The Role of Surveying and Mapping in Erosion Management and Control: Case of Omagba Erosion Site, Onitsha Anambra State, Nigeria

Erosion has been described as the washing away of the top soil as a result of the actions of agents such as water and wind. Gully erosion, being the predominant in Southern Nigeria, is also a type of environmental degradation with a lot of disastrous consequences caused mainly by flood as a result of high precipitation, which is fallout of climate change. It can be determined, especially in terms of extent and scope, monitored and controlled. Surveyors’ contributions through provision of the necessary data, which includes, the topographic map of the area, DTM, catchment and watershed information, both centreline and cross sectional profiles of the resultant gully, the plan view of the gully and its tributaries, etc., for the research and design works on erosion control, have been examined. The data provided was also used for the computation of the volume of runoff from the catchment passing through the gully channel as well as the appropriate slope that would reduce the flow speed. Keywords: Watershed, Catchment, runoff, DTM.

Assessing the potentials of largescale generation of solar energy in Eastern Nigeria with geospatial technologies

The quest to improve power supply in Nigeria has motivated the country to look for alternative energy resources to augment existing ones. Being in the tropics, Nigeria is well positioned to harness solar energy to improve its energy poverty status. Although, a number of solar energy projects have been initiated in the arid parts of the country, very little has been done in the humid Eastern part of the country. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the solar energy generation potential in Eastern Nigeria, using geospatial technologies. A spatially-explicit multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was implemented with GIS, using a number of geospatial data products including Landsat satellite images, NASA global direct normal irradiance (DNI), ASTER Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and National Forest Reserve map covering the study area. Various derivatives, including land use and land cover (LU/LC) map, slope, and factor maps were generated in other to produce a solar energy potential map of the region. This research found that over 59,000ha (0.67% of the region) were found to be suitable for the production of solar energy

What happens after helping babies breathe training is complete? A prospective cohort study of Nigerian health care workers

Background: Neonatal mortality remains disturbingly high in Nigeria. Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) is an evidence- based neonatal resuscitation (NR) educational program designed to teach NR in resourcelimited areas. There is no information in Nigeria on what happens after health careworkers (HCWs) complete HBB training.Aim: To determine if HCWs who received HBB training utilized the acquired knowledge and skills (K&S) and engaged in any ongoing peer training. In addition, we studied HCW turnover one year after HBB training completion.Subjects and Methods: Seventy-two HCWs were trained in HBB, and surveyed 1 year later using a 10-item questionnaire. Data analysis used measures of central tendency and t testing.Results: Most HCWs reported the use of HBB daily. The commonest NR method used was suctioning (89.5 %), followed by drying and positioning (86%), however there was 0% reported use of bagmask- ventilation. Most HCWs (98%) reported sharing K&S with colleagues. Following training,100% HBB trainers remained at original employment but 53% HBB providers moved to new employment and did not utilize their HBB K&S at their new employment site.Conclusion: Frequent, brief, refresher practice sessions and implementation of a system for training new hires may improve HCW readiness for NR and their peer mentoring capabilities. Ensuring adequate equipment availability is critical for HCW to utilize acquired K&S. Significant HCW turnover occurred within a year of training. Trained HCW who left to new employment subsequently had limited impact at their new place of employment