TITLE:
A Preliminary Assessment of the Effects of Climate Variability on Agulu Lake, Anambra State, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Chukwudi P. Nzoiwu, Emma E. Ezenwaji, Anthony C. Okoye
KEYWORDS:
Climate, Lake, Variability, Mapper, Evaporation
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Climate Change,
Vol.6 No.4,
December
28,
2017
ABSTRACT: The paper assessed the effect of variability of climatic elements on Agulu lake, Anambra State, Nigeria. Data for the work were acquired from Landsat website (landsat.org) for 35 years. Monthly records of the elements were collected from the synoptic meteorological station at Amawbia in Awka urban area. The penman model was used in the estimation of open water vapour from the lake. The analysis was performed using the output of the classified satellite imagery which was digitized for the entire year and the area of the lake was calculated for all the years of study. Statistical analysis of satellite imagery was further employed to analyse trends and relationships. Result shows that the trend is positive and significant at 95% confidence level. Fluctuations in the value of temperature and other variables were removed by 5-year moving average. The Agulu lake surface area was found to have contracted from 0.6177 km2 in 1978 to 0.3583 km2 in 2013. Recommendations on how to ameliorate the problem were made.