TITLE:
Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Wetlands Ecosystem in the Niger Delta Region
AUTHORS:
Wali Elekwachi, Philip O. Phil-Eze, Etiese A. Etuk, Collins H. Wizor, Chinedu J. Onyishi
KEYWORDS:
Wetland, Ecosystem, Land Cover, Multiple Linear Regression Analysis, GIS, Remote Sensing
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.9 No.12,
December
31,
2021
ABSTRACT: Wetlands are classified as essential and valuable components of the
ecosystem. Wetlands are significant for ecosystem services such as nutrient
cycles, soil formation and water treatment. Nearly half of the world’s wetlands
have vanished in the last century because of anthropogenic activities,
agricultural land use, and urban development, one of such places that are faced
with the challenges of sustainability is the wetland habitats. This study aimed
at assessing the spatiotemporal characteristics of wetlands ecosystem in the
Niger Delta Region of Nigeria from 1986-2016. The secondary data include raw
satellite imageries obtained from the archive of the United States Geological
Survey and Earth Explorer. The data set includes a notable period of four years
landsat images for, 1986, 1996, 2006 and 2016. The maps were projected using
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection system and datum WGS 84 of zone
32. Satellite images of the study area were acquired from the United States
Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS uses the LandSat5 Thematic Mapper (TM)
Landsat7 Thematic Mapper, Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+), Thermal Infrared
Sensor (TIRS) and Landsa8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) to generate high
resolution images that are useful for this type of study. The satellite
imageries were also analyzed using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques by
computing of Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) values for the
entire study area by conversion of spectral reflectance values into NDVI
values. The satellite images covering
the area were acquired and analyzed using ArcGIS10.6. A total area of 25,053.93 (km2) was delineated in the study area. After
processing the imagery, five land use/land cover (LULC) classes were developed
in ArcGIS environment, such as Built-up area, Fallow land, Vegetation,
Wetland and Waterbody. This
study concludes that changes in wetland landscape patterns will produce
profound impacts in urban areas where there are rapid
anthropogenic activities. Anova table showed a huge significant relationship
between time and vegetation decrease across the study area at 0.027 which is
less than 0.05 significance level. Wetlands warming and drying will cause the
shrinking and reduction of wetland in sizes from accelerated wetland
degradation. Therefore, there is an interaction and mutual influence between
dynamic changes of wetland landscape patterns and other land use classes.