Quest Journals Journal of Research in Environmental and Earth Sciences Volume 7 ~ Issue 10 (2021) pp: 13-30 ISSN(Online) :2348-2532 www.questjournals.org *Corresponding Author: Okocha, Sunny 13 | Page Research Paper Assessing Land Use/Land Cover and Flood Hazard Vulnerability in the Core Niger Delta States, Nigeria. Okocha, Sunny 1 , Vincent E. Weli 2 , O.S. Eludoyin 3 , Morgan Nyekazi Amadi 4 , G.T. Ariolu 5 , 1 Disaster Risk Management, Department of Geography & Environmental Management Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria or No 1 Allweather Road Owhipa Choba, Uniport Road, Rivers State, Nigeria. sunny_okocha2000@yahoo.com , +23407068620933. 2 Geography and Environmental Management Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. 3 Geography and Environmental Management Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. 4 Nikkymor Process Safety Limited, mamadi@nikkymorconsultant.com . 5 Obio/Akpor Local Government Council, Rivers State, Nigeria. ABSTRACT The study used Land-Sat Tm of 30m of 2019 to classify flood vulnerable areas with respect to land use/land cover using Arc GIS 10.2. The result showed that mangrove had the highest spatial extent of (11970.00 km 2 ), followed by swamp forest/thick forest having 8626.08. The analysis also revealed that water bodies recorded 1068.27km 2 while the built-up area recorded 6301.91 km 2 and farmland/light forest having 7203.37 km 2 . The spatial coverage of the area for moderate flood vulnerability covered 45.01% while high flood vulnerability was 55.97 %. The high vulnerability zone based on relief was between 43.73m and 192.22m while the moderate vulnerability was between 192.22m and 266.47m. The low vulnerability zone was between 266.47m and 340.72m. The analysis also revealed that the high, moderate and low vulnerability covered 33540.74 km 2 (94.52%), 1040.68 km 2 (2.93%) and 905.57 km 2 (2.55%) respectively. The river network and their levels of vulnerability results show that the buffer of 500m from the rivers (i.e., high flood vulnerability level based on the nearness to active channel) covered a spatial extent of 6250.15 km 2 , the buffer of 1000m covered 5438.65 km 2 while the buffer of 1500m covered a spatial extent of 4503.73 km 2 . Thus, the high vulnerability area covered 38.60%, moderate 33.59% and low covered 27.81%. The null hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance, using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), the results of hypothesis show a moderately positive and statistically significant (r=.592, < .001). The finding reveals the low-lying nature of the area and proximity to the river bank makes it vulnerable to seasonal flood. The people are yet to recover from the effects of past floods, but trying to be resilient in their approach to flood hazard by applying some coping capacities like relocating to flood plain area, reconstructing houses with reinforced materials against the bricks and mud/thatch houses, raising of houses above annual flood levels, erecting temporal structures along river banks, creating water channels to ease evacuation of flooding areas, cleaning drainage outlets, construction of dykes using sand bags and fumigation of stagnant flood water against mosquito parasites. The study recommends public enlightenment campaign, early warming, preparedness and development of other safety measures to mitigate the likelihood reoccurrence of flood disaster. KEY WORDS: GIS, GPS, LANDSAT, IMAGERY, ENVIRONMENT, VULNERABILITY. Received 17 October, 2021; Revised: 30 October, 2021; Accepted 01 November, 2021 © The author(s) 2021. Published with open access at www.questjournals.org I. INTRODUCTION Natural flood events in the 21 st century is becoming a normal experience across most regions in the world whenever it rains heavily, in the geographic Niger Delta region and its selected states like Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers State floods hazard is eminent and has always been part of the integral of geologic history of the earth. It occurs along rivers, stream, lake, coastal areas, alluvial fans; ground area failure like subsidence influenced by structural measures or failed areas with surface runoff, local inadequacy or lack of proper