TEMPORAL MONITORING OF VEGETATION CHANGE

ABSTRACT

Forest reserves are areas of forest set aside by the government for the protection of trees that have already been planted or are now developing in order to preserve a specific type of environment and its often rare or endangered flora and wildlife. However, increased population and the associated anthropogenic activities are causing a decline in primary forest vegetation thus leading to degradation of these ecologically important reserves. In order to understand the temporal changes in these reserves this study was undertaken with the aim of providing a comparative assessment changes of the forest cover of Gilli Gilli Forest reserve over a period time (1991 -2022). Data were acquired from USGS (United State Geological Survey) website for NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) classification of Gili Gili forest reserve. Remote sensing data were acquired for 1991, 2002, 2013 and 2022 using Landsat 4-TM, Landsat 7-ETM+, Landsat 9-OLI/TIRS. Results of the study showed some variations over the years; healthy vegetation increased by 2.63% between 1991 and 2002 and shrub cover declined by 2.90%. Between 2002 and 2013, there was a 0.155% decrease in bare land, water bodies grew by 0.422%, healthy vegetation significantly increased, by 92.1%, and bare land decreased by 2.06%. Due to increasing urbanization and over population, demand of raw materials is continuously required as such to monitor the vegetation health status of the forest reserve, NDVI tool is a crucial monitoring tool that can aid relevant agencies responsible for the protection of these valuable forest reserves to help come up appropriate strategies to secure, conserve wildlife and effectively manage the reserves.