Land use and Land cover Pattern of Stubbs Creek, Akwa Ibom State between 1986 and 2019 using Geospatial Techniques

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue IV, April 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705

Land use and Land cover Pattern of Stubbs Creek, Akwa Ibom State between 1986 and 2019 using Geospatial Techniques

Akpan, U.E.¹, Obafemi, A.A.² and Tanee F.B.G.^3
1Institute of Natural Resources and, Environment and Sustainable Development, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
²Department of Geography and Environmental Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
³Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract
This study assessed the land use/land cover patterns in Stubbs Creek, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria from 1986 to 2019. The study used Landsat imageries of 1986, 2000 and 2019 to determine the spatial extent, trend and percentage of changes of different land use/land cover in the study area. Supervised classification using maximum likelihood algorithm was used to classify the imageries into different major land use/land cover in ArcGIS 10.6. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that between 1986 and 2019, water bodies, flood plain/riparian/mangrove and thick vegetation land-use types reduced by 43.87%, 70.60%, and 93.19% respectively. On the other hand, built-up area and Nypafructicans/Sparse Vegetation increased by 1425.03%, and 1855.25% respectively. The study concluded that the majority of Stubbs Creek is presently dominated by Nypafructicans and human activities. It is therefore recommended that the increase in a built-up area representing urban growth has enormous implication on the ecosystem balance of the study area; thus there is, therefore, the need to enact laws against forest encroachment and expansion so as to protect the ecosystem; and there is need for periodical monitoring of the vegetation status in the Stubbs Creek, Akwa Ibom State for sustainable forest resource management and biodiversity in the entire study area to mitigate the associated risk of global climate change.

Keywords: Landuse/Landcover; Biodiversity, Stubbs Creek; Geospatial Techniques; Akwa Ibom

Introduction
Land is one of the most important natural resources, as life and developmental activities are based on it (Ezeomedo and Igbokwe, 2013; Jacob et al., 2015); and land use and land cover change have emerged as a global phenomenon and perhaps the most significant regional anthropogenic disturbance to the environment, especially in the 20th century. Land cover change has been described as the most significant regional anthropogenic disturbance to the environment (Roberts et al, 1998). In essence both land use and cover changes are products of prevailing interacting natural and anthropogenic processes by human activities. Land use and cover change and land degradation are therefore driven by the same set of proximate and underlying factor elements central to environmental processes, change and management through their influence on biodiversity, heat and moisture budgets, trace gas emissions, carbon cycling, livelihoods and a wide range of socio-economic and ecological processes (Desanker et al., 1997; Verburg et al., 2002; Verbug et al., 2000; Fasona and Omojola, 2005). Land is becoming a

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