Spatial Assessment of Temperature, Rainfall and Land Cover Change as Climate Change Monitoring Techniques in Okigwe and Its Environs

Abstract

Climate change is an alarming global environmental change phenomena that is constituting a serious threat to natural, social, cultural, and human systems. Its associated risks require a wide range of policy responses and techniques at all levels from local to global. This study sought to evaluate the changes in climatic parameters over three decades as monitoring techniques in Okigwe, Imo State, Nigeria, based on evaluated land cover and temperature variation using Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 ETM+ satellite data of 1986, 2003, and 2020 respectively. Precipitation data from 1990-2020 of the study area was used to evaluate rainfall variation as climatic change parameters over three decades. Results of the geospatial analysis indicates that climate change has become a fallout from developmental activities taking place in Okigwe, which obviously is impacting on all facets of human activities thereby militating against sustainable development. Implicitly, changes in built-up areas or surfaces significantly produced a corresponding effect in escalating urban heat in the city. This study recommends the enforcement of dequate land use planning via adopting green city planning techniques in infrastructural development.