Geo-spatial Analysis of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Changes in Oluwa Forest Reserve and its Environs

Mankind’s existence and modification of the landscape have had a profound effect on the natural environment. Anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, mining, deforestation and construction have influenced the shifting patterns of land use. This has resulted in a significant effect on local weather and climate. The use of remote sensing data in recent times has been of immense help in monitoring the changing pattern of vegetation. Therefore this study utilized remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) methods to identify factors responsible for land use land cover (LULC) changes in Oluwa Forest Reserve between 1984 and 2017. The result showed that Primary forest was reduced by about 5% between 1984 and 2000 and by about 12% between 2000 and 2017 and the non-forest got increased by about 4% and 2% from 1984 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2017 respectively. Future forecast shows that primary forest will decrease by about 3% while the non-forest will increase by 5% by 2034. The results also revealed that the changes in forest cover between 2000 and 2017 were actively influenced by the closeness of settlements to the forest. It is therefore recommended that the findings of this study should be adopted by relevant authorities as a useful forest management tool

Forest degradation and livelihood: a case study of government forest reserves of Ogun State, Nigeria

This study examined the effect of forest degradation on livelihood returns in Government forest reserves of Ogun State. Primary data used in the study were obtained in a multi-stage random sampling procedure across non-degraded and degraded forests. Both qualitative and quantitative analytical methods were employed for data analysis. Different forest based livelihood and returns were investigated in this study and the Levene’s test results showed that there is disparity in the livelihood returns across the non-degraded and degraded forests. Logistic regression results revealed that gender, number of household members working and earning income, number of children in the household, earning income from tree crops and earning income from hunting were statistically significant factors influencing forest degradation within the study area. Therefore, the study recommends that strong and participatory forest management practices should be encouraged to ensure that tree crop farming and hunting are monitored and done without hurting the forest.Keywords: Forest degradation, Livelihood returns, Government Forest Reserve, Ogun Stat

Forest canopy density analysis of Sokpomba Forest Reserve, Edo State

Forest is a dynamic landscape especially in the tropics as a result of high anthropogenic activities. This study therefore, attempts to evaluate the changes in forest canopy density sequel to the interaction between man and forest ecosystem in Sokpomba Forest Reserve from 1990 to 2020. Relevant Remote Sensing and GIS algorithms were used at different levels of this study. Landsat images formed the major input data for the analysis. In addition to the satellite images, ground control points (GCP) picked with the aid of Global Positioning System (GPS) were used to calculate the accuracy assessment of the Forest Canopy Density (FCD) analysis. The high canopy density (HD) decreased from 320.82km2 in 1990 to 292.82km2 in 2020. Conversely, the low canopy density (LD) increased from 171.12km2 in 1990 to 282.82km2 in 2020. The transitioning of the different Forest Canopy Densities from one category to another was also captured in this study. For instance between 2005 and 2020, about 37 km² changed from low density (LD) to no forest (NF). The accuracy assessment shows that the image classification is good in the sense that the Overall Accuracy figures are 69% (1990), 84% (2005) and 85% (2020). This forest modeling technique is very apt when it comes to the monitoring of forest cover dynamics, forest disturbance and ways of mitigating them. Key words: Geographic Information System, Remote sensing, Forest changes, Landsat, FCD, classification, anthropogenic and  urbanization

Human Settlements Interactions and Deforestation in Gambari Forest Reserve located in Oluyole Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State, Nigeria

This study was designed to examine changes in land cover types and the interaction of human settlements with the forest and impact of such interaction on the reserve. Community leaders and randomly selected community dwellers in each of the selected settlements were sampled for group discussion to obtain information on population and services of the forest that attract them to the reserve. Landsat images of 1984 and 2019 were used to extract land cover types using maximum likelihood classifier in Idrisi environment. The level of attractiveness and Interactions of the communities with the reserve were determined employing gravitational model. Results show that there was an increase in the size and number of settlements within the study area and decrease in in forest cover by 34% and 6.02% respectively. It was also revealed from the study that about 39% of the total area was taken over by development (building, roads and other classes) within the forest reserve, while 3% of the developed area gave way to forest cover. The degraded parts of the reserve in recent time was about 16% of the total reserve area and about 78% remained forest cover. From the results it is obvious that the level of interaction and imparts of such interaction depends on the community’s population size rather than distance. It is therefore imperative to regulate the activities of adjoining communities and those within the Gambari forest reserve by appropriate authorities

Assessment of Thermal-induced Forest Stress: A case of Akure Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria

Forest stress or health has become a topic of serious interest to researchers in recent times. It reached a crescendo consequent upon the renewed interest in climate change’s effects, resilience and mitigation. Forest stress is majorly a climate-related occurrence that can only be managed but not totally eradicated. Therefore, this study is aimed at assessing thermal induced stress in Akure forest reserve in Ondo State, Nigeria, using the instrumentality of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). The temperature data used for this study was extracted from Landsat 8 (OLI) imagery obtained from United States Geological Survey (USGS) database between the years 2016 and 2020. A land use land cover change detection analysis of the study area revealed that between 2016 and 2020, forest and waterbody decreased from 4344.59 to 2971.71 ha and 187.28 to 178.23 ha respectively while shrubs and bare land increased from 1472.13 to 2533.05 ha and 578.16 to 899.34 ha respectively. Forest stress and health of the study area was assessed using vegetation indices and land surface temperature LST). The result reveals changes in mean LST across the four lands cover types during the study period. It ranges between 22.28 oC (water body) in 2016 to 28.99 oC (bare land) in 2018. The spatial trend of Vegetation Health Index (VHI) was used to delineate the health of the forest. The study reveals that the spectral changes in the biophysical characteristics of the forest could not be solely attributed to temperature variability. Other climatic parameters and soil related variables must have contributed to notice stress in the forest reserve. However, this study has brought to the fore the robustness of geospatial technologies on the study of forest stress, health and drought

Use of Digital Elevation Models to Map Out The Groundwater Resources Base Of Kuje Area to Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

This research work examined the use of digital elevation model in the evaluation of groundwater resources in Kuje Area, Nigeria. This was achieved through the acquisition of topographic maps, Digitization of the topographic maps which were glued and interpolated to generate Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and Mapping of groundwater potential areas using ArcGIS 9.2 and ArcView 3.2a software. Findings from this research show that the study area have elevations ranging from 333 m to 429 m above sea level with a moderate groundwater potential in areas with elevation ranging from 286 m and 333 m above sea level. Some areas also have ground water problem, these areas were classified as mountainous areas and are located at very high elevations. The rocky nature of the high elevated environment makes these areas have very little hope of assessing groundwater. It was suggested that government should properly monitor groundwater, inhabitants should be made to accept laws which will help them in the conservation of ground water resources and efforts should also be made by the government towards creating incentives that will encourage people to obey these laws, Conservation methods such as retardation of surface runoff, control of vegetation and groundwater withdrawal rates should be employed

Satellite-based prediction of forest loss in Oluwa Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria

This study set to evaluate the recent forest cover of Oluwa forest and its future status. The 18-year interval (2002 and 2020) land cover maps used in this study were produced using Landsat images for these years. The image processing and analysis were carried out in Idrisi environment. CA-Markov analysis was run in Idrisi software to test a pair of land cover images and outputs a transition probability matrix and a transition areas matrix for the analysis and prediction of forest cover Results showed that there was a continuous increase in forest cover and decrease in non-forest area. Degraded forest increased from 3.7% in 2002 to 3.92%in 2020. Projection revealed that the forest reserve will experience increase in forest cover by about 0.1% in 2038. It also showed a projected gain of 0.39% and 0.98% forest loss (from degraded and non-forest areas in 2038. This development poses severe ecological disorder as such would alter surface energy balance. To avert this ecological threat, the activities of loggers and other anthropogenic activities within the study area should be checked