Spatial Assessment of Temperature, Rainfall and Land Cover Change as Climate Change Monitoring Techniques in Okigwe and Its Environs

Abstract

Climate change is an alarming global environmental change phenomena that is constituting a serious threat to natural, social, cultural, and human systems. Its associated risks require a wide range of policy responses and techniques at all levels from local to global. This study sought to evaluate the changes in climatic parameters over three decades as monitoring techniques in Okigwe, Imo State, Nigeria, based on evaluated land cover and temperature variation using Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 ETM+ satellite data of 1986, 2003, and 2020 respectively. Precipitation data from 1990-2020 of the study area was used to evaluate rainfall variation as climatic change parameters over three decades. Results of the geospatial analysis indicates that climate change has become a fallout from developmental activities taking place in Okigwe, which obviously is impacting on all facets of human activities thereby militating against sustainable development. Implicitly, changes in built-up areas or surfaces significantly produced a corresponding effect in escalating urban heat in the city. This study recommends the enforcement of dequate land use planning via adopting green city planning techniques in infrastructural development.

Nutrient Assessment of Rain-Fed Lowland and Upland Rice Production Systems in Okigwe, South-Eastern Nigeria

“…The study area is Okigwe in southeastern Nigeria. Geographically, it is located between latitudes 5.819283 and longitudes 7.340854 (Iwuji et al, 2022). The study area occupies a landmass of about 360 km 2 (NBS, 2006).…”

Effects of Climatic Variations and Changing Land Use/Land Cover on Flooding in Southern Nigeria

“…Some of the natural causes include excessive precipitation (MacLeod et al, 2021;Umar and Gray, 2023;Agbonkhese et al, 2014); nature of soil, its maximum moisture retention level (Tramblay et al, 2021); extreme weather conditions (Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, 2020); and ocean surge/overflow of rivers (Nkwunonwo et al, 2020;Komolafe et al, 2015). The anthropogenic causes of flooding include uncontrolled urbanization (Ulor et al, 2022), construction on natural drainage pathways (Ogbonna et al, 2023;Njoku et al, 2010), poor physical infrastructure like collapsed storm drainage systems (Ogbonna et al, 2023), poor management of dams (Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, 2020), ineffective land use management (Ogbonna et al, 2023;Adegboyega et al, 2018), deficient urban waste management (Nkwunonwo et al, 2020, Njoku et al, 2010, and ineffective environmental planning (Umar and Gray, 2023).…”

“…Urban and peri-urban landscapes are frequently under pressure from anthropogenic and natural forces (Njoku et al, 2010;Ulor et al, 2022). Anthropogenic activities often manifest in land use and land cover changes; altering natural ecological balance, and sometimes activating latent natural disasters.…”