Abstract

Studies on land use changes have shown that human activities inevitably result in medium to large scale changes in the ecosystem. These changes can be examined and monitored both in the short or long term using remote sensing data and the right analytical computer packages. Researchers have in the past focused on the land use changes over the years. However, few studies are available on the identification of causative factors to land use changes. Several change actors are responsible for changes in land cover or vegetal cover of an area. Some of these actors may be localized and intensive while others may be global but extensive. The study examined the change actors responsible for major vegetal cover change, in the short run analysis within the Niger Delta region using satellite remote sensing data. The study utilized two-date Landsat satellite images of parts of Niger Delta and other auxiliary data on oil activities to examine the main change actors for the change in vegetation quality. The result showed that settlement development and other similar anthropogenic activities were responsible for major changes in the vegetation cover within the study area. This is contrary to the claims from different quarters that the oil majors are largely responsible for the environmental degradations in the Niger Delta.  Oil activities have low correlation (0.38) relationship with the vegetation loss while human settlement developments have high correlation (0.762) with the vegetation loss in the project area. The paper advanced that vegetal changes in the Niger Delta are largely resultant effects of different anthropogenic activities in the informal sector than from the multinationals oil activities.

Key words: Human activities, land use, vegetation quality, change analysis, NDVI, Niger delta.