LANDUSE AND LANDCOVER CHANGE DETECTION OF GULLY EROSION IMPACTED AREA OF ISUIKWUATO, NIGERIA USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUES.
OGBONNA GLORY CHINWEOTITO, P. N. OKEKE & N. VERLA
Department of Environmental Management, Federal University of Technology, Owerri Nigeria
Correspondence email: chiglo2010@gmail.com
Abstract
Soil erosion has been one of the most critical problems in the world and it is one of the largest obstacles to achieving sustainable development in agriculture and natural resource use. 80% of the world’s agricultural land suffers from moderate to severe erosion, adversely affecting agricultural productivity and thus casting doubt of food security in the south East. Hence, an attempt has been made in this project to determine the land use and land cover change detection of gully erosion impacted area of isuikwuato, Nigeria using Geospatial Techniques. This research therefore analyzed the quantitative and spatial characteristics of land use dynamic changes for 30-year period. The study made use of landsat 1988, 1998 and 2018 using ARC GIS 10.7and ENVI 4.1 software. Results from land cover change dynamics show that Bare surface occupied the least class with just 6.6% in 1988 and it dropped to 5.1% in 1998 and by 2018, bare surface though still occupying the least class is now 15%. Built-up area for 1988 was 7.6% and dropped to 5.48% in 1998 and by 2018 it has shot up to 26% while light vegetation as at 1988 was 37% and it dropped to 25% in 2018, in the same scenario. Thick vegetation decreased from 48% in 1988 to 32% in 2018. It is recommended that the Government should digitize and update all analogue maps of the area to serve as basis for satellite image synchronization for effective planning and management of all physical developments. Also, since vegetation cover has been noted to be fast disappearing to other land uses, adequate measures should be put in place by the Abia State Government authority concerned to mitigate this observed scenario as its failure will have environmental consequences.
Keywords: Landuse, landcover, Geospatial techniques, remote sensing, Isuikwuato
