Urbanization and Land Use Change Implications on Water Resources in the Mara River Basin, Kenya Water shortage in poor urban neighborhoods
objectives The aim of the study is to investigate the character and trend of land use changes brought about by urbanization processes within the Mara River Basin in Kenya and to assess how this has affected water resources in the area. The specific objectives are to • Map the trends of Land Use and Land Cover Changes using remote sensing and field observation
Mau Forest showing some loss of forest cover due to agricultural encroachment
Wildebeest crossing the Mara River during the annual migration
• Characterize the Patterns and rates of urban spatial growth within the Mara Basin in the last 20 years • Determine the impacts of urbanization driven land use land cover changes on water resources Time frame: July2012- July 2013 Researcher: Jack Abuya, PhD Candidate, Maseno University, Kenya Supervisors: Prof. George Mark Onyango & Dr. Leah Onyango Nordic Africa Institute Host Researcher: Dr. Onyanta Adama-Ajonye
An elephant in the Mara Swamp
Forest cover loss due to Urban settlements
Raw sewer discharge into the river
Simulated hydrographs for 1973 and 2000 land cover data sets at most downstream gauging station
