Future land use change simulations for the Lepelle River Basin using Cellular Automata Markov model with Land Change Modeller-generated transition areas

Background: Land use/land cover (LULC), change is one of the major contributors to global environmental and climate variations. The ability predict future LULC crucial for engineers, civil urban designers, natural resource managers planning activities. Methods: TerrSet Geospatial Monitoring Modelling System in conjunction with ArcGIS Pro 2.8 were used process data region Lepelle River Basin (LRB) South Africa. Driver variables such as population density, slope, elevation well Euclidean distances cities, roads, highways, railroads, parks restricted areas, towns LRB combination analysed using Change Modeller (LCM) Cellular-Automata Markov (CAM) model. Results: results reveal an array losses (-) gains (+) certain classes by year 2040: vegetation (+8.5%), plantations (+3.5%), water bodies (-31.6%), bare ground (-8.8%), cultivated land (-29.3%), built-up areas (+10.6%) mines (+14.4%). Conclusions: point conversion uses from anthropogenic 2040. These changes also highlight how potential associated resources will negatively impact society ecosystem functioning exacerbating scarcity driven change. This modelling study seeks provides a decision support system predicting utilization perhaps assist purposes.