APPLICATION OF GIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

฀PPLIC฀TION OF GIS IN ENVIROMENT฀L M฀N฀GEMENT:
฀ C฀SE STUDY OF P฀RT OF MOWE TOWN, IFO LOC฀L GOVERNMENT ฀RE฀,
OGUN ST฀TE.
By
KOL฀WOLE, ฀. O. (SURV.) abitopus@gmail.com
฀ept. of Surveying & Geo-Informatics, Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, P.M.B. 50, Ilaro, Ogun State
OYEB฀NJI S. TOMIW฀ (oyebanjitomiwa@yahoo.com)
฀ept. of Surveying & Geo-Informatics, Federal School of Surveying, P.M.B. 1024, Oyo, Oyo State.
OL฀OSEGB฀ SOLIHU OL฀LEK฀N (mailtolekan@yahoo.com)
฀ept. of Surveying & Geo-Informatics, Federal School of Surveying, P.M.B. 1024, Oyo, Oyo State.
ILES฀NMI OLUW฀TOSIN (tosynhill@yahoo.com)
฀epartment of Geo-Informatics, Federal School of Surveying, P.M.B. 1024, Oyo, Oyo State.
1.0 ฀BSTR฀CT
฀his paper is focused on the use of GIS as a tool for accessing and determining various
environmental challenges with an attempt to enhance viable decision making processes to
manage the development of part of Mowe town, Ogun State. ฀he data used were the satellite
imagery covering the site (raster) and coordinates from ground ฀ruthing (geometric data) and
attribute data obtained through social survey. ฀he methodology entailed database design and
physical design, database implementation and geospatial analysis by employing the capability
AutoCAD and Arc view GIS 3.2a software. Different queries were generated to demonstrate the
software capabilities and the relevance of GIS tools as a system in environmental management.
Output generated can be used to enhance decision making processes towards realization of a
sustainable environment and other future developments.
฀EYWORD: Satellite imagery, ground truthing, database, geospatial, raster, query

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The inquisitiveness of man and unquantifiable passion to dominate his environment has
led to gargantuan exploit of the earth surface. It is evidently indisputable that human
activities engineered by human creativity and human brain power are causing continual
physical changes in the landscape of the earth. In other to create a sustainable
environment for a cheery living, it is pretty necessary to have the topographic information
of the earth scenery, because of its fundamental role in a constructive developmental
effort.
In addition, it becomes essential for any environmental project aimed at scaling a
prominent height in developmental ladder to be planned in absolute reality of actually
exist on ground in order not to skirmish with the existing development around the
neighborhood. In the light of this a viable information is needed which is the backbone of
novelty and invention (Oyebanji 2009).
The emphasis, in this regard, is on the application of Geographic Information System
(GIS) to structural measurement and Management. “GIS is a Computer Based
Information System that allows capturing, modelling, manipulating, retrieval, analysis
and presentation of geographically referenced data,” explained Kufoniyi (1998).
The concept of this project was borne by me. Why? Mowe Town is one town I have been
worked in and its environ for years even when I was working as a technician. Then its
sudden heavy boom and unsupervised development caught my attention which leads to
the need to know the rate and level of development so as to enable proper planning.
Moreover, this quest to know more about the rapid development of this town gave me the
thought of taking up this project. And I saw that it will assist greatly especially in
management and administration.
The site of the project is part of Mowe Township, Ifo Local Government area, Ogun
State. It is situated approximately between Latitudes 06° 52’ 35” N and 06° 52’ 53”N and
Longitudes 02° 59’ 55” E and 03° 00’ 00” E. The project area covers an estimated area of

about 179 hectares. It forms boundary with Redemption camp and Ofada road and its
close to Ibafo area.
1.2 ฀IM ฀ND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study is to use GIS as tool to measure the level of development of part of
Mowe Town, Ifo Local Government area, Ogun State in a GIS environment as basis for
time based analysis and measurement of accurate information designed into a structured
database.
1.3 PERIOD OF EXECUTION
The project commenced on the 12th April, 2013 and ended on the 4th of August, 2013
1.4 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT.
1. ฀atabase ฀esign
2. ฀ownloading of the image covering the site from the Googleearth
3. Ground Truthing
4. Geo-referencing the imagery.
5. ฀igitizing of all the necessary details on the geo-referenced imagery.
6. Acquisition of the planimetric co-ordinates of the missing details using hand held
Global Positioning System (GPS)
7. physical design of the database
8. spatial analysis and query generation
9. Production of customised maps on the at a scale of 1/20,000.
1.5 INSTRUMENTS / EQUIPMENT USED/ SOFTW฀RE
Equipment used for the operation included:
- Hand held GPS (Garmin CX60)
- Vehicle for transportation
- Booking Board / Writing material
- A ฀ell laptop with Windows 7 based operating System, 64-bit, 500 GB Hard disk,
and 4 GB RAM.
- A3 ฀eskJet 9800 printer
- AutoCA฀ for vectorizing and drafting;

- ArcView GIS 3.2a version for database design and spatial analysis;
- Microsoft Office Word for Project Report Writing
1.6 RECONN฀ISS฀NCE
1. 7 D฀T฀ SE฀RCH
฀ata search were made at various offices to get what was actually needed for this job to
be well executed. Most of the non-spatial were acquired on the field in the cause of the
project. The cartographic section of survey department of Bureau of Lands and Survey,
supplied the softcopy of the vector map covering part of the town. Then, composite
imagery was also downloaded from the googleearth.
1.8 D฀T฀ ฀CQUISITION
Planimetric Co-ordinates of the selected five points used to geo-reference the imagery
were obtained. Similarly, co-ordinates of prominent features and details were acquired
with the use of the handheld GPS (Garmin CX60) and recorded in the GPS as way points.
Name of some important places, features were obtained through social survey by oral
interview from the people around the details and these names were used to save these
points as waypoints.
1.9 DOWNLO฀DING, GEO-REFERENCING ฀ND DIGITIZING
Working with geographic data requires the inputs of spatial and non-spatial data in digital
form in a computer. Since the imagery supplied was in vector form already and didn’t
cover the proposed site, there was need to download composite imagery to compliment it
which was in raster format. Googleearth was launched and the interested area was saved
as “my place” in jpeg format. It was later inserted into the autoCA฀ environment in other
to geo-reference and digitize it .
Geo-referencing is the process of bringing a geographical data (in form of drawing,
picture, map, imagery) to its real life (true) geographical position with particular
reference to a co-ordinate system. The imagery acquired was geo-referenced with
AUTOCA฀ 2000i with the five co-ordinates acquired during data acquisition.
The given vector map was uploaded into the AutoCA฀. The two were put in different
layers and all the required features digitized. Upon completion of digitizing, the two

source data were overlaid for thorough comparison to be made. A slight shift which was
negligible was observed. The updating of the map was then carried out by making use of
new and detailed features found in the satellite imagery and those gotten from social
survey.
2.0 D฀T฀ PROCESSING
Having completed geo-referencing and digitizing, the acquired GPS co-ordinates for the
additional details that were missing were used to plot the features in their true positions
on the map. Conventional signs were used for proper representation of features and
streets and some street names were also written on the map.
2.1 INFORM฀TION PRESENT฀TION
Computer Aided ฀esign (CA฀) Software through co-ordinate geometry (COGO) method
of data input was used for plotting of additional details. Co-ordinate geometry is a direct
manual data entry into a computer using some form of data input device like keyboard or
running a script file with the use of specialized data entry module of a computer aided
design(CA฀) package. The map was produced at a scale of 1/20,000.
2.2 ฀N฀LYSIS ฀ND PRESENT฀TION
2.2.1 TESTING OF D฀T฀B฀SE
Geographic Information System analysis involved a process in which information stored up in
the databases are integrated and manipulated in such a way that it would provide answers to
generic questions of location, condition, date of existence, trend, routing pattern e.t.c.
It is likewise important to establish the reliability and effectiveness of the created databases. This
operation was carried out to test the efficacy of the created information system.
2.2.2 QUERY AN฀ PRESENTATION OF ANALYSIS
To make GIS answer the generic questions of location, condition, routing, pattern e.t.c, there is
the need for manipulation of and analysis of the database. It’s the capability for spatial analysis
functions that distinguish GIS from other Information System.

- Single Criterion Analysis
- Multiple Criterion Query
THE QUERY W฀S B฀SED ON THE P฀RCEL CL฀SS
Query ฀esign
Query 1: all the Parcels that are designated for residential purpose within the study area.
Type of Analysis: Single Criterion Query
Syntax: ([P฀RCEL_CL฀SS] = “RESIDENTI฀L”

Result: The query selects all the Parcels that are designated for residential within the study
area
Query ฀esign
Query 2: To display all the Parcels that are designated for industrial purpose within the study
area.
Type of Analysis: Single Criterion Query
SYNT฀X: ([P฀RCEL_CL฀SS] = “INDUSTRI฀L”

Result: The query selects all the Parcels that are designated for industrial within the study
area
฀ouble Criteria Query ฀esign
Query 3: To display the entire parcels whose class is industrial and its development rate is high
SYNT฀X: ( [P฀RCEL_CL฀SS] = INDUSTRI฀L) and ([DEVLPMNT_R฀TE] =
HIGH )

Result: The query selects all the Parcels that are designated for industrial and their
development
rate is high within the study area
Double Criteria Query Design
Query 4: To display the entire parcels whose class is majorly industrial but being used for
other
purposes within the study area
SYNT฀X: ( [P฀RCEL_CL฀SS] = INDUSTRI฀L) and ([P฀RCEL_USE] = MIXED )

Result: The query selects all the Parcels that are designated for industrial majorly
industrial but being used for other purposes within the study area

Multiple Criteria Query ฀esign
Query 5: To display all the entire parcels whose class is industrial or Parcel Status is vegetal
cover and being used for farming
SYNT฀X: ( [P฀RCEL_CL฀SS] = INDUSTRI฀L) or ([P฀RCEL_ST฀TUS] =
VEGET฀L COVER) and ([P฀RCEL_USE] = F฀RMING )

Result: The query selects all the parcels whose class is industrial or Parcel Status is vegetal
cover and being used for farming within the study area
Multiple Criteria Query ฀esign
Query 6: To display all the entire parcels whose class is residential and their Roads are not all
tarred whose total land area covered is more than 2.786 Hectares
SYNT฀X: ( [P฀RCEL_CL฀SS] = RESIDENTI฀L) and ([RO฀D_CONDTN] =
T฀RED/UNT฀RED) and ([Hectares] 2.786 )

APPLICATION OF GIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Result: The query selects the entire parcels whose class is residential and their Roads are
not all tarred whose total land area covered is more than 2.786 Hectares within the study
area
Multiple Criteria Query Design
Query 7: To display all the entire parcels whose class is industrial, status is high dense built-up
those are
even being used for other purposes
SYNTAX: ( [PARCEL_CLASS] = IN฀USTRIAL) or ([PARCEL_STATUS] = HIGH
฀ENSE BUILT-UP) and ([PARCEL_USE] = MIXE฀ )

Result: The query selects the entire parcels whose class are industrial, status is high dense
built-up those are even being used for other purposes within the study area
2.3 SP฀TI฀L ฀N฀LYSIS
The exceptional feature that distinguishes Geographical information system (GIS) from all other
information systems is its capability to perform spatial analysis. Moreover, Spatial Analysis is a
concept that comprises formal techniques which involves the study of an entity using the
topological, geometrical and geographical properties of the entity.
The application of any of these analyses is as a result of the nature of the project and the end
user’s needs.
2.4 RESULT ฀N฀LYSIS
Adequate, correct and complete information enhances quality decision and notable progress.
The first query, which shows all the parcels designated for residential within the project area,
gives a clear outlook of the area. It helped to imagine and determine the classification of the
environment for proper usage, where to seek land in case of personal structural development
which informed the cost of the land and other things that are obtainable. It also reveals the level
of development within the selected areas.
The third query, fourth and fifth draw attention to certain parcel classes which are not being used
for the very intended purpose probably due to outburst of population or lack of infrastructural
facilities in the surrounding neighborhoods, research could be made in order to determine the

reason to enhance proper share of resources, reduce pressure on the environment and to prevent
future occurrence.
The sixth query displayed the area of the town whose roads are bad, not tarred and the size based
on the project total area meanwhile this could help to predict the effect on the economy, the
hygiene of this area and how it will look during rainy season. Furthermore, this could help the
government to determine their infrastructure need.
Moreover, seventh query shows high dense built-up area where population concentrates and the
need to spread the population in order not to over stretch the existing facilities.
2.5 CONCLUSION
Various maps base on the problem can be produce at different scales even at the end of the
exercise. The map can be used to provide information for planning and development of
infrastructure. The map will also assist those visiting Mowe township for the first time either for
pleasure or business purposes to their destinations.
2.6 RECOMMEND฀TION
My strong advise is that update of Mowe township Map should be done every two years, in order
to control the flow and trend of the development and to make it a current and reliable instrument
at all time. This will go a long way in generating revenue for the local government council and
the state in general. Also, rehabilitation of the road is crucial to aid economy boom considering
the alarming population of some certain areas.
2.7 REFERENCES
฀kinbileje, B.F. (2003): Evaluation of Landuse Changes of Bauchi
Metropolis Using Geographic Information System Approach: MSc. Project Report
Submitted to the ฀epartment of Surveying and Geoinformatics, University of Lagos.
฀longe, M.฀. (2004): Landuse/Landcover Analysis of University of

Lagos: M.Sc. Project Report Submitted to the ฀epartment of Surveying and
Geoinformatics University of Lagos.
Burrough, P.฀. (1986): Principles of Geographical Information
Systems For Land Resources Assessment. Clarendon Press
Oxford, London.

APPLICATION OF GIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

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APPLICATION OF GIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT