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@article{207509,
        author = {Nmehielle Felix and Jackson K P and Eke  S},
        title = {Geospatial Identification of Sand Mining Sites and Assessment of Land Cover Change Along the New Calabar River, Rivers State, Nigeria (1986–2022)},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {3},
        pages = {2130-2138},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=207509},
        abstract = {Sand mining along Nigeria's riverine systems continues to expand in response to rising construction demand, yet the spatial footprint of extraction and its cumulative effect on land cover are rarely quantified at the local channel scale. This paper draws on a broader dissertation study of anthropogenic change along the New Calabar River to address two of its objectives: (i) identifying and mapping the locations of sand mining activity along the river channel from Omuechi in Ikwerre Local Government Area (LGA) through Iwofe in Obio-Akpor LGA, and (ii) analysing the extent of land cover change across the same corridor as a consequence of that mining. Ground positions of active mining locations were captured with handheld GPS and mapped in a GIS environment, while Landsat TM imagery (30 m resolution) for 1986, 2006 and 2022 was geo-referenced and classified using a supervised maximum likelihood classifier to derive six land cover classes. The spatial mapping showed a marked concentration of mining sites in the northern reach of the study corridor, with the swampier and less accessible southern reach far less affected. Land cover analysis showed primary forest falling from 61.2% of the study area in 1986 to 16.2% by 2022, while built-up area rose from 10.1% to 49.6% over the same period, with the sharpest transitions recorded within a 1000 m buffer of active mining points. The findings confirm that sand mining is a measurable driver of forest loss and urban encroachment along the New Calabar River and support the case for zoned mining licences, buffer protection and routine remote-sensing based monitoring.},
        keywords = {sand mining; land cover change; GIS; remote sensing; New Calabar River; Niger Delta},
        month = {August},
        }