Description

Abstract: The River Njoro watershed and surrounding areas have undergone rapid changes in land cover and land use during the past two decades. In an effort to quantify these changes, and as part of the SUMAWA project, satellite images were acquired from January 28, 1986, February 6, 1995, and February 4, 2003. These satellite images were used to determine both the amount of overall land cover change as well as provide insight regarding the types of land use changes, representing the first quantitative assessment of land cover and land use change in the region. Results showed that significant changes in land cover and land use have occurred within the region as a whole and, more specifically, at an alarming rate in the uplands where the River Njoro headwaters are located on the escarpment. Results generated from this research have proven invaluable for all components of the SUMAWA project. Land cover and land use maps are primary inputs for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), the hydrological model currently employed in the SUMAWA project. Furthermore, as the project has developed and undertaken the task of building a spatial decision support system (SDSS) for rural watershed assessment and planning, the land cover and land use maps provided a basis for developing alternative land use scenarios. Finally, as part of the land cover and land use change mapping, a large-scale map was generated from these data and now sits in Lake Nakuru National Park where the River Njoro enters the park and helps tell the story of this rapidly changing landscape.