The Impact of Landscape Reclamation on Mangrove Forest and Coastal Areas in the Niger Delta… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82053

the site is prepared through pilling, dredging, sand filling, grading and concreting. Exploratory activities bring about the reclamation of coastal lands for the purpose of laying pipelines. It also involves the establishment of well heads and booth camps. During exploration the coast is first dredged, cleared of vegetation and reclaimed in other to create a plat form for mounting pillars that carry oil pipelines and well heads. This occurs during off-shore drilling in mangrove swamps. Surrounding areas of the swamps are usually dredged and sand-filled to enable it to support the mounting of crude oil well head and the laying of pipelines (Figure 5). Concrete bases are constructed on this platform to carry the pipes from the drilling point, which may be at an off-shore or on-shore site to the refinery. These activities automatically put pressure on the coastal community when other infrastructural activities such as living quarters for staff, health facility, recreational ground and educational facilities are established for workers and their families. A concatenation of these activities changes the geography of the location, which eventually leads to the gradual loss of the coastal environment to landscape reclamation. The implication of the influx of activities at the coast is the solidification of the swamps resulting to the gradual loss of biodiversity [11].
