Spatio-temporal Analysis of Wetland Ecology of Ijebu-ode, Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Wetlands are critical habitats providing fish and other wildlife resources in support of the country’s economy. In the context of climate change, it is feared that these ecosystems are faced with enormous threat from possible impacts of anthropogenic activities that may result in widespread loss of these habitats. Land use changes around wetlands increase the impacts of climate change on these ecosystems and may be disastrous for the welfare of wetland communities due to its potential impacts on property, water and food security. Remotely sensed imageries obtained from National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Abuja was used for this study. The first is a SPOT-MS of 1984, while the second is also a SPOT- MS of 2007, thereby covering 23 years. The method of supervised classification was adopted for the classification of land-use within the area. Thereafter, ground-truthing exercise was carried out to verify and ensure that the land use was appropriately classified. The projection used for the image registration and final map production was Universal Transverse Marcator (UTM), zone 31.

The paper observed that the wetland in Ijebu ode had witnessed tremendous change due to infilling of wetland, loss of biodiversity, alien invasion and pollution of wetland areas. Thus, it was posited that in order to enjoy the ecological services performed by wetlands, impact of anthropogenic activities should be managed sustainably.