Effects of heterogeneous land use/cover types on river channel morphology in the Solo River catchment, Eastern Uganda
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Geocarto International
Abstract
In the tropics, unmonitored land use/cover types cause significant effects on the narrowing and
widening of river channels which affects the integrity of water resources. River channel planform
extent was characterised using Landsat images while water and bedload samples were collected
and analysed for a period of one year. The results revealed that in 1986 the channel planform
covered 3.7sq.km in length than in 2013 where it increased to 4.2sq.km. Wetland (537.1mgl-1)
and bushland (186.3mgl-1) cover types had the highest concentration of suspended sediments.
Fine-sand (0.25mm), silty-sand (1mm) and silty-clay (0.125mm) bedload particle types
dominated the riverbed along the channel from the sampled land use/cover types. The high
concentration of sediments, bedload materials, bank-instability, and stream-flow were significant
contributors to the narrowing and widening of the channel (P<0.05). Agricultural landuse was
the major contributor of channel aggradation (0.8m) and degradation (0.25m) compared to treeplantations,
bushlands, forest and wetland cover types.
Description
Keywords
River channel planform, Sediments, Streamflow, Cross-sections
Citation
Bernard Barasa, Vincent Kakembo, Tim Mwololo Waema & Macopiyo Laban (2015): Effects of heterogeneous land use/cover types on river channel morphology in the Solo River catchment, Eastern Uganda, Geocarto International, DOI: 10.1080/10106049.2015.1132480