This thesis addresses three research gaps in published literature. These are, the absence of Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) methods for urban Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) analysis in Nigeria; the inability to use Nigeriasat-1 satellite data for urban LULC analysis and monitoring urban growth in Nigeria with Shannon’s Entropy Index. Using Abuja as a case study, this research investigated the nature of land use/land cover change (LULCC). Specific objectives were: design of an object based classification method to extract urban LULC; validate a method to extract LULC in developing countries from multiple sources of remotely sensed data; apply the method to extract LULC data; use the outputs to validate an Urban Growth Model (UGM); optimise an UGM to represent patterns and trends and through this iterative process identify and prioritise the driving forces of urban change; and finally use the outputs of the land use maps to determine if planning has controlled land use development. Landsat 7 ETM (2001), Nigeriasat-1 SLIM (2003) and SPOT 5 HRG (2006) sensor data were merged with land use cadastre in OBIA, to produce land use maps. Overall classification accuracies were 92%, 89% and 96% respectively. Post classification analysis of LULCC indicated 4.43% annual urban spread. Shannon’s Entropy index for the study period were 0.804 (2001), 0.898 (2003) and 0.930 (2006). Cellular Automata/Markov analysis was also used to predict urban growth trend of 0.89% per annum. For the first time OBIA has been used for LULC analysis in Nigeria. This research has established that Nigeriasat-1 data can contribute to urban studies using innovative OBIA methods. In addition, that Shannon’s Entropy Index can be used to understand the nature of urban growth in Nigeria. Finally, the drivers of LULCC in Abuja are similar to those of planned capital cities in other developing economies. Land use developments in Abuja can provide an insight into urban dynamics in a developing country’s capital region. OBIA, Shannon’s Entropy Index and UGM can aid urban administrators and provide information for sustainable urban planning and development.

The city of Richmond has practiced mixed land-use policies to encourage non-private-vehicle commuting for decades based on the successful examples or the empirical evidence of other cities. However, the idea violates one of common logical fallacy—“all things are equal.” Using the indices of land-use diversity, this study explores the correlation between land-use mixture and home-based trip for the city of Richmond. This paper calculates two common indices of land-use mixture—entropy, and dissimilarity. The results indicate that although Richmond’s land-use mixture and home-based trip do have a correlation, the correlation is weak. One possible reason is that socioeconomic actors have a stronger influence on transportation than land-use mixture. However, this assumption still needs further analysis in order to be verified.