LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS IN NIGERIA USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUE
ABSTRACT
The study assessed the land use and land cover changes over Nigeria between 2001 and 2009 and predicted what the scenario will be till the year 2020 when Nigeria is planning to be among the top 20 strong economies of the world. The study used Combined Terra and Aqua MODIS land level 3/level 4 yearly tiled products, MCD12Q1-level 3 yearly land cover type at the scale of 250m. This data was accessed from NASA website and processed using ArcGIS 9.3 software to establish the land use-land cover situations for 2001, 2005 and 2009 and subsequently the changes that have taken place between 2001 and 2009. There was continuing decrease in the waterbodies from 0.53% coverage in 2001 to 0.47% in 2005 which further decreased to 0.40% in 2009. This poses serious implications for agriculture in terms of food security for those using it for irrigation, water availability for different uses and infrastructural development in term of electricity where it is used for power generation. It also has a serious implication for survival and livelihoods on the communities that depend on aquaculture and irrigational farming. The future prediction could spell a serious calamity due to inundation and loss of small lakes and ponds considering the fact that the loss of the ecosystem constitutes severe degradation and increases the vulnerability of people to disaster especially those whose livelihoods are dependent on the wetlands. Furthermore, the research indicates rapid loss of natural resources especially forest and Savanna which have severe implications for livelihoods and vulnerabilities of communities and also for the environment. The General Savanna was being decimated at the rate of 4% while the forest of the study area was being decimated at the rate of about 9% per annum between 2001 and 2009. The loss of forest and grassland is an indication of disturbance and consistent perturbations created by pressure on the existing ecosystems leading to reduction in soil nutrients, decrease resilience and stability and loss of agricultural lands.