Impact of land use on water quality in River Njoro Watershed, Kenya.

Abstract

Water resources Within the River Njoro watershed have become degraded due to high population growth rate and change in land use upsetting environmental stability. Land cover classification using Landsat images (Baldyga et al., 2004) shows loss of about 20% of forested areas between 1986 and 2003 in the Watershed. The forested and large-scale farm areas have been converted mainly into srnall-scale mixed agriculture and human settlements. These changes have impacted negatively on the ecological integrity and hydrologic processes in the watershed (Shivoga. 2001) but little is known about the influence of specific land uses on water quality of the river.