Assessing the Response of Biocapacity To Landuse Landcover Dynamics in Kaduna State From 2000 To 2020

Abstract

The dynamics of Biocapacity (BC) of Kaduna State was determined over the last two decades between year 2000 and 2020. The BC per capita was also established and used to compare with national averages for BC and Ecological Footprint (EF). Land use Land Cover (LULC) classification data for the years 2000, 2010 and 2020 for Kaduna State was extracted from the global LULC data provided by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD). Data was imported into the QGIS 3.3 environment and used to manipulate the data. Calculation factors for BC (yield factors and equivalence factors) were obtained from the Global Footprint Network (GFN) National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. The LULC analysis indicate steady decline in grassland (-19.3%) and forestland (-4.1%) covers over the entire period studied. Conversely, a steady increase in the amount of cropland (+37%) and infrastructure (91.6%) was recorded throughout the same period. Furthermore, results indicate a total BC of 3,604,738gha, 3,934,588gha, and 3,762,599gha for years 2000, 2010 and 2020 respectively. Moreover, for the same periods, the BC/capita were determined to be 0.73gha, 0.57gha and 0.4gha respectively. By comparing these values with the average national EF/capita of 1.18 (2000), 1.28 (2010) and 0.9 (2020), a deficit of -0.45 (2000), -0.71 (2010) and -0.5 were recorded for the state over the period under study. It is hoped that healthy population growth and properly managed infrastructural development will give a better outlook for the biocapacity of the state.