Oil-spill disasters and the rural hazardscape of Eastern Nigeria

The objective of the paper is to investigate the links between the patterns of incidents, the amount of hazardous materials locally present and capability of local emergency preparedness in rural local government councils. Four states Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers State were used to examine the nature and pattern of oil-spill disasters in rural Nigeria. It is argued that oil-spill hazards are more than isolated engineering malfunctions. They can be alternatively understood as reflections of the social, economic and political contexts in which they occur. Discriminant analysis is used to examine the relationship between 71 country risk-related and preparedness variables and incident frequency. The findings illustrate the usefulness of contextual analysis in examining the restructuring of rural life and the capacity of fiscally and socially stressed rural communities to respond to environmental change.     

Empirical assessment of the role of geospatial technology in delivering governance and strengthening democracy in Nigeria

The paper examined the concept of development in line with the role of geospatial technology applications in governance and geospatial management in Nigeria. It also evaluates the previous efforts made by successive governments in managing governance process through geospatial technology initiatives using Lagos State as a proof-of-concept. It empirically demonstrates the role of monitoring spatial development initiatives using Landsat multi-dates satellite images 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 5005, 2010 and 2016 and Geographic Information System technique. The paper then identified, mapped and examined the settlement growth of Lagos using Ikorodu Division as an empirical proof-of-concept. The study reveals a geometric increase in uncoordinated human activities resulting from sporadic spatial development (builtup area) from 27.67 sq km (7.7%) in 1985–313.02 sq km (87.3%) spatial coverage in 2016. Based on the regression line, the study reveals a strong correlation between increasing settlement development and time. Low level of community involvement and lack of sense of ownership of development project initiatives in developing a local “vision” and strategy are identified as a problem. The paper re-emphasized that sustaining democratic processes as well as the fight against poverty will be won or lost mostly in the rural and less in the urban areas. The rural area is home to about 70% of the world’s poor due to lack or inadequate government services and basic amenities. The study suggest that making the future better for the yet unborn requires appreciable fundamental dataset, technologies, human resources and reliable government structures.     

Property and Difference in Nature Conservation

Social science research on nature conservation ascribes enclosures and the consequent evictions and dispossession of local people to unequal power relations. It reveals that the monopoly of power by the state configures new relations between local people and their natural resources, and legitimizes land grabbing. In this paper we build on this literature by engaging two questions. The first question relates to how land tenure regimes enable green grabbing and also configure the participation of local people in nature conservation enterprises. Knowing how land tenure regimes structure the involvement of local people in nature conservation is a necessary step toward an inquiry into the relationship between local people and protected areas. In the second question we ask how historical land tenure allocations enable current configurations of power relations in conservation areas. We use the case study of Mapungubwe on the Botswana‐South Africa‐Zimbabwe borderlands to demonstrate that historical land tenure allocations facilitate land alienation and the marginalization of local people in TFCAs.     

Surficial geophysical deduction of the geomaterial and aquifer distributions at Ngor-Okpala local government area of Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria

Twenty seven vertical electrical sounding (VES) profiles surrounding four known traverses were obtained in Ngor-Okpala local government area of Imo state to examine the subsurface geomaterials and the associated groundwater potential. The VES data, constrained by borehole data, provided useful information about the subsurface hydrogeologic and lithologic conditions. From the validated interpretation, the area assessed has loamy soil, medium grained sands, well-sorted medium-grained/gravelly sands and river sand as the lithologic succession from top to the bottom of the depth penetrated. The aquifers in the area were found in the medium-grained sands and well-sorted medium-coarse-grained sands. The aquifer depth for all-season groundwater that would be devoid of draw-down can be found at a depth range of 42–50 m. The resistivity maps of selected depths exhibit sharp resistivity changes at depth due mainly to undulating subsurface topography. A map of the distribution of the kσ-values shows that good quality groundwater can be found in most parts of the area.     

Investigating the implications of meteorological indicators of seasonal rainfall performance on maize yield in a rain-fed agricultural system: case study of Mt. Darwin District in Zimbabwe

The study focuses on the impacts of climate variability and change on maize yield in Mt. Darwin District. The rainfall and temperature data for the period under study that is from 1992 to 2012 were obtained from Meteorological Services Department of Zimbabwe at daily resolution while crop yield data were obtained from Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX) and Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) at seasonal/yearly resolution. In order to capture full rainfall seasons, a year was set to begin on 1 June and end on 31 July the next year. Yearly yield, temperature and rainfall data were used to compute time series analysis of rainfall, temperature and yield. The relationship between temperature, rainfall, quality of season (start, cessation, dry days, wet days and length) and yield was also investigated. The study also investigated the link between meteorological normal and maize yield. The study revealed that temperature is rising while rainfall is decreasing with time hence increasing risk of low maize yield in Mt. Darwin. Correlation between maize yield was higher using a non-linear (R ² = 0.630) than a linear regression model (R ² = 0.173). There was a very high correlation between maize yield and number of dry days (R = −0.905) as well as between maize yield and length of season (R = 0.777). We also observed a strong correlation between percentage normal rainfall and percentage normal maize yield (R ² = 0.753). This was also agreed between rainfall tessiles and maize yield tessiles as 50 % of the seasons had normal and above normal rainfall coinciding with normal and above normal maize yield. Of the 21 seasons considered, only one season had above normal rainfall while maize yield was below normal. The study concluded that there is a strong association between meteorological normal and maize yield in a rain-fed agricultural system. Climate information remains crucial to agricultural productivity hence the need to train farmers to access the information and use it for the benefit of their activities.

     

Territorial conflicts and urbanization in Yenagoa, Nigeria

The paper examines why Yenagoa, the major town and headquarter of Bayelsa State in Nigeria, is experiencing territorial problems, including boundary disputes, which do not exist in larger, fast growing urban areas in Nigeria (such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Ibadan). For the purpose of data collection, Yenagoa is divided into 14 zones. A questionnaire survey sought to discover the pattern of interzonal relocation and space preference of residents. An index of environmental deterioration was devised through a measure of the total number, length and width of the stream channels, drainage density, area subject to flood pondage and percentage dry land available for urban expansion in each zone.Using correlation technique to relate environmental quality with relocation and space preference, the resultant indices show two sets of relationships: that there is a direct association between degree of environmental deterioration and desire to relocate, and that the degree of environmental stability of a zone is directly related to its relative attractiveness. Based on these cause–effect relationships, it is argued that Yenagoa has exceeded its carrying capacity. Consequently, there is a fusion of Yenagoa with its neighbouring zones who are resisting the territorial expansion of Yenagoa engineered by the urbanization process. The paper suggests urgent reclamation of flood prone areas in Yenagoa.     

Assessment of Blast-Induced Ground Vibration at Jinduicheng Molybdenum Open Pit Mine

Natural Resources Research - Ground vibration generated from blasting activities is a major problem in mine open-pit slopes and nearby properties, and it can endanger the inhabitants in the...     

Maize yield forecasting for Zimbabwe farming sectors using satellite rainfall estimates

Southern Africa rainfall station network is suffering from an unfortunate serious decline while climate-related food insecurity is worsening. In the current work, we demonstrate the possibility of exploiting the complementary roles that remote sensing, modeling, and geospatial data analysis can play in forecasting maize yield using data for the growing seasons from 1996/1997 to 2003/2004. Satellite-derived point-specific rainfall estimates were input into a crop water balance model to calculate the Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (WRSI). When these WRSI values were regressed with historical yield data, the results showed that relatively high skill yield forecasts can be made even when the crops are at their early stages of growth and in areas with sparse or without any ground rainfall measurements. Inferences about the yield at national level and small-scale commercial farming sector (SSCF) sector can be made at confidence levels above 99% from the second dekad of February. However, the most unstable models are those for the communal farming sectors whose inferences for yield forecast can only be made above the 95% confidence level from the end of February, after having recovered from a state of complete breakdown two dekads earlier. The large-scale commercial farming (LSCF) sector has generally the weakest fitting, but it is usable from the first dekad of February to the end of the rainy season. Validation of the national yield models using independent data set shows that an early estimation of maize yield is quite feasible by the use of the WRSI.     

Sources of Labrador Sea sediments since the last glacial maximum inferred from Nd-Pb isotopes

Pb isotopes have been measured in the clay-size fraction of Late Glacial and Holocene deep-sea sediments recovered from two Labrador Sea piston cores that have been previously analyzed for Nd isotopes. The newly acquired Pb isotopic data allow us to better constrain the different source areas that supplied clay-size material during the last deglaciation, until 8.6 kyr (calendar ages). Nd-Pb data can be modeled mainly as a mixture between a Precambrian crust and Lower Paleozoic material originating from the denudation of the pan-African orogen. The old material originates mainly from the Archean, Lower Proterozoic, or both terranes of Greenland (and also probably corresponding terranes of Labrador), although minor input of other Precambrian material is recorded in some detrital carbonate-rich deglacial samples from Orphan Knoll. The Phanerozoic crustal end member consists of sediment material mainly originating from northwestern Europe. This source area is found to be the only significant source of young crustal material in early Holocene sediments from the Greenland Rise. No significant input from the mid-Atlantic volcanism is apparent. This study puts further constraints on the deep circulation pattern during the last deglaciation. It is concluded that at that time, European Phanerozoic material was carried from the Norwegian Sea through the Wyville Thompson Ridge into the Iceland Basin by the North East Atlantic Deep Water. No evidence for an overflow is found either south of the Iceland (Iceland-Scotland Ridge) or through the Denmark Strait.     

Consequences of rural industrialisation: the case of the National Fertiliser Company of Nigeria (NAFCON)

This paper attempts a comparative analysis of the economic and noneconomic damages of rural industrialisation to the environment of poor communities in a developing country. It is argued that certain dimensions of damage are concealed by the fact that people are poor and are consequently more concerned with survival than with the less tangible aspects of the environment. The major finding of this paper is that rural industrialisation is more directly and strongly associated with environmental disamenities than with economic loss. A policy implication of this is that the package of rural industrialisation strategy in developing nations must transcend conventional compensation schemes. It is argued that planning for the internalisation of the negative externalities of rural industries must go beyond articulating measures to compensate for various forms of actual and/or potential loss of output suffered by local residents. The package must include programmes to provide for alternative sources of water, say, and an adequate health care delivery, where the disamenities caused are in the forms of polluting natural sources of water supply and/or increasing health hazards. The paper opines that it owes a responsibility to raise an alarm on behalf of the rural people, before damages caused by certain industries reach irreversible magnitudes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.