Abstract
Stone quarrying is a vital economic activity in Anambra Eat local government area, Anambra state providing employment and income for numerous individuals. However, the environmental impacts of stone quarrying have raised concerns among local communities, environmentalists, and policymakers. The extraction process involves blasting, drilling, and crushing of stone, leading to potential environmental degradation. Anambra East local government are rich in limestone, granite and sandstone deposits, making it a hub for stone quarrying activities, coupled with the increasing demand for construction materials, have led to an expansion of stone quarrying operations. Nevertheless, the environmental consequences of these activities have not been adequately assessed, particularly in terms of their spatial and temporal patterns. Problems such as deforestation, air pollution, and increased land surface temperature as a result of stone quarrying activities in Anambra East L.G.A. Hence, this study aims at carrying out the spatiotemporal analysis of the effects of stone quarrying activity on the environment in Anambra East L.G.A, Anambra State. Its specific objectives are; to ascertain the spatial extent of landuse/landcover (LULC) with emphasis on the stone quarrying activities in Anambra East L.G.A for over 15 years ( 2013-2023); to investigate the trends and rate of stone quarrying in Anambra East L.G.A between the same period; to determine if the stone quarrying has also had an impact on the land surface temperature in Anambra East L.G.A from 2013 to 2023.The methodology involved the acquisition of landsat 8 OLI and coordinates of the stone quarrying sites dataset. Image preprocessing was applied to the set of image acquired to correct the effects of the sun angle between 2013, 2018 and 2023. Quarrying area coordinates was used to identify the quarrying areas and then signature samples was collected to classify the landsat. The post-classification comparison technique in ERDAS images was used for change detection. This was used to determine the trends and change dynamics as a result of stone quarrying activities in 2013, 2018 and 2023. Finally, a correlation coefficient was used in this study to measure the statistical relationship between LULC and land surface temperature (LST) in Anambra east LGA in 2013, 2018 and 2023. The result showed that quarry is 0.54% in 2013 and 1.45% in 2018 and increases to 3.12% in 2023. The built-up area increased by 10.74%, 13.89% and 16.40% in 2013, 2018 and 2023 respectively. The analysis revealed that GIS, Remote Sensing and well processed satellite images can be effectively applied as a tool to carry out landuse/land cover and the land surface temperature in detecting and locating of the stone quarry areas. Significantly to enhance proper decision making, and improve the identification of both the abandon quarry areas.