TITLE:
Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics in the Urban Watershed of Kimemi River (Butembo/D.R.C)
AUTHORS:
Jonathan Ahadi Mahamba, Gloire Kayitoghera Mulondi, Moïse Musubao Kapiri, Walere Muhindo Sahani
KEYWORDS:
Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics, Watershed, Kimemi River, Butembo
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.10 No.6,
June
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) influence
hydrological processes in a watershed. This study analyses the dynamics of LULC
in the Kimemi watershed from 1987 to 2021. GIS and remote sensing tools as well
as landscape pattern analysis were used to achieve this purpose. The results reveal
that the LULC change is globally marked by an increase in the bare land and
building at the expense of the low vegetation (grassland). Between 1987 and
2011, the bare land and buildings (Tg = 61.33%) and the woodland (Tg = 34.2%) classes increased, whereas the grassland class
decreased (Tg = -39.5%). On the other hand, between 2011 and 2015,
the bare land and building class still
increased (Tg = 29.9%) while that of grassland and woodland decreased with Tg = -37.3% and Tg = -4.9%, respectively. Finally, the dynamics observed from 2015 to 2021 is marked by small changes
between classes with Tg values of 2.1%, 1.9% and -8.9%, respectively, for the bare land and
building, grassland and woodland classes, respectively. The main spatial transformation processes observed are creation
and dissection for the bare land and building class, and the grassland class
respectively. In particular, the woodland class underwent the creation process
between 1987 and 2011 before undergoing attrition (2011-2015-2021). Reduced
vegetated areas give rise to new planning decisions to mitigate the
hydrological risks that could result from this situation.