Impact of Land-Use Change from 2000-2020 on Environmental Resources in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Land cover data documents how much of a region is covered by forests, wetlands, impervious surfaces, agriculture, and other land and water types. Water types include wetlands or open water. Land-use shows how people use the landscape – whether for development, conservation, or mixed uses hence, the objective of this paper was to evaluate the impact of land-use change from 2000 – 2020 on environmental resources in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. A sample frame of two broad epochs (spanning from 2000 – 2020) was used for the study. This was to allow detailed image capturing and interpretation of land-use land cover (LULC) change of the study area. The result of the analysis shows that water bodies occupies 291.31km² (3.11%) of the total land cover of the area (9372.72km²), riparian vegetation 1245.2km² (13.29%), mangrove swamp – 2959.86km² (31.57%), fresh water – 3976.86km² (42.43%) and built up area 899.95km² (9.60%). The study recommends for the implementation of existing environmental laws in order to take care of current trend of environmental resources decline, there should be public enlightenment and environmental education in order to alert the general public on the danger of human activities on the environment.