ASSESSMENT OF LANDUSE/LANDCOVER CHANGE AND FLORISTIC COMPOSITION OF KUWANKA BANZA FOREST RESERVE KEBBI STATE, NIGERIA

 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            x