Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Borrow-Pit Distribution in the Kano River and Hadejia Valley Irrigation Schemes, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/Keywords:
Borrow Pits, Spatial Distribution, Average Nearest Neighbour, Irrigation Schemes, Land Degradation, GIS, NigeriaAbstract
Borrow pits supply earth materials for irrigation, construction and rehabilitation, but their spatial expansion can create persistent land-management concerns when excavation is poorly planned or when restoration is inadequate. This study analysed the spatial and temporal distribution of mapped borrow pits in the Kano River Irrigation Scheme (KRIS) and Hadejia Valley Irrigation Scheme (HVIS) in northern Nigeria for 1999, 2009, and 2019. Historical Google Earth imagery was visually interpreted and digitised, while 2019 locations were field-verified with a Garmin eTrex 32x receiver. Borrow-pit polygons and centroids were processed in ArcMap 10.3.1, and Average Nearest Neighbour analysis was used to assess spatial pattern. The mapped inventory increased from 19 to 21 and from 34 to 55 pits in KRIS, and from 21 to 26 and from 55 to 75 pits in HVIS across the three reference years. From 1999 to 2019, mapped pit counts increased by 78.9% in KRIS and 161.9% in HVIS, while the combined inventory rose from 40 to 89 pits. All six scheme-year distributions were clustered, with nearest-neighbour ratios of 0.50–0.51 in KRIS and 0.60–0.71 in HVIS. By 2019, mapped excavation footprints occupied approximately 180.2 ha in KRIS and 219.6 ha in HVIS. These results demonstrate the expansion and spatial concentration of mapped excavations, but do not, by themselves, establish the causes, legal status, or magnitude of environmental damage. The study provides a geospatial baseline for inventory management, field inspection, rehabilitation planning and future cumulative-impact assessment.References
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Copyright (c) 2026 Haruna Manu Isah, Ahmed Fate Ali, Abdullahi Babagana, Isah Usman Hassan
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