Use of Remote Sensing Data to Detect Environmental Degradation in the Oil Rich Region of Southern Nigeria between 2003 and 2015

The oil spill management system aims to achieve a knowledge- based system which can choose the most suitable method of response in shorter time by analyzing the various sensitivity factors of coastal environment, affecting parameters on oil spill movement, environmental concerns in oil spill response, and consequent monitoring and clean-up measurements. The major advantage of this integration is the ability to extract oil spill parameters such as location, linear size and spill areas. Spatial and temporal information, i.e. oil spill distribution at the sea, its frequency and evolution in time allow the scientists to establish the major cause and source of oil spills, and then outline the risk areas. This study has demonstrated the application of GIS and remote sensing as a decision support tool for oil spill management. Its objectives are to perform image classification and accuracy assessment, to perform post classification change detection for oil spill detection and to perform trend of change analysis for oil spill growth trend. Methodology involves planning stage, data requirements, data acquisition, data processing and results presentation. The results indicated that the annual growth rate of water bodies is decreasing at -0.16% from 2003 to 2015, settlements decreased at a rate of -1.16% from 2003 to 2015 while Mangrove and vegetation decreased significantly at the rate of -2.82% and -1.92% respectively from 2003 to 2015, this is by far the most significant decrease in the study area, as oil spill degrades farmland and plantations there by rendering it useless for economical purposes, the results also indicated that degraded environment increased at a rate of 3.39% from 2003 to 2015. It was further recommended amongst others that further studies should be on oil spill management in Gokana L.G.A as this will provide additional information on how to manage the effects of oil spill in Gokana L.G.A.