Version 1
: Received: 14 July 2024 / Approved: 15 July 2024 / Online: 15 July 2024 (04:54:03 CEST)
How to cite:
Nakamo, S. J.; Francis, H.; Mgumia, F. Land Use Change and its Impacts on a Critical African Watershed: Lessons from the Ruhuhu River Sub-Basin. Preprints2024, 2024071106. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1106.v1
Nakamo, S. J.; Francis, H.; Mgumia, F. Land Use Change and its Impacts on a Critical African Watershed: Lessons from the Ruhuhu River Sub-Basin. Preprints 2024, 2024071106. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1106.v1
Nakamo, S. J.; Francis, H.; Mgumia, F. Land Use Change and its Impacts on a Critical African Watershed: Lessons from the Ruhuhu River Sub-Basin. Preprints2024, 2024071106. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1106.v1
APA Style
Nakamo, S. J., Francis, H., & Mgumia, F. (2024). Land Use Change and its Impacts on a Critical African Watershed: Lessons from the Ruhuhu River Sub-Basin. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1106.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Nakamo, S. J., Hellen Francis and Fadhili Mgumia. 2024 "Land Use Change and its Impacts on a Critical African Watershed: Lessons from the Ruhuhu River Sub-Basin" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1106.v1
Abstract
Background: Land use and land cover change (LULCC) in the Ruhuhu River Sub-Basin (RRSB), a crucial watershed within the Lake Nyasa Basin in Tanzania, poses a significant threat to water resource sustainability and ecological integrity. However, a lack of comprehensive data on long-term LULCC trends has hindered effective conservation efforts.
Methods: This study utilized Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI data within Google Earth Engine to quantify LULCC dynamics from 1990 to 2023. Six land cover classes were analyzed: water, forest, barren land, grassland, shrubland, and farmland.
Results: Results revealed a substantial decline in forest cover (56.92% to 28.60%), primarily converted to farmland (2.99% to 20.22%). Shrubland expanded initially but then declined, while barren land steadily increased. These changes have profound implications for water resources, biodiversity, and ecosystem services within the RRSB and the broader Lake Nyasa Basin.
Conclusions: This research highlights the urgency of implementing sustainable land management practices to mitigate the adverse impacts of LULCC in the RRSB. The high classification accuracies achieved (90.9% to 98.7%) validate the robustness of the methodology. This study provides crucial insights for policymakers, land managers, and conservation practitioners, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions to promote sustainable land use and ensure the long-term resilience of the RRSB ecosystem.
Keywords
Land Use and Land Cover Change; Ruhuhu River Sub-Basin; Remote Sensing; Lake Nyasa/Niassa/Malawi
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
