Browsing by Author "Macopiyo, Laban"

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    Streamflow responses to changes in land use and climate in a tropical catchment: Malaba River Catchment, Eastern Uganda
    (Geosciences, 2018) Barasa, Bernard; Kakembo, Vincent; Mwololo Waema, Tim; Macopiyo, Laban
    The hydrological cycle over most tropical catchments is mainly influenced by changes in land use and climate. This study explored the trend of precipitation and streamflow to evaluate the sensitivity of the catchment to land use and climate. A Mann-Kendall test and the concept of streamflow elasticity were adopted to determine the trend of precipitation and sensitivity of the catchment to climate. Changes in land use on the streamflow were evaluated using a spatially distributed SHETRAN hydrological model. The model calibration period was 1995-1998, while 2009-2012 was the validation period. The highest change in the gain of land were mainly experienced from the agricultural land use (crop growing) (36.7%) and tropical forest-regeneration (2.2%); while the highest loss in land were experienced from the wetlands (24.6%) and bushlands and thickets (15.3%) land cover types. The calibration period had a Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.78 whilst 0.81 during validation. The high frequency of flood re-occurences and growth in agricultural land use were the major contributors of streamflow in the catchment.