Deductive and Multi-criteria Approach to Ecosystem Modeling and Habitat Mapping of Shea Butter Trees (Vitellaria Paradoxa) in the Tropical Savanna

An ecosystem map for 14 local administrative units of Kwara state North Central Nigeria and Vitellaria paradoxa habitat in the broad Savanna region was produced using multi criteria and integrated GIS models as against the traditional single layer thematic approach. The criteria used in classifying and mapping the ecosystems are: climate (rainfall and temperature), physiography (slope, relief), vegetation/land cover and drainage system. The climate layer was extracted from WorldClim database using DIVA GIS, the topographic layer was produced from 90 m NASA/SRTM digital elevation model. NDVI was run on composite images to produce vegetation layers.All the inputdata layers were spatially modeled in ArcGIS to generate the 7 classes of ecosystems. The Georefrenced trees sample points from field survey was overlaid on classified images to producedistribution pattern of Vitellaria paradoxa and its habitat in Savanna wood land ecosystems.