The Influence of Urban Extension on Landcover Dynamics in the City of Maroua, Cameroon

Abstract

Found at the pinnacle of the Sudano-sahelian domain, the city of Maroua is an epitome of cities over the Globe where urban extension has brought wanton effects on the landscape. With a  research methodology that entailed the collection of data from secondary sources such as Topographic maps, Aerial photographs, and Satellite images as well as primary sources through interviews, it was realized that there has been an untold expansion of the urban space as a result of rapid population growth in Maroua. The astronomical population increase has imposed an upward trend in the need for building, industrial and agricultural space to meet the needs of the increased number of mouths to be fed and a number of houses to shelter them. Meanwhile, the results of Land Cover Classification show a predominance of Natural landscape before 1985, an ironical slight recovery of the forest vegetation cover in 2006 and  2022. The measures that have been proposed to ameliorate the situation are those that will meet up with the needs of the present population without jeopardizing the needs of future city dwellers. These solutions are those that would lead to the establishment of a Bio-City that Maroua is supposed to be.