Department of Environmental Studies

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://localhost:4000/handle/20.500.12092/1935

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Land use

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    Spatio-temporal dynamics of land use practices on rivers in tropical regions: A case study of Ruiru and Ndarugu Basins, Kiambu County, Kenya
    (2017-03) Mwangi, Wambugu; Isaiah, Nyandega; Shadrack, Kıthiia
    Land use dynamics are known to cause considerable modifications to the environment with broad and sometimes severe impacts on water quality and aquatic natural resources. In this study, the impacts of land use practices on water quality were estimated during the dry and wet seasons in Ruiru and Ndarugu Rivers, Kenya using remote sensing, geographic information systems and statistical techniques. A total of 12 sampling sites associated with three different land use types (forest, agriculture and urban) were selected. All water quality parameters were measured in situ in two dry seasons and two wet seasons and subjected to Kruskal Wallis statistical analyses. Significant variations were seen in water quality parameters between land use types. Higher temperatures were associated with urban dominated sub-basins, while dissolved oxygen was highest in forest sites. Turbidity was highest in agricultural sites and lowest in forested sites, but pH did not differ significantly across all sites. Seasonal impacts were recorded for most water quality parameters tested in all land use types, with agriculture and urban land use showing stronger impacts on water quality in the wet season than in the dry season. This study indicates that both agricultural and urban land use are key factors that affect water quality change. Land-use specific water conservation measures should be enhanced to limit both point and non-point sources of pollution in the study area
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    SWEA-Dataveg – vegetation of small wetlands in East Africa
    (2015-09-30) Kamiri, Hellen; Miguel, Alvarez; Bodo, Maria Möseler; Josko, Matthias; Becker, Mathias; Langensiepen, Matthias; Gunter, Menz; Beate, Böhme; Oyieke, Helida; Handa, Collins; Misana, Salome; Mwita, Emiliana; Mogha, Neema; Sakané, Nomé
    SWEA (agricultural use and vulnerability of small wetlands in East Africa) is a multidisciplinary project which task is to evaluate the effects of land use on the ecological and socio-economical functions of small wetlands in Kenya and Tanzania. In order to allow the availability of the collected data for further studies we stored them into SWEA-Dataveg (GIVD ID AF-00-006), a database stored in Microsoft Access (mdb-format). Because this project is dealing not only with vegetation science but also with geography, soil science, hydrology and socio-economy, the database also contains information related to these research fields. Additionally, some functional traits of the plant species occurring in the relevés are included in the species list. The sampling areas are concentrated in four localities, two of them in Kenya (Karatina and Rumuruti) and two in Tanzania (Malinda and Lukozi). The vegetation ecology group is dealing in the project with the classification of the vegetation according to species composition, the correlation of plant communities with environmental factors and land uses, and the survey of potential indicator species for the determination of the resilience of wetlands. Once finished the storage, we are considering an adaptation of SWEA-Dataveg into a TURBOVEG-format as well as its extension to further projects (e.g. SWEA phase II) and relevés collected from publications.
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