Data on Land Use Land Cover Changes of Urban and Peri-Urban Areas: The Case of Mwanza City in Tanzania

Lack of detailed data on the dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) changes in urban and peri-urban areas is a key problem in Tanzania, resulting in poor urban development. Most of the decisions made on land use management have always been reactive, with negative impacts on the livelihoods of people, the environment, ecosystem services, and biodiversity. The purpose of this study is to identify the spatiotemporal land use and land cover changes in urban and peri-urban Mwanza City in Tanzania for sustainable urban development. Using QGIS 3.8 Zanzibar, the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TMs) and Operational Land Imager images were generated. Six land use and land cover types under supervised classifications were produced. The dynamics of each land use and land cover type and the direction of change over 20 years (1999-2019) were determined. The overall accuracy of land use and land cover change maps was 93%, 96%, and 93% for 1999, 2009, and 2019, respectively. The calculation of the change in each land use and land cover type was done, and the results show that between 1999 and 2019, built-up area increased by 350% and grassland, woodland, and bareland decreased by 68%, 56%, and 30%, respectively. The cultivated area showed some ups and downs during the same time period. Also, in the period between 1999 and 2019, the wetland area increased by 11%. This was due to an increase in surface runoff resulting from increased paved surfaces in upstream lands because of the built-up environment. The findings of this study have shown that the capture of spatiotemporal data on the dynamics of land use and land cover will enable the Mwanza City authority to make better-informed decisions for sustainable urban development.