemi in 1983 when he was using 
aerial photographic approach to monitor urban land use in 
developing countries with Ilorin in Nigeria as the case study. 
Daniel et al, 2002 in their comparison of land use land cover 
change detection methods, made use of 5 methods viz; 
traditional post - classification cross tabulation, cross 
correlation analysis, neural networks, knowledge - based expert 
systems, and image segmentation and object - oriented 
classification. A combination of direct T1 and T2 change 
detection as well as post classification analysis was employed. 
Nine land use land cover classes were selected for analysis. 
They observed that there are merits to each of the five methods 
examined, and that, at the point of their research, no single 
approach can solve the land use change detection problem. 
Also, Adeniyi and Omojola, (1999) in their land use land cover 
change evaluation in Sokoto - Rima Basin of North - Western 
Nigeria based on Archival Remote Sensing and GIS techniques, 
used aerial photographs, Landsat MSS, SPOT XS/ 
Panchromatic image Transparency and Topographic map sheets 
to study changes in the two dams (Sokoto and Guronyo) 
between 1962 and 1986. The work revealed that land use land 
cover of both areas was unchanged before the construction 
while settlement alone covered most part of the area. However, 
during the post - dam era, land use /land cover classes changed 
but with settlement still remaining the largest. 
6. DATA USED AND SOURCE 
For the study, Landsat satellite images of Kwara State were 
acquired for three Epochs; 1972, 1986 and 2001. Both 1972 and 
1986 were obtained from Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) 
an Earth Science Data Interface, while that of 2001 was