Abstract
Land use and cover changes influence the livelihood and degradation of fragile ecosystems. The extents of these changes in pattern were investigated in Lake Bunyonyi Catchment which lies in the South Western Highlands of Uganda. The dynamics and magnitude of land use and cover changes were assessed using Landsat (TM/ETM+) satellite images and collection of socio-economic data through interviews. The images were processed and analysed using the mean-shift image segmentation algorithm to cluster and quantify the land use and cover features. The study noted that in the assessment period 1987-2014, the small-scale farmlands, open water and grasslands remained quasi constant; while the woodlots followed a quadratic trend, with the lowest acreage experienced in 2000. The tropical high forests and wetlands cover types experienced significant decline over the years (P<0.05). Patches of small-scale farmlands, woodlots, and wetland interchangeably lost or gained more land dependant on climate variability. Even though the tropical high forest lost more than it gained, it only gained and lost to small scale farmland and woodlots; while grassland mainly lost to small scale farmland and woodlots.Keywords: Land degradation, landsat images, land-use/cover dynamics, South-western Uganda
Highlights
Sustainable land use management of the farming systems of Lake Bunyonyi catchment in Kigezi highlands of Southwestern Uganda hinges on improved understanding of land use/ cover change patterns influencing degradation of fragile ecosystems
The most dominant land use type was small-scale farmland followed by woodlots
Open water was the third most dominant land cover followed by wetlands while the least dominant was grassland followed by tropical high forest
Summary
Sustainable land use management of the farming systems of Lake Bunyonyi catchment in Kigezi highlands of Southwestern Uganda hinges on improved understanding of land use/ cover change patterns influencing degradation of fragile ecosystems. With increased population density and growth rates (UBOS, 2012), poor land management and the type of terrain (Magunda and Majaliwa, 2002), there is increasing evidence of land use/cover changes reported due to transformation of natural vegetation into farmlands, grazing lands, human settlement and urban centres (Bolwig, 2002, Maitima et al, 2009, Barasa et al, 2010, Majaliwa et al, 2015, Bizoza, 2015) These changes are cause of declining biodiversity (Darkoh, 2003), change in ecosystem services, catchment hydrology, local climate variation, food insecurity, and change in pollution loading into surface waters (Azanga, 2013). The current demographic pressure has inevitably led to rampant land fragmentation and increased encroachment on the otherwise marginal land for food production (Carswell, 1997)
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