Mapping of vegetation cover changes in eastern Mau block between 1990 and 2014

Abstract

Over the last decade, the forests of the Mau Complex have been heavily impacted by official forest excisions, as well as by illegal, irregular and unplanned settlements. Eastern Mau Forest reserve is one of the most affected forest blocks. Eastern Mau complex and the whole of the Mau ecosystem is a critical catchment areas, key to major conservation areas, key to people’s livelihood and is a major micro-climate regulator in the Rift Valley region and in the country at large. This project examines the use of GIS and Remote Sensing in mapping land use land cover in East Mau Complex between 1990 and 2014 so as to detect the changes that have taken place in forest cover between these periods. In achieving this, Landsat images of the years in focus and relevant geographical information were obtained and used. Remote sensing and GIS based applications were used to analyze and derive information from the data collected. The result of the work showed areas where vegetation hotspots are most prevalent, vegetation cover changes and the quantification of various land use classes between 1990 and 2014 (Ref. Table 4.1) Suggestions were therefore made at the end of the work on ways to use the information as contained therein optimally. This study will help to increase forest cover, to protect critical catchment areas, to rationalize land use in excised forest areas, to realign gazette forest boundaries and to reduce forest fragmentation