Author(s)

Moses Muriuki¹, Joy Obando¹, Mary Makokha¹, Chris Shisanya¹, Justin Sheffield², Francis Oloo³, Chengxiu Li², Fiona Ngarachu⁴

¹Department of Geography, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.
²Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
³Department of Geography, Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya.
⁴United States International University Africa, Nairobi, Kenya.

Human activities are considered one of the main contributors towards environmental changes. An assessment of the impacts of land use and land cover changes is necessary to facilitate proper planning and management of environmental resources. The objective of this study was to determine the land use and land cover change hotspots and drivers in lagha bor catchment, Wajir County in Kenya. This was achieved by use of Google Earth Engine (GEE) where archived landsat images of 1986, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 were retrieved and analysed for land use land covers (LULC). The main land use considered in the study area included, dense shrubs, sparse shrubs, grassland and bare-ground. The land use and land cover change dynamics were determined through classification, change detection and analysis of Landsat imageries of 1986, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 within Google Earth Engine platform. Land use and land cover change analysis showed that spare-shrubs and bare-ground cover were predominant accounting for approximately 95% of the catchment. Between 1986 and 2020, bare-ground cover increased from 35% to 45.8% while sparse shrubs decreased from 60.8% to 49%. From this, bare-ground was found to increase at the expense of sparse shrubs vegetation. Spatial-temporal trend analysis showed that hot spots which corresponded to areas under high sparse shrubs accounted for 35% while cold spots which corresponded to bare-ground cover was 43%. The hotspots were determined using optimized and emerging hot spot analysis tool in ArcGIS Pro was used in the assessment of trends. Area that experienced no pattern showed no statistically significant increase or decrease in these two land covers and accounted for about 22%. Areas recording significant changes (hot or cold spots) were observed around settlements with permanent water points.

Piosphere, Degradation, Land Use, Land Cover, Hot Spot, Cold Spot, Google Earth Engine

Muriuki, M., Obando, J., Makokha, M., Shisanya, C., Sheffield, J., Oloo, F., Li, C.X. and Ngarachu, F. (2023) Human Impacts Onland Use and Land Cover Change in Lagha Bor Catchment, Wajir County, Kenya. Open Access Library Journal, 10, 1-23. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1109854.