Asian Review of Environmental and Earth Sciences

Detection of potentially gas flaring-related pollution on vegetation cover using remotely sensed data at 11 flaring sites in Rivers State, Nigeria is the emphasis of this research. 21 Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM ), and 4 Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI-TIRS) data dated from 21/04/2000 to 05/02/2022 with  3  cloud cover were used. Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) was retrieved from corrected Landsat 7 bands (1-4), and Landsat 8 bands (2-5). Corrected thermal band was used for the computation of Land Surface Temperature (LST). Change in NDVI (δNDVI_450-60)_m and LST ( δLST_60-450m) were computed. NDVI values at 60 m from the stack show that as the year increases, NDVI values around the stack reduces to almost zero. Linear regression analysis was considered for (δ NDVI_450-60)_mN against ( δNDVI_450-60)_mE, (δNDVI_450-60)_mN against (δNDVI_450-60)_mS, and (δNDVI_450-60)_mN against (δNDVI_450-60)_mW. Only (δNDVI_450-60)_mN against (δNDVI_450-60)_mW give statistically significant results at 99 % confidence level (p-value  0.0016). (δNDVI_450-60)_mN,E,S,W against (δLST_60-450)_mN,E,S,W were considered and results show positive correlation but statistically insignificant. Based on the results of this research, it can be concluded that flaring-related pollution can be detected on vegetation cover using Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 data in the Niger Delta.