Abstract
This research focuses on detecting potentially gas flaring-related pollution on vegetation cover and its health using remotely sensed data at 11 gas flaring sites in Rivers State, Nigeria. 21 Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and 4 Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI-TIRS) data from 21/04/2000 to 05/02/2022 with < 3 % cloud cover were used. Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) was retrieved from atmospherically corrected multispectral bands (1-4) for Landsat 7 ETM+, and bands (2-5) for Landsat 8 OLI; and Land Surface Temperature (LST) was derived from the atmospherically corrected thermal band. Changes in NDVI (δNDVI450-60)m and LST (δLST60-450)m were defined as the difference between NDVI at 450m and 60m, and LST at 60m and 450m from the flare stack respectively. NDVI values at 60m from the flare stack show that as the year increases (2000, 2011, 2022), NDVI values around the stack reduce to almost zero due to the effects of pollution from the gas flaring on the vegetation cover and its health. The results obtained from the linear regression analysis for the NDVI in the four cardinal directions show that only (δNDVI450-60)mN against (δNDVI450-60)mW give statistically significant result at 99% confidence level (p-values = 0.0016). Based on the results obtained for this research, it can be concluded that gas flaring-related pollution can be detected on the vegetation cover and its health using Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS remotely sensed data in the Niger Delta. Hence, it is recommended that the Nigerian Government should take drastic action against defaulting companies on zero flaring, not just to pay fines but so exorbitant one in order to deter them.

Key words: Remotely sensed data, gas flaring, pollution, vegetation cover, Niger Delta