Establishing landuse/cover change patterns over the last two decades and associated factors for change in semi arid and sub humid zones of Tanzania

Abstract

This study investigated landuse cover change patterns and established potential environmental and social factors that have contributed to changes in two zones namely sub humid and semi-arid found in southern highland and central parts of Tanzania respectively. The overall objective was to understand change patterns; the process evolves and clearly isolates various factors that have contributed to the changes over the last 20 years. A total of four villages, two in each zone were involved whereby historical land use cover changes were analysed using remote sensing techniques. To do so satellite imageries for 1991 and 2011 and those of 1986 and 2009 for sub humid and semi-arid zones respectively. Factors for changes were established through focus group discussions (FDGs) with a total of 80 participants (20 per village) and household (HH) interviews subjected to 10% of the total number of HH per village. Both woodlands and bush lands decreased in the expense of mixed farming in both sub humid and semiarid zones to a maximum of 121% and 146.8% respectively. Wetland farming also increased particular in sub humid zone. In general, both environmental and social factors were found to have contributed to LUCC in various magnitudes in both zones. Such observed change on landuse will continue and it is recommended that there is a need to have in place and implement proper landuse plan also have capacity building programs on climate and land management issues for both livelihood and ecosystem sustainability need to in place.

Natural Groundwater Recharge Response to Climate Variability and Land Cover Change Perturbations in Basins with Contrasting Climate and Geology in Tanzania

“…The decrease in forested land in the Kimbiji aquifer can be more attributed to human settlements, while in the Singida aquifer, agricultural land has claimed a huge chank of the forest land and woodlands as explained by the annual rate of change of forests and woodlands in the two study areas. The decrease in wetlands and grassland at the expense of increasing the agricultural land has also been reported elsewhere [54]. The expansion of urban areas at the expense of agricultural land was also reported in previous studies, highlighting some potential impacts of such land cover changes on water resources [55][56][57][58].…”

Historical and Future Spatial and Temporal Changes in Land Use and Land Cover in the Little Ruaha River Catchment, Tanzania

“…The major changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are a result of natural resources utilization. In most of the African countries, particularly in the Sub-Saharan Africa, their livelihood depends on the utilization of natural resources particularly from the forest and wetlands (Adger, 2007;Majule, 2013). This dependency tied with anthropogenic activities have been going on and intensified during the past millennium (Soka & Nzunda, 2014).…”

Land-use Dynamics in Lupila Ward of Makete District in Southern Highlands of Tanzania

“…Human beings use land resource mainly for farming activities (Haulle, 2015b). Land enables farmers to grow crops and pastoralists to keep animals (Majule, 2013;Parveen et al, 2018). Hence, famers need a fertile land to undertake effective farming activities.…”

“…In terms of productive functions, the land is used by human beings for crop production to feed human beings and livestock (Majule, 2013;Parveen et al, 2018). Apart from agricultural activities, land resource is used for forestry activities (Redemeier, 2012).…”

“…Studying LU change also contributes in making and implementing a proper LU plan. It enables to have capacity-building programmes on land management and climate change issues for the sustainability of both livelihood and ecosystem (Majule, 2013). According to Msofe et al (2019), analysis of LU plan helps to have appropriate and sustainable land management strategies, which include alternative environment-friendly sources of livelihood.…”