Detection of Change in Forest and Trees Outside Forest Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Techniques in Adamawa Central, Adamawa State Nigeria

Abstract

The importance of trees in every environment is crucial given the fact that they make some provisional and supportive services such as food inform of fruits, shelter, shade, aesthetics, as well as carbon sequestration among others.Hence the objective of this paper is to use Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) techniques to determine quantitatively the changes in forest and trees outside forest from 1990-2021 in Adamawa central. The result revealed that changes occurred in trees inside forest, between 2013 and 2021; Rocks and baresurface increased by17.49%. Shrubs and grassland increased by 34.13% while healthy forest reduced to –48.38% within the same period. However, result of TOF shows similar trend between 2013 and 2021 in the study area. Rocks and bare surface increases to 58.15%, shrubs and grassland reduced to –37.46%, while dense forest decreased to –4.39%. The results revealed further a decline in the concentration of both trees inside forest and trees outside forest in the area. The study recommended a change of policy to mitigate the negative impact of degradation through various forest rehabilitation mechanisms such as afforestation and reforestation programs in the study area.