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Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced substantial urbanisation and land degradation processes over the past three decades. Using multi-source satellite imagery combined with geographical and demographic data, this study’s aims were to analyse the extent of land cover changes (LCC) and identifying major landscape transformation processes (LIP) and their drivers for four West African cities in Mali, Burkina-Faso, Nigeria and Niger. A common classification scheme was used for a visual interpretation of Corona images from the 1960s and an automated classification of Landsat scenes from 1986, 2000/2001 and 2009. Based on a postclassification comparison LCC were summarized and related to the demographic trends of the past 50 years. Map changes were calculated from 1986 to 2009 to depict LIP (urbanisation, crop expansion, deforestation, and land abandonment) for the cities and their respective hinterlands. To investigate the effect of accessibility and infrastructural factors. LIP were related to the distance to roads, surface water and urban areas. From 1960 to 2009 a large-scale urban agglomeration was detected and the proportion of cultivated land in former natural woody savannas surrounding all four cities increased by 35%. The expansion of cropland during the past 30 years seemed to depend greatly on the availability of irrigation water in the semi-arid Sahelian cities (Kano and Niamey), whilst this was not a major driving factor for the cities of the Sudanian zone (Sikasso and Bobo-Dioulasso). Given the likely increase in water scarcity and land suitable for agriculture, ex ante land use planning and monitoring strategies will become increasingly important. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.