Effect of the 20km Larfarge Africa PLC road construction/abandonment on soil properties, along Odukpani/Akamkpa road segments, cross river state, Nigeria
Author(s): Nya John Usim, Digha Opaminola Nicholas and Ikono Ephraim Clement
Abstract: In this paper, the effect of road construction/abandonment along Akamkpa-Odukpani segments of Cross Rivers State Nigeria was studied. Purposive sampling was employed in delineating only areas which cut across the length and breadth of the abandoned road project within the study area. These areas included: Abiati, Oberekae, Etankpini and Mbat-Odukpani. Thereafter, the systematic (line transect) was employed to establish quadrat of 10 x 180m, which had 18 quadrats of 10 x 10m. After the 18 quadrats had been established along environmental gradient (abandoned road on both sides), simple random sampling technique was then applied to select 10 quadrats from which soil parameters were obtained. From each plot, soil sample were gotten at predetermined depths at 0–15 cm and 15–30cm of the soil, representing the top and the subsoil layers through a soil auger. Therefore, 20 soil samples were collected in total for the analysis of 15 physico-chemical and 8 heavy metal parameters. From the analysis; it was observed that the soil pH at the surface level across the entire area had a mean of 6.3 with a range of 4.96-6.89. The test of study hypothesis using principal components analysis (PCA) shows that; the soil components are surface ECEC (0.927), surface clay (-0.839), surface sand (0.821) and surface H+ (0.818). The result in Table 5 therefore shows that topsoil ECEC, subsoil exchangeable bases, topsoil exchangeable bases, subsoil Nitrogen, topsoil aluminium, subsoil clay/sand, subsoil base saturation and topsoil phosphorus are seriously impacted upon by road construction activities. In conclusion, the study identified impacts relating to the construction and abandonment of the 20km road as significant and mostly negative. However, the study recommends that the abandoned road should be completed with sustainable actions taken to manage the negative impacts observed.
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How to cite this article:
Nya John Usim, Digha Opaminola Nicholas, Ikono Ephraim Clement. Effect of the 20km Larfarge Africa PLC road construction/abandonment on soil properties, along Odukpani/Akamkpa road segments, cross river state, Nigeria. Int J Geogr Geol Environ 2022;4(2):60-68.