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LAND USE-LAND COVER CHANGE, AND ITS EFFECTS ON NATURE CONSERVATION: A GEOINFORMATICS BASED APPROACH IN OGUTA, SOUTH-EASTERN NIGERIA
Abstract
Climate change and population growth are the key drivers of land use-land cover (LULC) change in sub-saharan Africa. Ecosystem services from the species biodiversity have been the sources of food and energy in Nigeria through agriculture and provision of food, firewood, and shelter. The change in LULC has led to the degradation of the natural resources especially the plants which their severe extinction poses major threats to the increasing rural population whose livelihoods depend on them. The study aimed at using Remote sensing and GIS in assessing LULC change, and its impacts on the major plant species towards restoring the natural ecosystem in the area. We hypothesized that the anthropogenic and natural processes brought substantial changes in the land-use which consequently affected the plant and human communities. Data on land-use and plants between 1987 and 2015 were collected and analyzed for landuse-cover types, changes in area cover, and plants composition by using geospatial and statistical tools. The result revealed that 1987 recorded the highest percentage cover for all plant species including chromolaena odorata and panicum maximum, and other species while, 2015 showed the lowest under all the investigated land-use types except wetland. The finding also revealed that wetland had 87.3% increase between 1987 and 2002, and 53% increase between 1987 and 2015. Conclusively, all the LULC types lost at least 5% of their land area to wetland over the 30 years of the study with dense and light forest recording the highest loss of more than 60% each. Recommendations were given on the conservation measures as to salvage human and flora communities since our analysis revealed that they will all become extinct in the next 3-4 decades if no action is taken.
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