Effect of Cloud Cover on Land Use Land Cover dynamics using Remotely Sensed Data of Western Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

The effect of cloud cover on land use land cover (LULC) changes in the tropical region of Western Niger Delta was investigated. Landsat images of more than 1½ decades (2002-2019) of path 189 row 056 with bands 1-5 were used for the analysis. Supervised classification was applied to obtain the LULC statistics. Cloud cover for 2002, 2014 and 2019 were 0.48%, 0% and 32% respectively. The extracted statistics shows that cultivation, built-up area, exposed soil, secondary regrowth and water body increased between 2002 and 2014. These LULC except oil spills decreased between 2014 and 2019. These LULC were expected to record further increment between 2014 and 2019 due to increase in population. Dense forest and light forest maintained a decrease over the entire period. The real values were affected by cloud appearing as noise in 2019 image, which is a problem in a damp and humid climate. Climate change could be another reason because the data were acquired in the dry season. The satellite image of 2019 may not be used for accurate land mapping due to the high value of cloud cover. This has shown the effect of dynamic nature of climate in the region and the importance of supervised classification in the analysis of satellite images.