Isaac Scientific Publishing

Ecology and Sustainable Development

Assessment of Climate Variability in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Download PDF (2930 KB) PP. 7 - 22 Pub. Date: May 31, 2020

DOI: 10.22606/esd.2020.32001

Author(s)

  • Kemela Barakumo*
    Department of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (PRS), African Regional Institute for Geospatial Information Science and Technology (AFRIGIST) formerly RECTAS, Nigeria
  • Phoebe Atafo
    Department of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (PRS), African Regional Institute for Geospatial Information Science and Technology (AFRIGIST) formerly RECTAS, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the variability of climate over the Niger Delta Region (NDR) focusing on the indicators of land use/land cover, land surface temperature (LST) and rainfall. Previous climate studies covered parts of the NDR; states and local areas, and these studies only quantified the amount of rainfall or air temperature separately. Hence, this study used a holistic approach. Rainfall and remotely sensed Landsat imageries (TM, ETM+ and OLI) for the period (1986-2018) were acquired and analyzed for land use/cover and obtained 97.6%, 98.8% and 99.8% accuracies landuse/cover for 1986, 2001 and 2017 respectively; 27 °C, 29 °C and 31°C was obtained as fluxes in surface temperature for 1986, 2001 and 2017 respectively. Results for rainfall variability from the interpolated maps showed a general trend for the study period. First, it was found that rainfall in terms of amount varied and increased within the study period (1985-2014) across the NDR. To further validate the variability of rainfall, the Annual Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI) was further calculated and analyzed for frequency and intensity of the dry and rainy years in the study area and found that the area within the period of study recorded more positive anomaly (rainy years) than negative anomaly (dry years). It was established also in this study that there is a relationship between different land use/land cover categories, LST and rainfall. This was found in the correlation analysis results obtained amongst the three indicators, built up area had strong positive correlation with those of rainfall and temperature (0.78 and 0.75 %) respectively. See figure 20 and 21.

Keywords

Rainfall, temperature, land-use, land-cover, anomaly-index

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