Geospatial Analysis of Coastal Land Use/Land cover Pattern and Shoreline Changes in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

The shoreline is one of the most important features on earth’s surface. They are highly dynamic and ever changing. Changes are over time scales including minutes, hours, decades and centuries. Spatial scales vary from local to regional to worldwide. Although change is continuously occurring, it doesn’t occur In a constant manner. Many factors influence these changes including shoreline (rocky, sandy, wave activity, tidal variations, storms and human impacts. The shoreline change study is necessary for updating the shoreline change maps and management of natural resources. Shorelines are the key element in coastal GIS and provide the most information on coastal landforms dynamics. The frequent monitoring of coasts is only to access variation of shoreline changes. This study investigates the shoreline changes of Akwa Ibom in Nigeria for three different years 1990, 2000 and 2016, changes that occur in the land use land cover of the area and landforms around the coast. The rate of shoreline change was assessed using Ldsinear Regression (LRR) and End Point Rate (EPR) methods. Landsat imageries for the three years were acquired and processed using ArcGIS software by digitizing the shoreline of the coast to determine the the changes that occurred in the year under review, maximum likelihood classification was done to classify the study area into different land use/land cover in order to detect the changes that had also occurred. The shoreline change detection was conducted using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). Based on this result, it was concluded that the shoreline is eroding at-19.03m/yr and accreting at 15m/yr.