Spatio-temporal analysis of the national parks in Nigeria using geographic information system.

Abstract

Human activities have caused unprecedented changes in the ecosystem and environmental process. These changes have created a loss in biodiversity and have also resulted in environmental degradation as a consequence of lack of planning. Therefore, Landuse/Landcover information is essential for a number of planning and management activities at local, regional and national levels. This is because they provide the basic information on the spatial location and distribution of human and natural resources both in qualitative and quantitative terms. These quests gave rise to the evaluation of the status and conditions of the Natural and built Resources in Nigeria at a scale of 1:100,000. This is with specific interest on National parks using NigeriaSat1 images of 2007, Landsat images of 2001 and FORMECU 1995, which were also subjected to comparative analysis. Various multi-Temporal Satellite data Layers were brought together in a GIS environment to assess the pattern and magnitude of changes in the Parks between 1995 and 2007. It was found out that the sizes of these National Parks (Forest and Game Reserves) were consistently on the decrease between 2001 and 2007.

Keywords: NigeriaSat-1, GIS, Land-use/Land-cover, National Parks, FORMECU.