Analysis of arable land distribution around human settlements in the riparian area of Lake Tanganyika in Africa

Abstract

Land use changes in the tropics under the pressure of population growth have attracted wide attention. In this study, the riparian area with more settlements was selected to explore the land use temporal-spatial characteristics of the less developed Lake Tanganyika region. The study methods employed mainly included land use transition matrix, kernel density estimation, grid and buffer analysis of the ArcGIS software and remote sensing image processing. The changes of land use mainly reflected in the transformation between different land types, among which the conversion from forestland into arable land constituted the major event. Though the land use change rate was not so significant for the whole region, dramatic changes occurred around the towns especially in the northern area. It was found that a circle of arable land of about 6 km in width and more than 40% arable land density composed the farming hinterland of the major towns. Moreover, with the forest transition theory the change trends of land use and their influencing factors were analysed. The findings in this study should be helpful for the land use simulation and planning in similar riparian areas. For better understanding the dynamic of land use change, a future additional in-depth study at extensive spatial and temporal scale is appealed.