Abstract
Areas covered by marshlands, highlands and plains were needed in each local government area (LGA) as the bases for allocating funds to the LGAs. In recognition of the fact that ground survey techniques are very labor intensive, consumes a lot of time and generally inconveniencing, a GIS technique was adopted. Satellite images of the state were sub divided along the LGA boundaries. Highlands were located visually and digitized into vector polygons, and then by using the polygon tool of the GIS, areas covered by the polygons were determined. The image classification routine was used to isolate marshlands. By going to the ‘Raster Tools…’ menu and specifying the ‘Display/Edit Raster Attributes’ tool, the areas covered by the marshlands were also determined. Areas covered by plains on the other hand were determined indirectly. The area covered by highlands (already computed) was subtracted from the total area of the LGA by using manual qualitative deduction. Since highlands and plains are mutually exclusive, the result of the subtraction is the area covered by plains. It was observed that LGAs with the highest percentage of marshlands are those which R.Benue pass through. It was also observed that marshlands were more plentiful on plains than on the highlands.
Highlights
In Nigeria there are three tiers of administrative units – the Federal, State and Local governments
The images were acquired from the National Centre for Remote Sensing (NCRS) Jos and they were in ERDAS format at the time of acquisition
The River Benue passes through about seven local government area (LGA), i.e. Fufore, Yola north, Yola-south, Girei, Demsa, Numan and Lamurde
Summary
In Nigeria there are three tiers of administrative units (i.e. governments) – the Federal, State and Local governments. The Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) uses three land cover classes as part of the indices for allocating revenue to states and local governments. The land cover classes include highlands, marshlands and plains. The bases for this choice of classes are not far fetched. The increasing trend of environmental degradation nationwide has made preservation of part of our environment an attractive policy. Development in such areas will be very challenging. For an effective and efficient policy on agriculture, the size and location of marshlands is imperative. Planning for the expansion of an existing city, town or even village, or establishing a completely new settlement must put into consideration the size and location of existing plains
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