Der bisher noch wenig untersuchte Wellenaufgang im Übergangsbereich zwischen Brandung und Reflexion wurde experimentell untersucht. Darauf aufbauend wird ein geschlossener Berechnungsansatz für die Auflaufhöhe unregelmäßiger Wellen vorgeschlagen, der für brechende und nichtbrechende Wellen anwendbar ist.

In this cumulative dissertation, different features and methods are presented to assess and process multi-sensor derived radar data for climatological analysis. The overall objectives were to appraise the limitations of an hourly radar-based quantitative precipitation estimate (QPE) product and to develop and apply reasonable approaches to process these data. Hence the spatial and temporal limitations of radar-derived precipitation rates are discussed in the context of climatological applications, and two types of climatologies are obtained, first a climatology of daily precipitation fields and second a long term precipitation climatology. These relate to questions concerning the methodologies rather than climatological significance or assessment of precipitation and its role in the water balance. Current radar data availability limits such a hydro-climatic analysis. The thesis consists of three peer-reviewed publications. All investigations in this thesis are based on the RADOLAN rw-product of the German Weather Service (DWD) for an extended study region including the Free State of Saxony, Germany, for the period from April 2004 to November 2011. The first publication is dedicated to the classification of daily precipitation fields by unsupervised neural networks. In the presented work, the quality of the radar-derived precipitation rates is analysed by a temporal comparison between recording and non-recording gauges and the corresponding pixels of the RADOLAN rw-product on hourly and daily bases. The analysis shows that a temporal aggregation of the original product should be limited to a temporal scale up to 24 h because of the processing algorithms and the reappearance of previously suppressed errors. Nevertheless, an unsupervised neural network was successfully used for the classification of daily patterns. The derived daily precipitation classes and corresponding precipitation patterns could be assigned to properties of the associated weather patterns and seasonal dependencies. Hence, it could be shown that the classified patterns not only occurred by chance but by statistically proven properties of the atmosphere and of the season. The second publication is primarily concerned with two tasks: first, the pixel-wise fitting of mixture distributions on the bases of the obtained patterns from the first publication, and second, the analysis of spatial consistency of the radar-derived precipitation data set. The fitted parametric distribution functions were analysed in terms of Akaike\'s information criterion and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. These benchmarks showed, that the performances are best for mixture distributions derived by an initial classification by an unsupervised neural network and cluster analysis, and by gamma distributions. These results underline the significance of the derived precipitation classes obtained in the first publication. Furthermore, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that independent of the distribution function, the radar-derived daily precipitation rates under the assumption of the deployed parametric distribution function has the best or most natural order of precipitation rates at spatial scales from 2 to 4 km for daily precipitation fields. Thus, it is recommended to use the original radar product at these scales rather than at 1 km resolution for daily precipitation sums. In the last publication, the focus shifts from daily to long-term precipitation climatology. The work introduces a rapid and simple approach for processing radar-derived precipitation rates for long-term climatologies. The method could successfully be applied to the radar-derived precipitation rates by excluding or correcting the errors that reappear due to temporal aggregation. Despite the fact that the approach is empirical, the introduced parameters could almost be objectively derived by means of simulation and optimisation. This could be achieved by utilising the reasonable relationship between elevation and precipitation rates for longer periods. Finally, the obtained results are compared to two independently derived precipitation data sets. The comparison shows good agreement of the precipitation fields and illustrates a reasonable application of the introduced procedure. The presented results support the application of the approach for precipitation aggregates of, at least, annual or longer periods. However the derivation of climatologies led to satisfactory results at the respective temporal scales, though the influence of radar-specific errors can only be minimized to a certain degree. Further studies have to prove if an application independent processing of radar-derived precipitation rates leads to higher qualities and validities of the derived data in time and space.

Der Gegenstand des Projektes SAPHIR war die Untersuchung von Trockenstress, Wasserproduktivität und Bewässerungsbedarf landwirtschaftlicher und gemüsebaulicher Nutzpflanzen mit Hilfe von Bewässerungsexperimenten und Simulationswerkzeugen (virtuelles Feld). Das Hauptziel war die Bereitstellung relevanter Informationen, Schlußfolgerungen und Handlungsoptionen für wesentliche Akteure (Landwirte und Entscheidungsträger auf regionaler Ebene) aus der sächsischen Landwirtschaft. Einen einfachen Zugang zu den entwickelten Werkzeugen und Ergebnissen liefert ein webbasiertes Entscheidungshilfesystem mit maßgeschneiderten Schnittstellen für die verschiedenen Akteure, dass die Ermittlung der Bewässerungswürdigkeit beliebiger Standorte und angepasster Anbaumuster für Sachsen für gegenwärtige und zukünftige Klimabedingungen ermöglicht. Die Bestimmung der dafür wichtigen Datengrundlagen, nämlich kulturspezifische Ertragskurven erfolgte auf zwei Wegen: durch konkrete Feldversuche sowie simulationsbasierte Optimierung. Durch die Verwendung von prognostischen Simulationsmodellen ist die Übertragung der Ergebnisse auf andere klimatische Standorte möglich und wurde wird zur Zeit für die Vereinigte Arabische Emirate und den Oman erprobt. Im Rahmen von SAPHIR fand eine intensive Qualifizierung der Nachwuchsforscher statt. Dies umfaßte nicht nur eine umfassende Vermittlung von Spezialwissen über Bewässerungslandwirtschaft inklusive der Teilkomponenten Messung, Modellierung, Analyse und Darstellung sondern auch der Erwerb von Fähigkeiten in Projektmanagement und Kommunikation für eine erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit innerhalb der interdisziplinär zusammengesetzten Forschergruppe. Die von uns durchgeführten Arbeiten erfolgten in zwei grundsätzlichen Richtungen. Zum einen entwickelten wir die Werkzeuge zur Entscheidungshilfe in der Reihenfolge: experimentelle Untersuchung → Modellierung und Simulation des Bewässerungssystems → simulationsbasierte Optimierung des Bewässerungssystems → Mikro- und Makroökonomische Bewertung und Optimierung. Zum anderen wurden die Arbeiten auf unterschiedlichen räumlichen Skalen durchgeführt: Mikroskala, Feldskala, Betriebsebene sowie regionale (Meso-) Skala.:1 Ziele/Teilziele des Projektes 1 1.1 Bewässerungsversuche und Übertragung von Ergebnissen 1 1.2 Informationserweiterung durch Modellierung 1 2 Regionale Einordnung 3 3 Angaben zur Teilnehmerstruktur 5 4 Durchgeführte Arbeiten 7 4.1 Feld- und Vegetationshallenversuche 7 4.1.1 F2012 Durchführung von spezifischen Feldversuchen 2012 7 4.1.2 F2013 Durchführung von spezifischen Feldversuchen 2013 7 4.1.3 F2014 Durchführung von spezifischen Feldversuchen 2014 7 4.1.4 G2014 Untersuchungen zu Unterschieden in der Strahlungsexposition bei Containerexperimenten in einer Vegetationshalle im Vergleich zu Feld- beständen 7 4.2 Arbeitspaket A1 8 4.2.1 A1.1 Sichtung und Analyse vorhandener Daten (Klima, Boden, Pflanzen, Bewirtschaftung) 8 4.2.2 A1.2 Modellwahl (Pflanzenwachstum, Bodenwasserhaushalt) 9 4.2.3 A1.3 Auswahl relevanter Leitböden und Kulturpflanzen 9 4.2.4 A1.4 Generierung langjähriger Klimazeitreihen 10 4.3 Arbeitspaket A2 10 4.3.1 A2.1 Modellerstellung und -kalibrierung 10 4.3.2 A2.2 Umfangreiche Simulations- und Optimierungsrechnungen10 4.3.3 A2.3 Optimales Bewässerungsmanagement 11 4.3.4 A2.4 Kosten-Nutzen-Analysen 11 4.4 Arbeitspaket A3 11 4.4.1 A3.1 Anwendung prognostischer Klimaszenarienrechnungen 11 4.4.2 A3.2 Erstellung von stochastischen Ertragsfunktionen 12 4.4.3 A3.2 Erstellung von stochastischen Bodenkennfunktionen 12 4.4.4 A3.3 Erstellung des Entscheidungshilfesystems 12 5 Methoden 13 5.1 Messexperimente Freising 13 5.1.1 Bewässerungsversuche F2013 13 5.1.2 Bewässerungsversuche F2014 14 5.1.3 Strahlungsmessungen F2014 16 5.2 Messexperimente Brandis 18 5.3 Messexperimente Pillnitz 21 5.4 Modellierung auf der Mikroskala 25 5.4.1 Einfluss des Wurzelmodells auf den Wurzelwasserentzug 25 5.4.2 Lysimetermodell 27 5.5 Modellierung auf der Feldskala 29 5.5.1 Klimadaten in Dresden Pillnitz 30 5.5.2 Modellanalyse und Modellkalibrierung 31 5.5.3 Modellkalibrierung für den Standort Pillnitz 34 5.5.4 Stochastische Ertragsfunktionen – SCWPF 35 5.6 Modellierung auf der Regionalskala 36 5.6.1 Klimadaten 36 5.6.2 Regionale Pflanzenmodellierung 37 5.6.3 Ableitung des Wasserdargebotes 39 5.7 Agrarökonomische Bewertung 41 5.7.1 Spline-Interpolation der SCWPF 42 5.7.2 Feldskala 44 5.7.3 Regionalskala 45 5.7.4 Optimierung 46 5.8 Prototypische Umsetzung des Entscheidungshilfesystems 49 5.8.1 Konzept des Entscheidungshilfesystems 49 5.8.2 IT-Konzept 50 5.8.3 Software 50 6 Ergebnisse und deren Dokumentation 53 6.1 Messexperimente Freising 53 6.2 Feldexperimente in Brandis 59 6.3 Feldexperimente in Pillnitz 62 6.4 Auswertung von Klimadaten 67 6.4.1 Projizierte Niederschlagsänderung 67 6.4.2 Trockenheitsindizes – Methode für eine erste Gefährdungsanalyse 67 6.4.3 Beispielhafte Entwicklung von Temperatur und Niederschlag 69 6.5 Einfluss des Wurzelmodells auf den Wurzelwasserentzug 70 6.6 Modellierungsergebnisse auf der Feldskala 76 6.7 Stochastische Ertragsfunktion – dateninduzierte Unsicherheit 79 6.8 Modellierungsergebnisse auf der Regionalskala 80 6.8.1 Ertrag und Wasserbedarf 80 6.8.2 Wasserdargebot 83 6.8.3 Gegenüberstellung von Wasserdargebot und -bedarf 83 6.8.4 Erträge weiterer Kulturen 85 6.8.5 Wasserproduktivitäten 87 6.9 Agrarökonomie 87 6.10 Entscheidungshilfesystem 90 6.10.1 Restriktionen 94 6.11 Dokumentation der Ergebnisse 96 7 Nachhaltigkeit 99 7.1 Technologieentwicklung und -transfer 99 7.2 Persönliche Qualifikation der Mitarbeiter 99 A Anhang: Durchgeführte Arbeiten 103 B Anhang: Ergebnisse 105 B.1 Messexperimente 105 B.2 Ertragssicherheit 106 B.3 Wasserproduktivität 111 B.4 Entscheidungshilfesystem 116 Abbildungsverzeichnis 119 Tabellenverzeichnis 125 Literaturverzeichnis 127

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es biobasierte, bioabbaubare Biokunststoffe mit einfacher Prozesstechnik zu desintegrieren und für anaerobe Mikroorganismen verfügbar zu machen. Mittels der Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen soll nachgewiesen werden, dass eine anaerobe Verwertung der desintegrierten Biokunststoffe bzw. der generierten Flüssigkeiten möglich ist. Außerdem soll ermittelt werden, welches energetische Potenzial dabei freigesetzt wird. Im Rahmen einer Wirtschaftlichkeitsbetrachtung wird die Implementierung einer Desintegrationsstufe in einer Vergärungsanlage bewertet. Zu Beginn der Untersuchungen wird festgestellt, dass eine anaerobe Verwertung im mesophilen und im thermophilen Bereich nur unzureichend realisierbar ist. In den anschließenden Untersuchungen werden Maßnahmen zur Beschleunigung der Desintegration von zertifizierten bioabbaubaren Biokunststoffen untersucht. Nachdem ein Nachweis der Desintegration verschiedener Biokunststoffe erbracht und aus-reichend hohe Gehalte gelöster Organik nachgewiesen werden, erfolgt im Anschluss die anaerobe Verwertung der erzeugten Flüssigkeiten in einer mesophilen, kontinuierlichen Vergärung. Die Gärtests geben Aufschluss über die Vergärbarkeit, das Biogaspotenzial, die Biogasqualität und die Abbaugrade der desintegrierten Biokunststoffe. Der höchste Abbaugrad (71,3 %) wird bei der Untersuchung der Flüssigkeiten der Ecovio®-Biobeutel erreicht. Der Abbau der Activia®-Becher (39,6 %) verlief weniger effizient und wird durch hohe Gehalte organischer Säuren und Verdünnungseffekte beeinflusst. Die real erzeugten Biogaspotenziale schwanken zwischen 0,1 lN CH4/g CSB und 0,23 lN CH4/g CSB. Die Biogasqualität während der Versuche ist sehr gut. Die Verhältnisse von CH4 zu CO2 liegen überwiegend zwischen 50:50 und 60:40. Der Nachweis der energetischen Nutzbarmachung der desintegrierten Biokunststoffe für den mikrobiellen Umsatz bzw. zur Biogasbildung wird erbracht. Die Implementierung einer Desintegrationsstufe in eine bestehende Vergärungsanlage wird im Hinblick auf die Wirtschaftlichkeit bewertet. Die Implementierung ist technisch realisierbar. Die Kosten der Implementierung übersteigen die Erlöse um ein Vielfaches. Auch bei längeren Betrachtungszeiträumen kann kein Gewinn erwirtschaftet werden.

An earth dam and a dike is one kind of hydraulic construction, which is built with highly compacted earth and can be used for the purpose of containing water in a reservoir to secure the water supply, and in flood control. Earth dam and dike can be a safety issue, as it can experience catastrophic destruction due to the slope failure caused by various factors, such as construction materials, vegetation, atmospheric conditions and so on. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of the saturation degree (or water content) on the stability of earth dam and dikes under the consideration of precipitation and vegetation with the program PCSiWaPro® (developed at the Technical University of Dresden, Institute of Waste Management and Contaminated Site Treatment). The preliminary tests on a physical model have shown that the security and stability has been already severely compromised in the partially saturated region, i.e. the area above the seepage line was in great danger and it came quickly to landslides on the air side. Before the stability analysis could be done for those unsaturated zones, water flow processes and water saturation in the saturated and partially saturated soil area were simulated using the simulation program PCSiWaPro® under transient boundary conditions. The integration of a weather generator into PCSiWaPro® allows a transient water flow calculation with respect to atmospheric conditions (precipitation, evaporation, daily mean temperature and sunshine duration) and removal of water by plant roots and leaves. Finally, with the Program PCSiWaPro® and Gmsh, a 2D dynamic model of water content distribution in the earth dam could be built, incorporating information of not only climate parameters and vegetation but also geometry, soil properties, geohydraulic conditions and time-dependent boundary conditions. The simulation results of several scenarios both in the laboratory and in the field of China and Germany clearly demonstrated that the accordance between measured values and calculated values for water content using the simulation program PCSiWaPro® was very good. In addition, two kinds of stability analysis models (the Infinite Slope Model and the BISHOP’S Model, one kind of the limit equilibrium method), which were both developed from the old Mohr-Coulomb Model, have been improved with the additional consideration of root reinforcement in the upper layer of the slope and soil water in the earth slope. The Infinite Slope Model has been proved to be mainly applied for the surficial landslide; while the BISHOP’S Model is more responsible for the deeper slip landslide forecasting. Then based on the PCSiWaPro® simulation result of water content in the unsaturated slope in the earth bodies from two study sites, Fs (safety of factor) calculation for those earth slopes was derived providing a sufficient forecasting system for the slope-failure-flood. The results have been compared with the calculated Fs values from the old models (without consideration of the influence of water content change on the slope stability) to study how significantly water content increased the risk of slope landslides.

Many of the ongoing activities towards establishing SDI on a regional, national, and international level are focused on data sharing and dissemination. Next to data access and visualisation, data processing is a third important pillar of GIS which can generate new insights by creating derived data or conducting computational analyses on original data sets. Within today’s largely data-centric SDI, two major challenges were identified that stand in the way of ubiquitous geoprocessing: The ability to use and exchange implementations of geoprocessing functions as freely as geographic data and the ability to describe, communicate and catalogue existing functionality on the Web. This thesis evaluates the moving code approach as an alternative to client–server processing in a distributed SDI. While classical client–server configurations move pieces of data between remote processing services, data services, and clients over the network, moving code setups consider the transfer of portable software components to the location of data or the location of computing resources. To exchange implementations of geoprocessing functions at a larger scale, a Web based code sharing architecture is proposed. For improved descriptions of geoprocessing functions, WPS process descriptions are suggested as an interface description language. They are enhanced by a hierarchical profiling approach that permits different levels of granularity in the functional descriptions.

Land use change and climate variability are the main drivers of watershed hydrological processes. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of land use change and climate variability on hydrology of the Mara River Basin in East Africa. Land use maps generated from satellite images were analyzed using the intensity analysis approach to determine the patterns, dynamics and intensity of land use change. Changes in measured streamflow caused separately by land use change and climate variability were separated using the catchment water-energy budget based approach of Budyko framework. The information on past impact of climate variability on streamflow was used to develop a runoff sensitivity equation which was then used to predict the future impact of climate change on streamflow. Finally, the impact of agroforestry on watershed water balance was predicted using SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model. Deforestation and expansion of agriculture were found to be dominant and intensive land use changes in the watershed. The deforestation was attributed to illegal encroachment and excision of the forest reserve. The deforested land was mainly converted to small scale agriculture particularly in the headwaters of the watershed. There was intensive conversion of rangeland to largescale mechanized agriculture which accelerated with change of land tenure (privatization). The watershed has a very dynamic land use change as depicted by swap change (simultaneous equal loss and gains of a particular land use/cover) which accounted for more than half of the overall change. This implies that reporting only net change in land use (of MRB) underestimates the total land use change. The results show that streamflow of Nyangores River (a headwater tributary of the Mara River) significantly increased over the last 50 years. Land use change (particularly deforestation) contributed 97.5% of change in streamflow while the rest of the change (2.5%) was caused by climate variability. It was predicted that climate change would cause a moderate 15% increase in streamflow in the next 50 years. SWAT model simulations suggested that implementation of agroforestry in the watershed would reduce surface runoff, mainly due expected improvement of soil infiltration. Baseflow and total water yield would also decrease while evapotranspiration would increase. The changes in baseflow (reduction) and evapotranspiration (increase) were attributed to increased water extraction from the soil and groundwater by trees in agroforestry systems. The impact of agroforestry on water balance (surface runoff, baseflow, water yield and evapotranspiration) was proportional to increase in size of the watershed simulated with agroforestry. Modelling results also suggested that climate variability within the watershed has a profound effect on the change of water balance caused by implementation of agroforestry. It is recommended that authorities should pay more attention to land use change as the main driver of change in watershed hydrology of the basin. More effort should be focused on prevention of further deforestation and agroforestry may be considered as a practical management strategy to reverse/reduce degradation on the deforested parts of the watershed currently under intensive cultivation.

Anlässlich des Festkolloquiums zum 65. Geburtstag von Manfred Buchroithner publiziert das Institut für Kartographie die vorliegende Festschrift. Die wissenschaftlichen Beiträge reflektieren ausgewählte Forschungsthemen zu Grundsatzfragen der raum-zeitlichen kartographischen Visualisierung, Gestaltungsoptionen in digitalen 3D-Landschaftsmodellen, weiteren Problemen der 3D-Kartographie über Analysen und Wertungen der Hochschulausbildung Kartographie in Deutschland, dem Gletschermonitoring in Hochasien, der Höhlenvermessung auf Borneo bis hin zur Modellierung des landwirtschaftlichen Flächenpotentials im Sudan.:Zum Wirken von Manfred Buchroithner, Dirk Burghardt 5 Knowledge about Glacier Mass Changes in High Asia Significantly Improved due to TUD-IfK Research, Tobias Bolch, Tino Pieczonka, Nicolai Holzer, Juliane Peters, Kriti Mukherjee, Atanu Bhattacharya 13 Kartographie: Visualisierung von Objekten und Phänomenen in Raum und Zeit – Ein Essay in zehn Aspekten, Lorenz Hurni 25 Autostereoskopie am Institut für Kartographie der TU Dresden, Claudia Knust 49 Speleology of the Gomantong Karst Systems beyond the Edible Birds’ Nest, Mohammed Oludare Idrees, Biswajeet Pradhan 59 Anmerkungen zu Gestaltungsoptionen in digitalen 3D-Landschaftsmodellen, Nikolas Prechtel 75 Studienangebote im Umfeld Kartographie und Geomatik an den traditionellen Stätten grundständiger Kartographie-Lehre in Deutschland – ein Vergleich, Gertrud Schaab 97 Modelling the Restoration Potential of Abandoned Agricultural Land in Gadarif Region, Sudan, Hussein M. Sulieman 117 Verzeichnis der Habilitationen 127 Verzeichnis der Promotionen 129 Verzeichnis der Publikationen Manfred F. Buchroithner 135

An important aspect of modeling water quality in water distribution system (WDS) is to predict the temporal and spatial distribution of disinfectant, and the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBP). Consistent efforts have been made to investigate the kinetics of chlorine decay and trihalomethanes (THM) formation in WDS, which are caused by the reaction of chlorine with natural organic matter (NOM). NOM is a heterogeneous mixture of complex compounds. Each specific compound shows individual reactivity with chlorine. Therefore, to better understand and predict the kinetics of chlorine decay and THM formation, the core assumption of this study was established. That is, the variable reactivity of NOM should be involved into the second order kinetics model. Specifically, each single reactive site provided by NOM shows its individual reactivity towards chlorine decay and THM formation, which can be expressed by its individual reaction rate constant, while the mixture compounds of NOM shows the overall reactivity with respect to chlorine decay and THM formation, which should be expressed by an overall reaction rate coefficient. With the reaction progress, the overall reaction rate coefficient was assumed to be continuously decreasing with the reaction time due to the decreased concentration and reactivity of NOM. The decreased overall reaction rate coefficient was referred as a variable reaction rate coefficient (VRRC) in this dissertation. The VRRC was calculated as an exponential function with limited model parameters, which was only related to the characteristics of NOM but independent of chlorine concentration. By introducing the VRRC, the required model parameters were reduced, calibration was simplified and therefore the models showed abilities for a wider application. Consequently, a systematic work has been carried out to develop VRRC models of chlorine decay and THM formation based on the above mentioned assumption, and further extend and validate the models under different chlorination conditions. The following specific topics were addressed. • A VRRC model of chlorine decay was developed and validated under different conditions, including different initial chlorine dosages, different temperature, rechlorination and water mixing conditions. • Based on the identical assumption applied in the chlorine decay model, a VRRC model of THM formation was also developed and also validated under different chlorination conditions, such as, different initial chlorine dosages, changeable temperature condition and rechlorination. • The model application was extended from bulk reaction to wall reaction by considering the presence of pipe deposits in the WDS. Both the chlroine decay and THM formation models were advanced and validated when pipe deposits were present in water. • To further validate the core assumption proposed in this dissertation and also validate the proposed models have a wide application, the residual chlorine and THM concentrations in chlorinated swimming pools were predicted. Both the model accuracy and model adequacy were evaluated through statistical analysis. The results showed that the proposed models were well suited for application in water quality modeling for distribution systems.

The use of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series over the last decades has increased our understanding of vegetation change dynamics from global to regional scale through quantitative analysis of inter-annual trends in NDVI and climatological parameters (rainfall and temperature). Change in land cover induced by human activities such as livestock grazing and deforestation for large-scale farming (subsistence and mechanized) has influenced the ecological pattern of the Guinea savannah region (GSR) of Nigeria, thereby resulting in loss of biodiversity and changes in vegetation cover. In the context of the GSR of Nigeria where agriculture still plays a major role in people’s economy, it is important to identify the relationship between climatic variables, vegetation productivity and human activities which can be used to understand the on-going transition processes. This study, therefore, examines the spatial and temporal relationship between NDVI and climate parameters, land use land cover change (LULCC) and the perspective of local people on vegetation change dynamics in the study region. In order to do this, bi-monthly NDVI3g time series datasets from Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS), monthly rainfall datasets from Tropical Applications of Meteorology Satellite (TAMSAT), monthly temperature datasets from Climate Research Unit (CRU), national land use land cover (LULC) data of Nigeria from Forestry Management Evaluation & Coordination Unit (FORMECU), global land cover datasets from European Space Agency, Landsat imagery and socio-economic field data collection were used in order to understand vegetation change dynamics across the Guinea savannah regions of Nigeria. Time series analysis (TSA) was applied to both NDVI and climate data used in order to examine the temporal dynamics of vegetation cover change and to detect NDVI-climate relationship during the period from 1983 through 2011. Both parametric and non-parametric statistical models were employed for the assessment of long-term inter-annual trend on the decomposed time series datasets for the whole region (Guinea savannah region) and selected locations. In addition to the TSA, harmonic regression analysis was performed on NDVI and rainfall datasets in order to examine change in seasonality and phyto-phenological characteristics of vegetation. Detection of change in land use and land cover was done by extracting information from existing land cover datasets (ancillary datasets). CLASlite was used for the assessment of the extent of deforestation, while linkage between remotely sensed data and social science was carried out via field surveys based on questionnaires in order to understand the drivers of vegetation change. The study reveals that about 90 % of the Guinea savannah region show positive NDVI trends which indicate greening over time, while about 10 % of the region shows negative trends. This greening trends are closely related to regions where intensive agriculture is being practiced (also along inland valleys) while regions with negative trends show significant loss in woodlands (forest and shrublands) as well as herbaceous vegetation cover due to over-grazing by agro-pastoralism. The result confirms that there is a good relationship (statistically significant positive correlation) between rainfall and NDVI both on intra-annual and inter annual time scale for some selected locations in the study region (> 65 %), while negative statistical correlation exists between NDVI and temperature in the selected locations. This implies that vegetation growth (productivity) in the region is highly dependent on rainfall. The result of the harmonic regression analysis reveals a shift in the seasonal NDVI pattern, indicating an earlier start and a more prolonged growing season in 2011 than in 1983. This study proves significant change in LULC with evidence of an increase in the spatial extent of agricultural land (+ 30 %) and loss of woodlands (- 55 %) between 2000 and 2009 for Kogi State. The results of the socio-economic analysis (people’s perception) highlight that vegetation change dynamics in the study region are the resultant effects of increased anthropogenic activities rather than climatic variability. This study couples data from remote sensing and ground survey (socio-economics) for a better understanding of greening trend phenomena across the Guinea savannah region of Nigeria, thus filling the gap of inadequate information on environmental condition and human perturbation which is essential for proper land use management and vegetation monitoring.