03/10/2026
π LAND USE/LAND COVER MAPPING OF ZARIA, KADUNA STATE, USING GOOGLE EARTH ENGINE
Understanding how land is being used and how the landscape is changing is essential for sustainable urban planning, agricultural development, environmental management, and natural resource conservation.
As part of my geospatial analysis work, I developed a 2025 Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) map of Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria, using Google Earth Engine (GEE) and the Dynamic World dataset.
π°οΈ DATASET & METHODOLOGY
The analysis utilized the Dynamic World V1 global land-cover dataset, which provides land-cover information at approximately 10 m spatial resolution.
For the 2025 assessment, Dynamic World observations covering the study area between 1 January and 31 December 2025 were processed. The classification band was extracted and an annual modal (mode) classification was generated to represent the dominant land-cover class for each pixel throughout the year.
The study area was defined around Zaria using a 15 km buffer around the approximate Zaria coordinates and subsequently converted to a rectangular study extent.
πΊοΈ LAND COVER CLASSES
The resulting LULC map identifies nine Dynamic World classes:
πΉ Water
π³ Trees
π± Grass
π§ Flooded Vegetation
πΎ Crops
πΏ Shrub & Scrub
ποΈ Built Area
π€ Bare Ground
βοΈ Snow & Ice
The inclusion of these classes provides a spatial overview of the landscape characteristics surrounding Zaria.
π SPATIAL ANALYSIS & AREA ESTIMATION
Beyond visualization, the workflow calculates the area occupied by each LULC class.
Using the Google Earth Engine pixelArea() function, the area of each class was estimated in hectares (ha). The results were then organized into an area statistics table and visualized using a column chart.
This provides an additional quantitative perspective on the composition of the study area rather than relying solely on visual interpretation of the map.
π» WHY GOOGLE EARTH ENGINE?
Google Earth Engine makes it possible to process large volumes of satellite and geospatial datasets without requiring all the computational resources locally.
For this project, the workflow demonstrates
how GEE can be used to:
β
Access satellite-derived land-cover datasets
β
Process annual observations
β
Generate LULC maps
β
Calculate land-cover areas
β
Create visualization charts
β
Export GeoTIFF raster data
β
Export statistical results as CSV
β
Export the study-area boundary as a shapefile
π OUTPUTS
The workflow generates three major outputs:
1οΈβ£ Zaria 2025 LULC GeoTIFF β suitable for
further GIS analysis.
2οΈβ£ LULC Area Statistics CSV β containing the area of each land-cover class in hectares.
3οΈβ£ Study Area Shapefile β containing the boundary used for the analysis.
π APPLICATIONS
This type of LULC analysis can support several applications, including:
β’ Urban and regional planning
β’ Agricultural land management
β’ Environmental monitoring
β’ Vegetation assessment
β’ Watershed management
β’ Flood-risk assessment
β’ Natural resource management
β’ Infrastructure planning
β’ Climate and environmental studies
β’ Monitoring land-use dynamics over time
One of the major advantages of this workflow is that it can be adapted to other locations and years, making it useful for multi-temporal land-use/land-cover change analysis.
π PROJECT SUMMARY
Location: Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria
Year: 2025
Dataset: Dynamic World V1
Platform: Google Earth Engine
Spatial Resolution: 10 m
Analysis: Annual modal LULC classification
Coordinate Reference System: UTM Zone 32N (EPSG:32632)
This project demonstrates the potential of combining remote sensing, GIS, cloud computing, and spatial analysis to generate actionable information for sustainable land and environmental management.
π From satellite data to spatial intelligence β geospatial technology continues to provide powerful tools for understanding our changing landscape.