Impact of climate change on land use dynamics along River Ona, Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change has direct influence on environment and human existence. Climate change has been a monster posing threat to the  hydrological cycle, hence the flow discharge of rivers. Therefore, it is necessary to study its effects on the flow of rivers thereby producing  measures to alleviating its effects. In this study, the effects of land cover and weather conditions between 1967 and 2017 on  the flow discharge of River Ona were investigated by making use of the climatic data (rainfall and temperature). The statistical variations  in temperature and rainfall data were assessed using Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) in order to depict the linear variation,  regression and correlation of the prevailing climate of the area The results showed that year 1998 and 1999 have the lowest and highest  rainfall values respectively. The land-use maps show there is gradual increment in area of lands that are built-up but gradual reduction in  the vegetal area. The runoff of River Ona would increase because of wetter climate caused by high rainfall in 1999. In addition, over the  years, runoff severity tends to increase because of land development, giving rise to the replacement of vegetal areas by built up areas,  which have low retention capacity in the area. The findings from this study can be used to predict the discharge of river given other  weather and environmental factors.