The concerns of researchers and policy makers for the deteriorating condition of the coastal
environments have increased in recent times. As the threats to the world today, such as, climate
change, population pressure, urbanization and disasters are getting worse, it has become needful to
give more attention to means of sustaining the human environment, especially the coastal areas. On
the basis of this background, access to geospatial data through internet technology has become
attractive, for investigating the impacts of dynamic processes on the coastal environment. This paper
presents the result of investigation carried out in Okrika coastal areas of Rivers State, Nigeria. In
particular, it discusses how internet-based geospatial data (for example; LandSat TM, ETM+ and
Google Earth maps) of three epochs, were incorporated into open-source Geographic Information
System (GIS), such as, Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS), and applied to the
investigation of land use/land cover (LU/LC) changes. The results obtained tend to show that
between 1986 – 2007, 10.94% of the coastal areas was modified from water body to residential
areas, 1.10% from residential areas to swamps, 0.42% from vegetation to water body and 0.93%
from residential areas to water body. With these modifications, the economic mainstay of the people
(marine, tourism and fishing activities) has been adversely affected. The research recommends that
effective shoreline protection facility be put in place through government regulations in order to
minimize further encroachment, particularly with regards to the water bodies. Also, high-resolution
geospatial data as well as simple GIS applications should be made available on the internet, to
enable more researchers contribute knowledge and solution to coastal crises, as well as improve
collaboration within an interactive platform among policy and strategy formulators.