The research looked at the spatial extent of the risk of pipeline explosion and fire outbreak on the vegetation health and abundance in Rivers State, Nigeria, a thought for adequate regional development planning. The study made use of NDVI imagery which was used to capture vegetation health and abundance. Buffering analysis was employed to determine the potential effect of oil pipeline explosions and fire outbreak in the study area at 50m, 100m, 200m, 300m, 500m and 1000m. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for the study. Findings revealed that the mean vegetation health at 50m distance from the oil pipeline was 0.5087, 100m was 0.5113, at 200m was 0.5123, at 300m was 0.5193, at 500m was 0.5500 and at 1000m was 0.5619; which invariably showed that as the distance rose, the health of vegetation improved from the oil pipeline in Rivers State. There is a significant variation in the potential effect on the vegetation health (F=11.69; p=0.024) by the oil pipeline explosion or fire outbreak. Also, post hoc comparison revealed that there is significant variation in the effect of fire explosion on vegetation health in the study area as the p>0.05 especially between 1000m and other distances of 50m, 100m, 200m, 300m and 500m. Findings also showed that 35.2% of the effect of fire explosion on vegetation health can be explained by distance from the oil pipeline. The mean value of vegetation health in the non-affected region was 0.4652 while for the affected regions was 0.4585. This shows that vegetation health reduced in regions where oil explosions and fire outbreaks were frequently observed. It is concluded that fire explosion and fire outbreak from oil pipelines in River State has caused harm to the health of vegetation and invariably affected liveability and well-being of the people in the areas. The study recommended among others for proper periodic assessment of the areas being ravaged by the intensity of fire explosion from oil pipeline, and implementation of integrated development plans by the operators.
