Abstract
Abstract Drivers of land use change were captured by the use of DPSIR model where Drivers (D) represented human needs, Pressures (P), human activities, State (S), the ecosystem, Impact (I) services from the ecosystem and Response (R), the decisions taken by land users. Land sat MSS and Land sat ETM+ (path 185, row 31) were used in this study. The Land sat ETM+ image (June 1987, May, 2000 and July, 2014) was downloaded from USGS Earth Resources Observation Systems data website. Remote sensing image processing was performed by using ERDAS Imagine 9.1. Two land use/land cover (LULC) classes were established as forest and shrub land. Severe land cover changes was found to have occurred from 1987-2000, where shrub land reduced by −19%, and forestry reduced by −72%. In 2000 – 2014 shrub land reduced by-45%, and forestry reduced by −64%. Forestry and shrub land were found to be consistently reducing.
Highlights
Land use/Land cover change (LULCC) is continuously changing the Middle part of the River Njoro watershed, thereby threatening sustainability and livelihood systems of the people
Driving forces on land use included most of the factors that influenced human activity that exert pressure on the ecosystem, including population increase, poverty, land tenure and markets
Alongside determining the land use and factors influencing land use decisions, the study looked at land use/land cover changes that were as a result of land use decisions that the people made
Summary
Land use/Land cover change (LULCC) is continuously changing the Middle part of the River Njoro watershed, thereby threatening sustainability and livelihood systems of the people. Biodiversity is facing widespread competition with humanity as human population increases, resulting in increasing conflict between economic development and the need for biodiversity conservation These environmental problems are often related to LULC changes. Pressure, State, Impact and Response (DPSIR) model as a decision making tool, has been applied in numerous research efforts; including Water Resources Management at various scales. It has been used in a series of international and multidisciplinary research projects as the main analysis tool (Tscherning et al, 2012). There is a need to understand how land use changes had affected the environmental sustainability of the area
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