Effect of land use on water discharge in humid regions: An example from southern Nigeria

The effect of land use on water discharge is one of the most important environmental problems of our times, particularly in the humid regions. However, there exists controversy over the hydrological effects of land use in the humid tropics. This paper therefore examines the effect of land use on water discharge in southern Nigeria. The study area is located in the Calabar River basin. Standard field and laboratory methods were adopted in obtaining the data on water discharge and land use, for the study.From the Pearson’s Product Moment correlation analysis of the relationship between land use and total mean discharge measurement in the basin, the result shows a strong negative relationship with r = - 0.717 and significant at the 0.05 confidence level. The regression analysis revealed an F-ratio of 7.733 which was again significant at the 0.05 confidence level. Since, p < 0.05 level of significance that was set for this study, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative accepted. It is thereforeconcluded that land use has negatively affected discharge. Re-vegetation has been recommended for the area