INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROGRESSIVE RESEARCH IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, VOL.2, NO.11, NOVEMBER 2021. SAMPSON A P., et.al: URBAN GROWTH DYNAMICS AND LAND USE CHANGE IN PORT HARCOURT METROPOLIS, NIGERIA BETWEEN 1986 AND 2020 47 Urban Growth Dynamics and Land use Change in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria between 1986 and 2020 Sampson A P 1 , Weli, V E 1 , Nwagbara, M O 1 , Eludoyin, O S 1 1 Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: adonisampson@yahoo.com Abstract: - This study evaluated the urban growth dynamics and landuse change in Port Harcourt Metropolis for five epochs, namely: 1986, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020, with the application of geo-information techniques. The landuse/land cover (LULC) classification and change detection due to urban growth on a decadal basis was retrieved from multi-temporal Landsat 4 & 5 Thematic (TM), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) images at a spatial resolution of 30m. Supervised classification using maximum likelihood algorithm classifiers was used to classify similar spectral signatures into various major classes which included vegetation cover, farmland, water bodies, built-up area and open space/bare soil. The area of each landuse class was computed in ArcGIS 10.5 which was used to compute the landuse change and percentage change in squared kilometres. The findings indicated that the landuse pattern of the city has momentously been dynamic and most of these changes are driven by the progression in the growth of the city. Between the period of 1986 and 2020, waterbodies and built-up area increased by 3.61% and 172.59% respectively; while thick vegetation reduced by 33.06%, riparian/swamp forest and farmlands decreased by 13.02% and 19.96% respectively; signifying spatial expansion of the urban centre to the detriment of other landuses, notably thick vegetation. On the premise of the findings, the study recommends that regulatory authorities should strictly control urban growth and be dogged with the enforcement of planning regulations; landuse planning and mapping should be routine course of action for the authorities and urban growth should be frequently monitored by the governments so as to be able to detect slightest changes in the city’s morphology. Key Words: — Decadal, Urban, Growth, Dynamics, Landuse, Change, Metropolis. I. INTRODUCTION The origin of cities can be tied to the civilisation of the river valley of Mesopotamia (contemporary Iraq), Egypt, India, and China, at which time, agriculture and home-grown cattle were the main economic stay of these territories; but in time cities expanded in dimension and would later become centres for merchandise and commercial activities (Centre of Expertise for Urban Programming (CUEP), 2018). Today, the evolution and dynamics of urban growth world over has been noteworthy both in space and time, showing a very reflective relationship with the natural environment with some accompanied feedback, which may be negative or positive. Hence, Torrey (2004) held that the increase in the world’s population and its redistribution are possibly going to impact the natural systems of the earth and the relationship between the urban environments and the people. From these early periods, the growth of urban areas has been speedy and unprecedented, propelled by population migration in search of better opportunities occasioned by the dawn of industrialisation about 200 years ago and this growth has progressed most rapidly over the past 50 last years (CEUP, 2018). Before the 20 th century, the contrast between city and rural regions was very apparent, but the trend would change in the 20 th century with the experience of speedy urbanisation to the extent that there has been a gap in the consciousness among the people on the trend and how to cope with it (Gold, 2002). This situation, though analogous to 19 th century urbanisation, to some extent expounds the urban crises of the late twentieth century (Gold, 2002). This modern urbanisation has seen cities with imprecise boundaries as against their historical counterparts that were delineated by walls (CEUP, 2018) or seen as self-contained entities with easily recognisable Manuscript revised November 09, 2021; accepted November 10, 2021. Date of publication November 22, 2021. This paper available online at www.ijprse.com ISSN (Online): 2582-7898; SJIF: 5.494