TITLE:
Geo-Hazard Susceptibility Assessment and Its Impacts on Livelihoods in Kerio Valley, Kenya
AUTHORS:
Mark Boitt, John Gathoni
KEYWORDS:
Kerio Valley Basin, Land Use Land Cover, Moisture Zones, Agroecological Zones, Soil Erosion, RUSLE Model, Geohazard Risk Zones, Multivariate Clustering, Analytical Hierarchy Process
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.13 No.3,
March
22,
2022
ABSTRACT: Geohazards are a recurrent issue in the Kerio River catchment of Kenya,
which usually results in life and property loss. This research focuses on
mapping geo-hazard risk zones of the region. The risk zones were developed from
a combination of land use land cover maps, agroecological zones maps and soil
erosion maps using the Analytical Hierarchy Process method of multi-criteria
analysis. The final results depict the geohazard risk maps which show the
susceptibility of different areas in the catchment (classified as risk zones)
to hazards. The zones range from no risk zones to very high-risk zones. The
results showed that the lowlands are most susceptible to hazards as they were
classified as high-risk zones. These risk zone areas have impacts on the
socio-economic development hence negatively impacting livelihoods in the area.