Understanding changes in a Tropical Delta: A multi-method narrative of landuse/landcover change in the Niger Delta

Increasing demand for land resources by a rapidly growing population, with fast urbanization and industrialization, has resulted in landuse changes all over the world. This study evaluates landuse models used in literature to explain environmental change against the drivers of landuse change, using Niger Delta of Nigeria as a case study. The remote sensing and social survey data were used to examine spatiotemporal change in landuse in the Delta. The landuse change detection analyses were carried out using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and classification methods. The results show severe deforestation, especially in Northwestern and Northeastern parts of the delta. This is evident from the mean NDVI, which decreases from 0.61 in 1987, to 0.55 in 2001, and decreases further to 0.48 in 2011. The majority of local people in Okomu, Tsekelewu, Eket and Oboolo perceived expansion in urban areas (95.54%, 87.34%, 93.12% and 88.54% respectively) and farmland (91.87%; 80.01%; 85.71% and 87.53% respectively), while forest decreased (98.40%; 87.70%; 86.70% and 90.26% respectively) over the last twenty-five years. The study concludes that the drivers of landuse change in the Niger Delta are complex, and that there is the need for proper implementation of forest policies and enforcement of the existing environmental laws as the best options to eradicate deforestation in the Niger Delta.