TITLE:
Impacts of Mau Forest Catchment on the Great Rift Valley Lakes in Kenya
AUTHORS:
Mark Kipkurwa Boitt
KEYWORDS:
Environmental Protection, Natural Resource Management, Land Use, Forest Cover, Water Reduction, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Classification
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.4 No.5,
May
20,
2016
ABSTRACT: Remote
sensing and GIS applications are being widely used for various projects
relating to natural resource management. Forests are very important national
assets for economic, environmental protection, social and cultural values and
should be conserved in order to realize all these benefits. Kenya’s forests are
rapidly declining due to pressure from increased population, technological
innovation, urbanization human development and other land uses. Mau forest is
one of the major forests in Kenya that is a catchment area for many Great Rift
Valley lakes within the country and faces a lot of destruction. Continued
destruction of the Mau forest will cause catastrophic environmental damage,
resulting in massive food crises and compromising the livelihoods of millions
of Kenyans, and the possible collapse of the tourism industry. The purpose of
this research was to investigate the relationship between the increasing rate
of deforestation and the reduction of the volumes of water in the neighboring
lakes between the years 1989 to 2010. Satellite images from Landsat-5 Thematic
Mapper (TM) and Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) were used for the
detection of changes in the Mau forest and the dynamics of the neighboring
water bodies that included lakes: Naivasha, Baringo, Nakuru, Elementaita and
Bogoria. The research showed that from a period of 1989 to 2010 Mau forest has
been decreasing due to deforestation and the water bodies have irregular
dynamics in that, from 1989 to 2000, there was rise in the volume of water,
this is attributed to the El Nino rains experienced in the country during the
year 1997 and 1998. But between 2000 and 2010 the volume decreased as the
forest is also decreasing. It is recommended that the government creates
awareness to sensitize the public on the importance of such forests as
catchment areas in Kenya.