Geospatial Analysis of Changes in Vegetation Cover over Nigeria

Vegetation cover over Nigeria has been on the decrease recently, hence the need for adequate monitoring using geo-information technology. This study examined the spatio-temporal variation of vegetation cover over Nigeria for thirty years with a view to developing a strategy for enhancing environmental sustainability. In order to predict the spatial extent of vegetation cover in 2030, the study utilised satellite images from between 1981 and 2010 using the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) coupled with cellular automata and Markov chain techniques in ArcGIS 10.3. The results showed that dense vegetal areas decreased in area from 358,534.2 km in 1981 to 207,812 km in 2010, while non-vegetal areas increased from 312,640.8 km in 1981 to 474,436.4 km in 2010 with a predicted increase to 501,504.9 km by 2030, i.e. an increase of about 27,068.4 km between 2010 and 2030. The study concluded that geoinformation techniques are effective in monitoring long-term intra- and inter-annual variability of vegetation and also useful in developing sustainable strategies for combating ecological hazards.