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

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 1257-1262
Author(s):  
E.O. Toyinbo ◽  
R.A. Fasasi ◽  
C.F. Agbor ◽  
C.O. Fakorede

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.

Author(s):  
Adesoji Akinwumi Adeyemi ◽  
Farouq Maku Owolabi

Remote sensing/GIS techniques are a versatile tool for x-raying serial forest structural changes in retrospect. It would be impossible to evaluate past occurrences and changes in forest extents in past decades at Effan Forest Reserve without non-conventional means. Therefore, we adopted remote sensing technology using Landsat images to evaluate land-use change and degradation rates in the area with a view to ascertaining causal factors for possible minimization of forest degradation in Effan Forest Reserve. Land-use/land-cover changes were analyzed using USGS-Landsat TM and ETM images of 1987, 2002, 2014 and 2019. Field-data were collected using handheld GPS receiver and spatial statistical analyses were conducted using the ground control points (GCPs). For inventory data, a systematic sampling technique was adopted using ten 1.05 km-transects at 500 m intervals. A total of 50 sample plots of 50 × 50 m were used. All tree species with Dbh ≥10 cm were enumerated. Nineteen tree species in ten families were encountered with Vitellaria paradoxa as the most-frequently occurring species in the area. IUCN-listed endangered Pterocarpus erinaceus, hitherto abundant in the area, was rarely encountered during the survey, while Vitellaria paradoxa is gradually shrinking, going the relative abundance in the area. The result further showed that primary and secondary forests decreased considerably by 258.03 ha (46.72%) and 9.18 ha (3.63%), respectively, with a total forest loss of 50.3% in 32 years (8.4 hayr-1, 1.6% per annum). While forest plantation size doubled by 369.72 ha within the period. This is worrisome as the remaining fragmented forests appeared to be on the decline, except the riparian vegetation, due to inaccessibility to the riparian by loggers. It thus appeared that forest protection approaches were ineffective. Increased protection efforts could save this forest reserve, and the concerned authority should consider a focused-enrichment planting involving indigenous species for ecosystem-repair.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-305
Author(s):  
Addo Koranteng ◽  
Isaac Adu-Poku ◽  
Emmanuel Donkor ◽  
Tomasz Zawiła-Niedźwiecki

AbstractLand use and land cover (LULC) terrain in Ghana has undergone profound changes over the past years emanating mainly from anthropogenic activities, which have impacted countrywide and sub-regional environment. This study is a comprehensive analysis via integrated approach of geospatial procedures such as Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) of past, present and future LULC from satellite imagery covering Ghana’s Ashanti regional capital (Kumasi) and surrounding districts. Multi-temporal satellite imagery data sets of four different years, 1990 (Landsat TM), 2000 (Landsat ETM+), 2010 (Alos and Disaster Monitoring Constellation-DMC) and 2020 (SENTINEL), spanning over a 30-year period were mapped. Five major LULC categories – Closed Forest, Open Forest, Agriculture, Built-up and Water – were delineated premised on the prevailing geographical settings, field study and remote sensing data. Markov Cellular Automata modelling was applied to predict the probable LULC change consequence for the next 20 years (2040). The study revealed that both Open Forest and Agriculture class categories decreased 51.98 to 38.82 and 27.48 to 20.11, respectively. Meanwhile, Built-up class increased from 4.8% to 24.8% (over 500% increment from 1990 to 2020). Rapid urbanization caused the depletion of forest cover and conversion of farmlands into human settlements. The 2040 forecast map showed an upward increment in the Built-up area up to 35.2% at the expense of other LULC class categories. This trend from the past to the forecasted future would demand that judicious LULC resolutions have to be made to keep Ghana’s forest cover, provide arable land for farming activities and alleviate the effects of climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gebeyehu Abebe ◽  
Dodge Getachew ◽  
Alelgn Ewunetu

Abstract Mapping and quantifying the status of Land use/Land cover (LULC) changes and drivers of change are important for identifying vulnerable areas for change and designing sustainable ecosystem services. This study analyzed the status of LULC changes and key drivers of change for the last 30 years through a combination of remote sensing and GIS with the surveying of the local community understanding of LULC patterns and drivers in the Gubalafto district, Northeastern Ethiopia. Five major LULC types (cultivated and settlement, forest cover, grazing land, bush land and bare land) from Landsat images of 1986, 2000, and 2016 were mapped. The results demonstrated that cultivated and settlement constituted the most extensive type of LULC in the study area and increased by 9% extent. It also revealed that a substantial expansion of bush land and bare land areas during the past 30 years. On the other hand, LULC classes that has high environmental importance such as grazing land and forest cover have reduced drastically through time with expanding cultivated and settlement during the same period. The grazing land in 1986 was about 11.1% of the total study area, and it had decreased to 5.7% in 2016. In contrast, cultivated and settlement increased from 45.6% in 1986 to 49.5% in 2016. Bush land increased from 14.8 to 21% in the same period, while forest cover declined from 8.9 to 2% in the same period. The root causes for LULC changes in this particular area include population growth, land tenure insecurity, and common property rights, persistent poverty, climate change, and lack of public awareness. Therefore, the causes for LULC changes have to be controlled, and sustainable resources use is essential; else, these scarce natural resource bases will soon be lost and will no longer be able to play their contribution in sustainable ecosystem services. Article Highlights Forest cover and grazing lands declined rapidly. Fluctuating trends in cultivated and settlement, bush land and bare land. Population pressure and associated demand are the main causes behind LULC changes in the study area.


Author(s):  
R. M. Devi ◽  
B. Sinha ◽  
J. Bisaria ◽  
S. Saran

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Forest ecosystems play a key role in global ecological balance and provide a variety of tangible and intangible ecosystem services that support the livelihoods of rural poor. In addition to the anthropogenic pressure on the forest resources, climate change is also impacting vegetation productivity, biomass and phenological patterns of the forest. There are many studies reported all over the world which use change in Land Use Land Cover (LULC) to assess the impact of climate change on the forest. Land use change (LC) refers to any anthropogenic or natural changes in the terrestrial ecosystem at a variety of spatial or temporal scale. Changes in LULC induced by any causes (natural/anthropogenic) play a major role in global as well as regional scale pattern which in turn affects weather and climate. Remote sensing (RS) data along with Geographic Information System (GIS) help in inventorying, mapping and monitoring of earth resources for effective and sustainable landscape management of forest areas. Accurate information about the current and past LULC including natural forest cover along with accurate means of monitoring the changes are very necessary to design future adaptation strategies and formulation of policies in tune of climate change. Therefore, this study attempts to analyze the changes of LULC of Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) due to climate change. The rationale for selecting KTR is to have a largely intact forest area without any interference so that any change in LULC could be attributed to the impact of climate change. The change analysis depicted changes in land use land cover (LULC) pattern by using multi-temporal satellite data over a period of time. Further, these detected changes in different LULC class influence the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. As the study site is a Sal dominated landscape; the findings could be applied in other Sal dominated landscape of central India in making future policies, adaptation strategies and silvicultural practices for reducing the vulnerability of forest-dependent communities.</p>


Environments ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Merlyn Soriano ◽  
Noba Hilvano ◽  
Ronald Garcia ◽  
Aldrin Hao ◽  
Aldin Alegre ◽  
...  

Ecologically Valuable Areas play an important role in providing ecosystem services, however, human activities such as land conversion and urban sprawl pose pressures and threats to these areas. The study assessed the land use/land cover and urban sprawl in the Mount Makiling Forest Reserve (MMFR) Watersheds and Buffer Zone from 1992 to 2015 using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). Results showed that the land use/cover within the MMFR buffer zone has changed from 1992 to 2015 with built-up areas increasing by 117% despite Proclamation 1257, s. 1998 which regulates human activities in the zone. Based on the Shannon entropy analysis the land development in the MMFR buffer zone tends to be dispersed and sprawling. However, when the magnitude of change of urban sprawl in the buffer zone from 2002 to 2015 was calculated, a decrease in the entropy value was observed which implies a compacting pattern as the human settlement in the buffer zone increases over time. Proclamation 1257, s. 1998 needs to be strengthened to protect MMFR and its buffer zone from further encroachment and pressure. Moreover, remote sensing and GIS proved to be useful tools for assessing urban sprawl in ecologically valuable areas such as MMFR.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eniola Damilola Ashaolu ◽  
Jacob Funso Olorunfemi ◽  
Ifatokun Paul Ifabiyi

Abstract Over the years, Osun drainage basin has witnessed tremendous increase in population, and urbanization that have changed the landscape of the area. This study evaluated the spatio-temporal pattern of land use/land cover change (LULC) in the study area, and made hydrological inferences. Landsat imageries were acquired from USGS-EROS satellite image database for the period 1984, 2000 and 2015, while the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was obtained from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). Supervised image classification using the Maximum Likelihood Algorithm in Erdas Imagine was adopted to classified the land use/land cover of the study area into seven classes. Elevation, aspect and slope of the study area were processed from DEM using ArcGIS. Modules for Land Use Change Evaluation (MOLUSCE) plugin in QGIS was used to simulate the basin future LULC change, using change driving factors of population, elevation, aspect and slope of the study area. There was about 234% increase in built up areas and 89.22% in crop/shrubs between 1984 and 2015. The most significant decrease in LULC occurred in forest (58.75%) and wetland (84.69%) during this period. The predicted future LULC change suggests that only about 12% of the basin will remain under forest cover by the year 2046. The results underscored the increasing anthropogenic activities in the basin that influenced recharge rate, surface runoff, incidences of soil erosion, etc., in Osun drainage basin. The planting of the lost native trees was recommended for the sustainability of the basin’s ecosystem.


Author(s):  
N. S. Satish ◽  
C. G. Shruthi ◽  
Kiran B. M

'Wetland' denotes a large body of water surrounded by land, whether natural or artificial,permanent or temporary with water that is lentic or lotic. Wetlands perform some useful functions in the maintenance of overall balance of nature. Due to economic growth,urbanization,population increase and industrialization, more and more waste materials were discharged in to it, make it unfit for any uses. Hence to maintain the ecological balance,it is imperative to preserve these wetlands to make it fit for various purposes. Study is being undertaken in Mudigere taluk of Chikkamagaluru District, to identify the number of wetlands in the taluk and to assess the status of wetlands), Geographic Information System(GIS) is used to develop a system for the functional analysis of wetlands and to estimate the rainfall and runoff pattern using land-use/land-cover on wetlands and associated ecosystems .The study involves a detailed investigation of physical and chemical water quality parameters of 7 lake, carried out for a period of three months from March to May, the result reveals that the water is not polluted only turbidity exceeds the permissible limit due storm water runoff and 2 lakes have attended the Eutrophic condition due to agriculture run-off, sewage pollution and anthropogenic activities. A System for the Functional Analysis of Wetland using GIS,remote sensing data, topographical maps. Rainfall and Runoff pattern is estimated using land-use/land-cover, Soil using GIS and Remote Sensing Technique.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Jean Paul Nkundabose ◽  
Felix Nshimiyimana ◽  
Gratien Twagirayezu ◽  
Olivier Irumva

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document