ISSN: 2578-4994
Authors: Opeyemi A*, Olabiyi C and Raphael O
The implications of climatic changes have devastating effects on biodiversity condition particularly nature-based tourism. In this study, spatio-temporal and vegetation changes in the study area were carried out. Climatic data from Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) for a period of 1975-2014 were analyzed. A 30 meter Landsat image of TM 1991, ETH+ 2002 and OLI 2015 were digitally processed using Arcgis10.3 and Fragstat 3.0. The result showed that rainfall and temperature pattern experience an upward trend with maximum rainfall observed in year 2010 (1692.500mm) and temperature (27.046°C). Furthermore, results showed that human activities resulted in 25.93% increase in built-up between the periods of 1991 and 2015 with a substantial loss (29.97%) of dense vegetation within the study area. In addition, Shannon Diversity Index (SHIDI) showed species diversity decrease of 0.54, 0.47 and 0.21 for year 1991, 2002 and 2015 respectively; NDVI analysis revealed a degraded vegetation with the epoch of the years assessed. The result revealed that changes in rainfall and temperature pattern negatively affected the luxuriant vegetation; uncultured human activities led to massive reduction in the quality of vegetation. The study concluded that climate change and vegetation removal has significant effect on the nature-based tourism and biodiversity conservation.
Keywords: Climate Change; Biodiversity; Tourism Development
