The Effect of Boko Haram Activities on Land Use and Land Cover at Yankari Game Reserve, Bauchi State, Nigeria (Published)
The study examined the effect of Boko Haram activities on Land Use Land Cover change at Yankari Game Reserve, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Vegetation in 2003 was 64.36% but later decreased to 48.35% in 2010 and recently increased to 61.78% in 2016. The decrease in vegetation cover from 64.36% in 2003 to 48.35% in 2010 can be attributed to massive infrastructural development during this era. Similarly, the decrease in 2010 (48.35%) could be attributed to human interference such as fetching of firewood, farming, lumbering, etc. which are the agents of vegetal degradation. It is noteworthy that Boko Haram rampage was at its peak during this period and as such tourists’ patronage (especially foreigners) to the Game Reserve reduced drastically for fear of being bombed, kidnapped, etc. But the increase between 2010 and 2016 can be attributed to regeneration as the fight against Boko Haram is being won by the government. It is also be due to considerable reduction in human activities consequent on patronage by tourist (as there is strict regulatory control of unlawful human activities) and time for vegetation regeneration. It is recommended that the people of the host community of Yankari Game Reserve should be educated through enlightenment campaigns on the consequences of indiscriminate felling of trees. In addition to that, alternative sources of cooking energy should be provided to the local inhabitants. The management of Yankari Game Reserve should adopt Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System techniques which have proven to be effective and efficient in the monitoring of vegetation cover. This would help to control encroachment and illegal logging in the area.
Citation: Ukah Chinomso, Ejaro Sunday P., Makwe Edith and Iwara Anthony (2021) The Effect of Boko Haram Activities on Land Use and Land Cover at Yankari Game Reserve, Bauchi State, Nigeria, British Journal of Environmental Sciences, Vol.9, No.6, pp. 1-18
Keywords: Geographic Information System, Remote Sensing, Vegetation, terrorism and natural regeneration.
Change Detection in Landuse / Landcover Mapping in Asaba, Niger Delta B/W 1996 And 2015. A Remote Sensing and GIS Approach (Published)
Remote sensing is used in this research work for the development and acquisition of Landuse/land cover data, pattern and its attendant effects in Asaba, Delta State Nigeria. Remote sensing images and digital data verified by ground trothing (field work) satellite data are used to assess the rate of change in Landuse / Land cover between 1996 and 2015. It also examines the extent to which images and GIS softwares effectively contribute to mapping landuse/cover in the Niger Delta region. Remote sensing and geographic Information System (GIS) help integrate natural, cultural, social and economic information to create spatial information system on the available terrain resources. Sets of NARSDA images were acquired corresponding with the years, field checked to ascertain the data captured on the terrain.. The digital satellite data are incorporated as input data into IDRISI 32 GIS environmental to separately map out the landuse/land cover units and their magnitude determine. Five distinct units were identified in classification of landuse/landed cover pattern categories as follows: Farmland, Build up land, Waste land, Forest land and Water bodies. Land consumption rate indicate a progressive spatial expansion of the city was high in 1996/2006 and higher between 2006 and 2015. Also, land absorption coefficient being a measure of consumption of new urban land by increased urban population, was high between 1996 and 2006 and between 2006 and 2015. Ground trothing was carried out to ascertain the accuracy of data and there are major changes in the landuse/land cover. It was discovered that there is rapid inbuilt-up areas evidently explained in buildings projects that resulted in decrease in forest land, agricultural land and open space. This is attributed to the anthropogenic activities of farming, bush burning, grazing, etc. However, the area occupied by water remained unchanged over the years. This study demonstrates that remotely sensed data and GIS based approach is found to be timely and cost effective than the conventional method of analysis, classification of land use pattern effective for planning and management
Keywords: Change Detection, Geographic information System (GIS), IDRISI 32 software, Land Cover, Landuse, Mapping, Remote Sensing, Satellite image