Time series analysis from 1984 to 2023 of Earth Observation Satellites data for evaluating changes in vegetation cover and health at flaring sites in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the most popular vegetation index used to clarify the difficulties of multi-spectral imagery, for example evaluation of vegetation.The data (11 Landsat 5 TM, 49 Landsat 7 ETM+, 27 Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS, and 15Landsat 9 OLI-TIRS)dated from 10/10/1984 to 17/12/2023 with < 3 % cloud cover wereused to study 11 flaring sites in Rivers State, Nigeria. Data processing and analysis were carried out using MATLAB codes. NDVI For Landsat 5 and Landsat 7, NDVI was determined from the atmospherically corrected multispectral bands (1-4) and for Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 are bands (2-5) in the N, E, S and W directions at distances 60 m, 90 m, 120 m and 240 m respectively from the flare. Generally, the results show that the NDVI at 60 m are the lowest. NDVI increases as distance increases to 90 m, 120 m and 240m from the flare for all the 11 sites. NDVI for all sites decreases as each year passes away however, Onne Flow Station gives an unsteady pattern for the years 1984 to 2007 before the flow station was built. The lowest mean NDVI (0.290) obtained from all the 11 sites is recorded at Umudioga 60 m East from the flare stack, followed by Obigbo with (0.300) at 60 m East from the flare. SD for each site is small with a range value (5.0786 ×10-5- 2.0689 × 10-4). Therefore, it can be concluded that Landsat sensors can be used to evaluate the changes in vegetation cover and its health at the flaring sites in the Niger Delta.

Keywords

• Time Series
• Evaluating
• Changes
• Vegetation Cover and Health
• Environmental Sciences

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