Effects of Coal Mining on Landuse/Landcover in Maiganga, Akko Local Government Area, Gombe State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the effects of coal mining on landuse/landcover in Maiganga, Akko Local Government
Area of Gombe State. Landuse/landcover status of the study area in 2007, 2011 and 2016 was acquired using
Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) of 2007with a 30 meter spatial resolution; Landsat ETM+ of
2011 with a 30 meter spatial resolution; Landsat 8 image of 2016 with spatial resolution of 28 meters which
were obtained from the United States Geological Survey website (February-September, 2016). The datasets
were geo-referenced to geographic coordinates. The images were imported into Erdas Imagine 9.2 environment
where they were rectified to a common projection (Universal Traverse Mercator). The mining site was subset
from each of the larger scenes in Erdas Imagine 9.2 software since the satellite images come in bands and cover
large areas. Supervised classification technique was performed using maximum likelihood classification (MLC)
algorithm. This technique enabled generation of training classes based on the actual landuse/landcover themes
present within the study area and helped in curtailing ambiguity associated with the unsupervised technique of
image classification. The result revealed that the dominant landuse type for the period under review (2007-2016)
is agricultural (64.65%). Though there is a steady but gradual decrease in percentage - 62.59% in 2011 and
60.52% in 2016. The study concluded that the gradual decrease in percentage is due to the conversion of
hitherto agricultural land to mining land and the expansion of settlements. It was recommended that the mining
activities should curtail the incidences of coal mine fires which pumps tons of smoke and other pollutants into
the atmosphere by providing firefighting equipment and personnel for prompt intervention.