Analysis of Oil Pollution Intensity in Niger-delta, Nigeria Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

Abstract

There has been an increase in the level of oil spillage across the Niger Delta region of Nigeria since the advent of crude oil exploration. The effects of oil pollution cannot be overemphasized, as it is not only detrimental to human health but also to the ecosystem at large. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) are veritable tools in Environmental management. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was used as GIS and RS tools to determine the intensity of pollution caused by oil spillage in the Niger Delta area for the past decade (2010-2020). The land sat imageries of the study area were acquired and NDVI analyses were performed. Five NDVI types were used with the equation NDVI=(NIR-Red)/(NIR+Red). The total land mass covered was 109,582 sq.Km. The results showed that in 2010, Healthy Vegetation was 37,352 sq. Km, which was 34 percent of the total land mass. In 2015, Poor Health vegetation accounted for the highest land mass with a total of 41,976 sq. Km, while Moderate Health Vegetation had the lowest land mass of 12,830 sq.Km. In 2020, Poor Health Vegetation accounted for the highest land mass of 38,324 sq.Km representing 35 Percent of the total land mass while Increasing Vegetation had 13,452 sq.Km with 12 Percent making it the lowest NDVI type for the year.
 From the results, there was evidence showing of increased Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) negative values across the years in the study area. This was an indication of the high level of pollution.
 There is a need to mitigate oil spillage to its barest minimum in the study area.

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“…It covers approximately 7.5% of Nigeria's total land mass and is inhabited by over 25 million people across 186 Local Government Areas in nine southern states of Nigeria (Chinedu & Chukwuemeka, 2018). The region is one of the largest deltas in the world, covering an estimated land mass of 109,582 square kilometres (Brisibe, 2022). The Niger Delta is renowned for its rich biodiversity, including mangrove forests, which play a crucial role in the region's ecosystem (Nwobi et al, 2020;Nababa et al, 2020).…”