This study assesses the relationships between socio-economic factors and the spatial dynamics of vegetation cover inthe Idemili River Basin of South Eastern Nigeria. It is based on a socio-ecological systems dynamics modeling
concept highlighting locality scale relationships between vegetation cover densities and socio-demographic,
economic and socio-cultural factors in the basin. The modeling was implemented using regression techniques with
pixel level NDVI indicators of vegetation cover density developed from remote sensing image datasets and
indicators of eight socio-economic factors developed from a household survey of the basin. NDVI values for the
basin ranged from -.117 to .410 indicating a high level of human impact on vegetation. Modeling results showed that
bivariate relationships between vegetation cover dynamics and socio-demographic variables were the most
significant, with R Square values > .60 for linear and nonlinear models. Vegetation cover density had high inverse
correlations with population, urbanization levels and number of households in localities. Population/urbanization
status of localities was also the most significant principal component or underlying dimension linked to spatial
dynamics of vegetation cover in the basin accounting for 50% of factor variations. Relationships between vegetation
cover densities and economic factors (occupational and household energy patterns) and socio-cultural factors
(environmental knowledge, values and governance) were weaker, and less significant . The study showed that factor
interactions are a prominent aspect of vegetation-society relationship in the basin with both adverse and beneficial
implications to vegetation cover.
Keywords: Environmental change; multi-level modeling; socio-economic; vegetal cover