SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF LAND USE CHANGES IN IJAGUN, OGUN STATE

Abstract

Land use changes come with their social and environmental consequences. Rapid land use changes in Ijagun,
a medium-sized settlement in Ogun State, Nigeria, is driven, largely, by the expansion of the Tai Solarin
Federal University of Education located in the town. This paper analyzes the growth of Ijagun between the
year 2000, when the University was established, and 2025. It further investigates the social and environmental
effects of the land use changes that have taken place in the town during the period. Data for the study was
collected through satellite imageries and questionnaire administration to a purposively selected sample of 200
Ijagun residents. Using the supervised maximum likelihood classification technique, the Landsat imageries
were analyzed to extract land use classes and for change detection. The social and environmental effects were
extracted from the questionnaire responses and analyzed quantitatively. Findings reveal that built-up areas
increased markedly by 417% from 0.70 km² in 2000 while vegetal cover decreased from 5.23km2
(76.4% of the land cover) to 3.11 km² in 2025. Major social effects of the land use changes identified were population
congestion and housing shortages, increased vehicular traffic and cost of living, increased rent, social vices
and crime, and increased opportunities for income diversification. The environmental effects were waste
management problem, water shortages, noise and air pollution, erosion and loss of farmlands. While land use
change reflects modernization and growth in Ijagun, the negative effects of the change underscore the urgent
need for effective planning, environmental management, and infrastructural development.