Spatio-Temporal Assessment Of Vegetation Cover Changes In Selected Agricultural Areas Of Ahaba Imenyi, Isuikwuato Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria (2000–2025)

Publication Details

Publication Date

10/11/2026

Volume / Issue

Vol 1, Issue 6 (2026)

Article No.

097

Journal

British Journal of Contemporary Research

DOI

https://doi.org/10.67693/BJCR-XZ6WEYAZ

Received

31 Oct 2026

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29

Downloads

13

Abstract

This study assessed spatio-temporal changes in vegetation cover and their implications for agricultural land affected by gully erosion in Ahaba Imenyi, Isuikwuato Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria, between 2000 and 2025. Geographic information systems (GIS) and remotely sensed imagery were used to examine Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) patterns for the two observation years. The reported analysis involved NDVI raster differencing, threshold-based reclassification of vegetated/agricultural land using NDVI ≥ 0.15, zonal statistics within site polygons and computation of area change in ArcGIS 10.8. The mapped results describe a greater presence of low-NDVI areas in parts of the southern and southwestern study area in 2025 than in 2000. Quantitative values reported for three locations indicate reductions in the mapped vegetated/agricultural area: Amiyi Ahaba decreased from 839,713 m² to 587,419 m² (30.0%); Ihie Ahaba decreased from 685,927 m² to 495,183 m² (27.8%); and Ahaba Ehuma decreased from 233,217 m² to 171,839 m² (26.3%). These results indicate a decline in NDVI-defined vegetated area at the three reported locations. The spatial correspondence between these changes and areas described as affected by gully erosion suggests an association between erosion-affected terrain and vegetation loss. However, NDVI change alone does not prove that gully erosion caused all observed vegetation changes. The study provides geospatial evidence relevant to agricultural land monitoring and identifies the need for field-based erosion measurements and validated land-cover classification in future work.

License

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Free to read, share, and adapt with attribution.