APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS FOR ASSESSING LAND COVER RESOURCES VARIABILITY IN THE SELOUS GAME RESERVE, TANZANIA

Phillip W Mambo,John E Makunga

doi:10.47672/ejt.227

Abstract

Purpose: The study was conducted in Selous Game Reserve, with intention of developing GIS and Remote Sensing based wildlife management system in the protected area.Methodology: All habitats were digitised using ArcGIS9.3 in which five scenes of Landsat TM and ETM+ digital images were acquired during dry seasons of the year 2000 and 2010. Band 3 and 4 of the Landsat images were used for calculation of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for determination of vegetation spatial distributionResults: The NDVI maps of year 2000 to 2010 revealed the vegetation density depletion from 0.72 (obtained in 0.46─0.72 value interval and covering 46.5% pixel area) in 2000 as compared to 0.56 ( found in 0.38─0.56 value interval and covering 8.04% pixel area) in 2010 NDVI maps.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: It was recommended that there was a necessity to integrate applications of remote sensing and GIS techniques for the assessment and monitoring of the natural land cover variability to detect fragmentation and loss of wildlife species.

Highlights

Global research on biodiversity has noted an increase in the magnitude and spatial changes in land use land change (LULCC) of global biophysical resources due to increasing demands from humans (Meyer & Turner 1994)
The results presented include; altitude of the landforms of the study area as depicted by the Digital elevation model (DEM) map, classified land cover images of 2000 and land cover resources variation pattern represented by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) maps
The digital elevation model (DEM) map representing the topographical features as well as the drainage network and elevations of different animal habitats of the Selous Game Reserve revealed that the study area has an altitude ranging from 0m to 2600m (Figure 4)

Summary

Introduction

Global research on biodiversity has noted an increase in the magnitude and spatial changes in land use land change (LULCC) of global biophysical resources due to increasing demands from humans (Meyer & Turner 1994). For example the consequences of LULCC changes includes global climate change (World Bank, 2008), natural resources depletion, species loss, habitat encroachment around protected areas buffer zones (Kintz et al, 2006). Selous Game Reserve forms a continuous ecosystem by connecting Niassa protected area (42,000 km2) in Mozambique, Mikumi, Udzungwa mountains National parks and community managed conserved areas with an estimated area of more than 154,000 km2) (Baldus et al, 2003). The Selous Game Reserve (SGR) is dominated by miombo woodlands which vary in their density depending on soil, topographic characteristics and other associated human activities (Caro et al, 2009)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion