Abstract
Urban wetlands make cities livable in many important ways. They reduce flooding, replenish drinking water, filter waste, provide urban green spaces, and are a source of livelihoods in most urban areas. This study aims to geo-spatially analyze urban wetland loss in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area (LGA), Rivers State, Nigeria. The study analyses land use /land cover changes (LULC) using Landsat7 UTM images of 2000, 2009 and 2018. The satellite images covering the area were acquired and analyzed using ArcGIS10.6. A total area of 25,773.39 sq km was delineated in the study area. After processing the imagery, five LULC classes where developed in ArcGIS environment, such as wetland, built-up area, vegetation, water bodies and bare surface. The study shows that the urban land-use of Obio-Akpor LGA had changed dramatically during the period of 18 years. In 2000, wetlands occupied the second-lowest classes with 9.12% (2352.15 sq.km) of the total classes due to high level of urban development in the area while built-up areas occupied the third-highest classes with 17.62% (4543.83 sq.km) of the total classes. In 2009, the study revealed that the built-up area (urban land use) rose to 19.3% (4975.11 sq.km) and maintained an increase in urban growth due to changes from constructions of many roads and houses while wetlands also surprisingly experienced an increase and occupied the third-highest classes with 19.17% (4942.26 sq.km). Evidence from the study show that 2018 witnessed an expansion in terms of developmental activities in all facets as the built-up area increased in three-fold size within the year, bare surface reduced to a class of 15.47% (4057.29 sq.km) forcing developers to develop towards the wetland ecosystem. The wetlands, therefore, experienced a sharp decline to 4.91% (1266.75 sq.km) due to rapid conversion of wetlands for housing development and excessive urban sprawl and its associated problems of inefficient use of land, urban space and the development of shanty towns/slums. The study concluded that there is a need for the wise use of wetland resources and improvement of institutional arrangement so that wetland policies can be fully integrated into the planning process across all disciplines.