Abstract
This study assessed the change in some environmental parameters in the Plateau region of North-Central Nigeria (Barakinladi, Jos, and Kafachan environs) using the nexus of landcover change, land surface temperature, surface albedo, and topography. The study employed both remote sensing and statistical techniques for the period between 1986 and 2014 to analyze the dynamics between and within these environmental variables. In Barakinladi, the built up landcover change is highest (increasing from 39.53% to 47.59% between 1986 and 2014); LST ranges from 19.09 °C to 38.59 °C in 1986 and from 22.68 °C and 41.68 °C in 2014; and the albedo ranges between 0.014 and 0.154 in 1986 and 0.017 and 0.248 in 2014. In Jos, the built-up landcover occupied 34.26% in 1986 and 36.67% in 2014; LST values range between 20.83 °C and 41.33 °C in 1986 and between 21.61 °C and 42.64 °C in 2014; and the albedo ranges between 0.003 and 0.211 in 1986 and 0.15 and 0.237 in 2014. In Kafachan area, the built up landcover occupied 32.95% in 1986 and 39.01% in 2014. Urbanization and agricultural activities, including animal grazing, were responsible for the gradual loss in vegetation and increasing average LST and albedo. The results also revealed that changing landcover and topography have a relationship with surface albedo and land surface temperature, thereby impacting significantly on ecosystem services delivered by the natural system.
Highlights
The world is currently experiencing an unprecedented, unanticipated, wave of environmental change.Unlike previous environmental changes, which were nature-induced and highly localized, the contemporary forms of environmental changes are universal and can be attributed to anthropogenic activities
The results revealed that changing landcover and topography have a relationship with surface albedo and land surface temperature, thereby impacting significantly on ecosystem services delivered by the natural system
It has depicted that surface albedo, Land Surface Temperature (LST), and topography differed between the years and within all the landcover types
Summary
The world is currently experiencing an unprecedented, unanticipated, wave of environmental change. In as much as LST and Land surface albedo play key roles in the energy balance of any system, they would, affect the systems’ ecosystem service delivery With this attached importance, especially in relation to the prominent roles these parameter plays in climate modeling, energy balance, and other environmental modeling studies, several successful attempts have been made, while numerous valid algorithms have been developed, to compute their values from remotely sensed data [11,21,22,23]. The region has in recent years been engulfed with debilitating violence attributed to the dwindling natural resources and land availability between the pastoralist settler group and the indigenous farmers [32] In spite of these events, few studies have been carried out to assess the nexus between changing climatic parameters (surface temperature and albedo), changing landcover, and the incidence of natural resource conflict in the region. This study assesses the nexus between Land Surface Temperature, Surface albedo, and Topography in relation to dwindling resources and ecosystem services as well as the spate of conflicts in the Plateau region of north-central Nigeria
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