ABSTRACT
This research on assessment of land use/land cover change and floristic composition of Kuwanka Banza Forest Reserve in Kebbi State was carried out to determine percentage change and extent of forest cover of the Reserve area between 1984 and 2013, the current land uses in the forest area as well as the distribution and abundance of woody species. Remote sensing techniques were used in this study, where 1984 and 2013 landsat imagries were processed and analyzed within the Idrissi and ArcGIS environments. With maximum likelihood supervised classification method preceded by unsupervised classification and ground truthing, eight classes of land use type namely rocky/bare surface, sparse grassland, dense grassland, fallow/cultivation, scrubs land, shrub land, forest and water were determined at 91% degree of classification accuracy. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the changes between both dates. Results showed that between 1984 and 2013 rocky/bare surface expanded by 66%, sparse grassland decreased by 4%, dense grassland expanded by 11%, fallow cultivation expanded by 15%, scrub land reduced by 81% between 1984 and 2013, shrub land also reduced by 60% from 1984 to 2013, forest increased by 86% from 1984 to 2013 and water increased to 26%. Four sample plots each measuring 100x100m were randomly selected within the forest reserve and woody species found were enumerated by Point Centered Quarter Method (PCQ). A total of 331 woody species were encountered in the Reserve, belonging to twenty species, genera and 11 families. Caesalpiniaceae family had the highest number of five species in five genera, followed by combretaceae with three species belonging to three different genera. Families Sterculiaceae, Annonaceae, Sapotaceae, Mimosaceae, Meliaceae, Aselepiadeceae and Eblepiadeceae had one species each, while family Fabaceae had three species of Prosopis. Detarium microcarpium had the highest relative density and dominance of 19% and 21.49%, followed by Terminalia avicenoides with 18% an 20% respectively and the least was Lannea acida having 0.6% and 0.7% respectively. Shannon’s diversity index was 2.41, species evenness (EH) stood at 0.12, and species richness (d) was 1.09. The study concluded that the area will continue to undergo forest degradation in the face of human activities without effective forest management. Public enlightenment, tree planting, establishment of cattle grazing and employment of more forest guards for improved forest management are recommended
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title page i
Dedication ii
Certification iii
Acknowledgments iv
Table of contents v
List of table viii
List of figures x
Abstract ix
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of Problem 2
1.3 Justification of the Study 3
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study 3
1.5 Scope of the Study 4
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1 Concept of GIS and Remote Sensing 5
2.2 GIS and Remote Sensing in Vegetation Change Analysis 6
2.3 Forest Reserves in Nigeria 10
2.4 Changes in Vegetation 10
2.5 Causes of Change in Vegetation 10
vi 2.6 Role of Forest Reserve in Economic Development 11
2.7 Deforestation 12
2.8 Habitat Destruction 13
CHAPTER THREE 3.0 MATERIALS AND METHOD 14
3.1 Study Area 14
3.1.2 Climate 14
3.1.3 Vegetation 15
3.2 Assessment of Land Use/Land Cover Change 15
3.2.1 Current Land Uses in the Forest Reserve 15
3.2.2 Percentage Change and Extent of Forest Cover in the Reserve from 1984-2013 16
3.2.2.1 Unsupervised Classification 17
3.2.2.2 Ground Truth Test 18
3.2.2.3 Supervised Classification 19
3.2.2.4 Classification Accuracy Assessment 19
3.2.2.5 Forest Change Assessment 19
3.2.3 Floristic Composition of Kuwanka Banza Forest Reserve 20
3.3.2.1 Woody species composition and dominance 20
3.2.3 Floristic Composition of Kuwanka Banza Forest Reserve 20
3.2.3.1 Woody species composition and dominance 20
3.2.3.2 Species relative density (RD) for each woody species 20
3.2.3.3 Species relative dominance was calculated using 20
3.2.3.4 Species diversity index was calculated using shanon wiener diversity index. 21
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 RESULTS 22
4.1. Land Use /Land Cover Change 22
4.2 Floristic Composition of Kuwanka Banza Forest Reserve 25
4.2.1 Woody Species Composition 25
4.1.2 Woody Species Relative Density and Relative Dominance 26
4.1.3 Shannon Index (H) of Density 27
4.1.4 Other Indices 28
4.1.5 Species Frequency and percentage (%) 29
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 DISCUSSION 33
5.1 Land Use/Land Cover Change 33
CHAPTER SIX
6.0 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 40
6.1 Summary 40
6.2 Conclusions 41
6.3 Recommendations 41
REFERENCES 43
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Error Matrix: (Colums: truth) against 2013 (rows: mapped) 23
Table 2: Percentage Change Detection in land use/land cover 23
Table 3 Woody species composition found at Kuwanka Banza Forest Reserve 26
Table 4 Woody Species relative density and relative dominance 27
Table 5 Shannon index (H) value table 28
Table 6 species evenness richness and Shannon’s Maximum diversity index 28
Table 7 Woody Species frequency and percentage 29
Table 8 Diameter at breast height (DBH) and Total No. of woody species 31
Table 9 Distance of woody species from the Center Point (DCP) and their Height (TH) 32
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig 1: Band 1 16
Fig 2: Band 2 16
Fig 3: Band 3 16
Fig 4: Band 4 16
Fig 5 Band 5 17
Fig 6: Band 7 17
Fig 7: Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) 17
Fig 8: Unsupervised Classification 18
Figure 9: Ground Control Points GCPS of the Study Area 19
Fig. 10: Land use Land cover classes of 1984 22
Fig. 11: Land use Land cover classes of 2013 22
Figure 12: Post Image Classification Comparison 24
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