Spatial Variation Of Vegetation Cover In Ilaro Forest Reserve, Ipake Ogun State

Abstract

The study assessed the vegetation of Ilaro Forest Reserve through remote sensing approach for years, 2015, 2019 and 2022. Satellite images of the corresponding years were downloaded and analyzed to compute the Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) and to produce an NDVI map. The result showed that in 2015, there were four land covers which are; Builtup Areas, Shrubs and Grasslands, Sparse vegetation and Dense Vegetation while in 2019 and 2023, five land covers were observed which include Builtup Areas, Shrubs and Grasslands, Sparse vegetation, Dense vegetation and Barren Land. Furthermore, each of the land covers varied from 2015 through 2022. There was increase in barren land (0.01%), dense vegetation (0.72%) and sparse vegetation (5.35%) while builtup areas and shrubs and grasslands decreased by 0.08% and 5.99% respectively between 2015 and 2019. However, from 2019 to 2022, shrubs and grasslands decreased further by 3.66% while barren land, built-up areas, dense vegetation, and sparse vegetation increased by 0.02%, 0.06%, 0.03% and 3.53% respectively. The overall coverage of the land showed that from 2015 to 2022, there was a general increase in barren land (0.03%), dense vegetation (0.75%) and sparse vegetation (9.12%) while a decline in built-up areas (0.02%) and shrubs and grasslands were observed. The study showed that there was vegetation gain in the forest reserve due to reforestation project sponsored by the State government in 2017. The project impacted positively on the forest reserve and more of these projects should be encouraged by government.