Sustainable Land Management

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Browsing Sustainable Land Management by Subject "Kenyatta University"

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  • Publication
    Publication
    Dynamics of Land Use Changes on The Livelihoods of The Local Communities in Baringo County: Understanding The Drivers
    (International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2021-09-09) Kateiya, Edward Lekaichu Ole; Thuo, Aggrey Daniel Maina; Ombok, Maurice Ochieng
    This paper examined the dynamics of land use changes on the livelihood of the local communities in Baringo County. Land is a principal factor of production, a source of life and livelihoods. It provides a means of living and a variety of uses such as agricultural, human settlement, environmental conservation, urban and industrial development purposes among others. These uses compete for space in a fixed area, hence the rising land use conflicts and degradation. The situation has threatened lives and livelihoods, making it difficult to plan for the livelihood activities in the County. This is happening against the backdrop of land use policy changes including; sessional paper no 3 of 2009 on the National Land Policy, the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the Land Act, 2012, the Land Registration Act, 2012, the Community Land Act, 2016 and sessional paper no 1 of 2017 on National Land Use Policy that were intended to alleviate the situation. This situation is now a major threat to the livelihood of the local communities in Baringo County. This study, therefore, sought to examined the dynamics of land use changes on the livelihood of the local communities in Baringo county with specific objective to establish the drivers of the changes. A comprehensive desk review of existing literature was done, and land use changes were descriptively analyzed. The review spanned from pre-colonial (before 1895), colonial (1895 to 1963), independence (1963 to 2010) including the subsequent years of land reforms following the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 onwards to 2020. The study found that the key drivers of land use changes originate from the change of land use policies from customary to European-like systems during the colonial era (1895 to 1963). These drivers revolve around the conflicts in the application of land use policies and laws, dual production system (different land use for registered private land in arable areas and the unregistered community land in non-arable areas within the county) occasioning wide productivity gap and economic disparity. Further the knowledge gaps associated with colonial perceptions, ideologies, and attitudinal practices, which led to misconception and wrong policies aggravated the situation. The consequences disorganize the local community land use and social system, broke down the traditional grazing and cropping patterns, depleted soils fertility & degraded the environment. In addition, the study found out that in the unregistered community land, land use conflicts were rampant, and characterized by invaded and claim interest as well as unscrupulous legal manipulation of land ownership records leading to dispossession. These two salient features are the main drivers of land use changes that led to continuous and frequent fatal inter-ethnic land use conflicts among the local communities; causing displacement and destruction of property among other atrocities working against politically weak local community. This scenario destabilized livelihood possibilities making it difficult for local communities to engage in basic livelihood activities and create uncertainty for future development. The study concluded that the security of land tenure perpetrates land use conflicts particularly in the unregistered community land. The government, therefore, need to register the community land to enhance land tenure security in the county.
  • Publication
    Publication
    Effects of Land Use/Land Cover Change and Rainfall Variability on Hydrological Characteristics of River Ruiru Watershed, Kiambu County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2021) Waithaka, Ann
    Watersheds and their water resources are highly vulnerable to land use/land cover changes and seasonal rainfall variability as they directly influence basin hydrological characteristics in terms of water quantity and quality. This study assessed the effects of land use/land cover change and rainfall variability on hydrological characteristics of River Ruiru watershed in Kiambu County. The study integrated the use of remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), water quality sampling, hydrological modelling and statistical methods to collect and analyse the collected data. Results of land use/land cover change analysis indicated that built-up areas, annual crops and perennial crops (tea and coffee) increased by 3.068%, 35.848% and 11.493% respectively between 1976 and 2017. However, it was observed that perennial crops increased gradually between 1976 and 1995 but declined by 1.94% between 1995 and 2017. Grassland, shrubland and forestland declined by 7.48%, 13.25% and 29.79% respectively between 1976 and 2017. Consequently, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model simulation results indicated that the land use/land cover changes that occurred in River Ruiru watershed between 1984 and 2017 had effects on the quantity of river discharge and water quality for drinking purposes. Surface runoff (SURQ), lateral flow (LATQ) and groundwater contribution to discharge (GWQ) increased from 30.25mm/yr, 8.48mm/yr and 9.95mm/yr to 181.25mm/yr, 11.44mm/yr and 10.66mm/yr respectively. Moreover, the nitrates in surface runoff (NO3SURQ), nitrates in lateral runoff (NO3LATQ), Organic Nitrogen (N.ORG) and Organic Phosphorus (P.ORG) increased from 0.05kgN/ha/yr, 0.06kgN/ha/yr, 5.77kgN/ha/yr and 0.87kgP/ha/yr to 1.47kgN/ha/yr, 0.19kgN/ha/yr, 70.60kgN/ha/yr and 8.86kgP/ha/yr respectively. In additions, findings from the study indicated that temporal rainfall variability had effects on the quantity of river discharge and water quality of River Ruiru. Based on regression analysis, the correlation between the observed and predicted value of dependent variable indicated an association of R=0.972 between temporal rainfall variability and quantity of river discharge hence showing a strong positive linear relationship. Similarly, Pearson’s correlation analysis results showed that temporal rainfall variability was strongly and positively correlated to NO3, N.ORG and P.ORG with R=.695, p<.001; R=.781, p<.001 and R=-.780, p<.001. Furthermore, results from a paired sample t-test indicated that pH, turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), electrical conductivity and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) had higher mean during wet season (M=8.40, M=79.00, M=51.20, M=87.00 and M=54.20) than in dry season (M=6.80, M=11.60, M=43.40, M=73.00, and M=45.40). The difference for these water quality parameters between dry and wet seasons was significant (P=0.003, P=0.034, P=0.005, P=0.013 and P=0.014). Moreover, findings from the study indicated that DO, TDS, electrical conductivity, total phosphorus and total nitrogen values were within World Health Organization (WHO) and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) recommended values. However, the results for the total coliforms and E. coli indicated that River Ruiru was severely polluted with faecal organisms. In conclusion, land use and land cover changes and temporal rainfall variability have affected the quantity of river discharge and water quality in River Ruiru watershed. As such, remedial actions to address the hydrological effects of land use/land cover change and temporal rainfall variability both by national and county governments are required.
  • Publication
    Publication
    Modelling soil erosion for land management in ungauged golole catchment in Marsabit County, Kenya
    (Scientific Research Publishing, 2018-11-13) Njiru, Gabriel N.; Kariuki, Patrick C.; Mwetu, Kennedy
    This study modeled soil erosion between January 2016 and September 2018for land management in Golole catchment. The Revised Universal Soil LossEquation (RUSLE) constituting the main agents of soil erosion was modeledin a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. The objective ofthis study was to model soil erosion for land management in the ungaugedGolole catchment. The Golole catchment soil erosion map reveals that withinthe catchment the soil loss was not homogeneous and erosion risk was notthe same. The catchment experiences an annual mean score soil loss rate of279 t/ha that is above the recommended maximum allowable annual soil lossrate of 4 t/ha. The catchment’s soil loss rate is described as high and severerepresenting 70% and 30% of landmass respectively. This study found theneed to decelerate the above soil loss rates to moderate and low levels byadopting soil erosion mitigation measures such as stone contour ridges, manure, strip cropping, and terracing in the cultivated areas and controlledgrazing in the lowland rangeland. The study strongly felt the need to protectthe forest reserve from tree cutting and further human encroachment. Thisstudy concludes that there is the need for further research 1) in the forest reserve areas that showed the greatest rates of soil erosion menace to determinethe underlying causes, and 2) to assess the temporal trends of the soil erosionhazard using high-resolution data.