Re mote Sensing and GIS offer quick and efficient approach to the classification and mapping of land use/land cover changes over space and time. Info rmation on changes in resource classes, direction, area and pattern of land use-land cover classes form the basis for future planning. Specifically, the land use/land cover types for the years 1986 and 2008 were studied and compared. The data products used in the study are Landsat TM imagery of 1986 and Nigeriasat-1 imagery of 2008. The data sets were put into Arcview GIS environ ment for geo-referencing and on-screen digitization of the needed layers. The land use-land cover layers for 1986 and 2008 were therefo re generated. The magnitude, trend and annual rate of change analysis were generated fro m the land use-land covers for the years-1986 and 2008. The annual rate of change was then used as the basis for the p rojection of the 2050 land use-land cover situation of the study area. The findings show that there was high rate o f land use-land cover change leading to decimat ion of sources of livelihood and resettlement of the people.

The study assessed the land use and land cover changes over Nigeria between 2001 and 2009 and predicted what the scenario will be till the year 2020 when Nigeria is planning to be among the top 20 strong economies of the world. The study used Combined Terra and Aqua MODIS land level 3/level 4 yearly tiled products, MCD12Q1-level

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Land degradation can be defined as land which due to natural processes or human activity is no longer able to sustain properly its economic function and/or its original natural ecological function. The implications of the land use-land cover change often lead to land degradation. This study used Landsat TM image of 1986 and Nigeriasat-1 image of 2008 to assess the degraded lands for the respective years in a section of Niger Delta, Nigeria. The data sets were analysed using Arcview software in the Geographic Information System environment. The results show the different types of land degradation, the area coverage of the degraded lands for the years and how the people of the study area were affected. Based on the findings, recommendations are made to stem and eventually curtail the degradation.

Th is study looked at the perception of the people of the Niger Delta on the issue of land use-land cover changes and degradation that has been reported by several scholars to be wide spread in the study area as a result of anthropogenic factors and climate change. As a result of this, the study therefore used questionnaire and personal observation to investigate what the people thought about the land use-land cover changes, degradation, its causes, implications and how they are coping with it . It was found out that degradation such as erosion, flooding, saline water intrusion, devegetation, toxicity, subsidence, badlands, oil spillage and oil pollution were prevalent in the area. It was also discovered that the people were highly vulnerable as a result of poor coping strategies to the degradation and little or no assistance fro m the concerned authorities and mult i nationals.