Urban land cover changes represent a response to socioeconomic, political, demographic, and environmental conditions. The aim of the study is to develop a methodology that will integrate socio-economic factors on driving forces generated by residents’ and experts’ opinions in order to provide scientific basis and a broader input for establishing Transition Probability matrix than spatio-temporal input than relying only on physical factors. Descriptive/Inferential Statistics and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were utilized as tools to analyse residents’ and experts’ perceptions of the probable driving forces for Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes in Yola, Nigeria. Weights were assigned to the driving factors identified according to their degree of attraction or repulsion for which suitability maps were generated. Results indicated that population growth is the principal driving force followed by proximity to road, proximity to developed areas, proximity to river/water body (negative) and topography respectively. The research revealed the need to incorporate the concepts of sustainable development, stakeholder engagement and population planning in urban development and land management practices.

Keywords: CA-Markov, Suitability Maps, Conditional probability images, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Driving Forces for Urban Land-use change, Yola, Adamawa State