INTEGRATING REMOTE'SENSING AND GIS TECHNIQUE FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF CONFLICTS OVER ENVIRONMENT AL RESOURCES A CASE STUDY OF KADUNA SOUTH L.G.A

Abstract

con9ict is an inevitable phenomena In life. While, there is constructiv~ conflict, we also experienced the violent type of conflict, which disrupt and : destroy environment, life and properties. Our quest here is to find out the 'type of conflict that is prevalent in our today's. world. Therefore this study diagnosed resources conflict in Kaduna South Local Government Area in kaduna. Remote Sensing technique was employed to acquire . boundary data,. industrial resource data, land and population estimate data, in order to establish the contradictory relationship between them that led to tension and conflict in the area. To obtained the above mentioned, data for Kaduna South, a lpultitemporal and multispectoral spot XS imageries for 1980 and 1990 with scale of 1 :78000 and aerial photo for 1962, 1977 and 1991 with "Scale of 1: 10,000 1 :6000 and 1: 10,000 well obtained. The classification for the spot XS image was divided into industrial sources of employment. Settlements in the study area, settlements based on tribe and settlements based on religion. The aerial photo only presented the land use per hectre, which we later compare with population of the area. The study shows a clear increase in population without an increase. in hectre · of land commensurate with the increase in population, thus making control of the land in the area become politically important leading to conflict and uncertainty as to who will control the area. Most of the industries are located in this are therefore, interest of the government and the poor seeking for means of survival will be towards that area. Therefore, people will be seeking to control by all means which will lead to conflicts and uprising in the area and the State in general. The time series analysis reveal that 58.76% was the population change 1963 - 1981. This is big enough to create problem, if the government did not plan against the increase. As the case may be in Nigeria this increase has not been taken care of, therefore a signal to the emergence of conflict due to resource distribution uncertainties by the government. While still within the period 198 t - 1991 exactly 10 years the percentage increase in population is 29%. A great pressure will be on the environmental resources, especially lands and. other resources, if is 'not adequate for the population then conflict is eminent. The Total variation in population as explained by the time series analysis indicated that 83% of the population is explained by time. Therefore, the growth in population is not in consonant with provision of employment. From the statistical analysis we were able to establish an interdependent relationships between population density and land distribution per hectre of the study area, at 95% level of significance. We' then concluded that population increase is independent of land distribution, which means an increase in population has said earlier spell doom for the study area. Therefore, we can then concludes that Remote Sensing and GIS techniques/gives policy makers ready made instrument for potential conflict areas rather than being use as direct conflict resolution instrument, it help in gathering analyzing, simplifying and manipulating bulk or spatial data for immediate use or application in conflict resolution in the field or policy malting task, in various offices, Ministries, Institution or Government.