Dynamics of Land Use/Cover Trends in Kanungu District, South-western Uganda
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Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management
Abstract
Like other countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa,
Uganda is not an exception to the effects of land use/cover changes
on the environment. Specifically the study intended to; determine
the magnitude and trend of land use/cover changes in Kanungu
District for the last 35 years. A series of Landsat TM/ETM orthorectified
satellite imagery of 1975, 1987 and 1999 were classified
using unsupervised classification procedures in ILWIS 3.3
software to determine the magnitude and trend of land use/cover
changes. A total of 65 local residents were randomly selected for
questionnaire administration with the help of village leaders to
examine the underlying drivers of land use/cover change. The
results showed that the magnitude of small scale (Non-uniform)
farming largely increased by 5% from 1975 to 1999 while areas
covered by Tropical high forest relatively decreased by 16%
between 1975 and 1987 but slightly increased by 1% in 1999. The
areas covered by wetlands comparatively increased by 4% from
1975 to 1987 and by 1999 they slightly decreased by 3%. The
woodland areas decreased by 3% from 1975 to 1987 and to some
extent also increased by 2% in 1999. Household size, type of crops
grown, customary land tenure system, availability of agricultural
extension workers, weak environmental laws and policies are
significant predictors of land use/cover change in Kanungu
District.@
Description
Keywords
Dynamics, Land Use/Cover Trends, anungu District, Uganda
Citation
Bernard, B., Anthony, E., Patrick, O., & Fridah, M. (2010). Dynamics of land use/cover trends in Kanungu district, South-western Uganda. Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management, 14(4).