Regional Mapping of Land Surface Temperature (LST), Land Surface Emissivity (LSE) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of South-South Coastal Settlements of Rivers State in Nigeria

This study is the regional mapping of Land Surface temperature (LST), Land Surface Emissivity (LSE), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of south-south coastal settlements of Rivers State in Nigeria. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) of satellite remote sensing origin was used in the study. It was observed that land surface area of the south-south coastal settlements of the region hosting a total population of 3,344,706 persons had undergone severe modification and alteration of vegetal cover by increased human activities, especially in the central area. Emissivity in the region increased from the center to the rural settlements, with values ranging 0.98 to 0.99 and difference of 0.01 indicated, that there was increased modification of the regional land surface. Land surface temperature decreased from the regional center to the rural settlements ranging between 22.12 ºC to 35.99 ºC with a difference of 13.87 ºC. However, LST was scattered in different settlement spots, especially in the northern region such as Aleto, Finema (south); Rumuolu, Odogwa, Abara, Umuechem, Rumuola, Ambroda (north), among others. The normalized vegetation index showed -0.54358 to 0.409327, having the difference of 0.952907 indicating greater variation in vegetal cover across the region. Thus, NDVI in the region increased from the regional center to the outskirts of the area. Urbanization in the south-south region of Rivers State had extended severely to the rural settlements. Therefore, it is recommended that policy makers and regional planners should protect the area from adverse vegetal lost and heat effects by implementing regional greening practices.