Mapping land enclosures and vegetation cover changes in the surroundings of Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps with very high resolution satellite imagery

Abstract

The immediate surroundings of refugee camps in drylands are among the areas exposed to highest pressure on natural resources including vegetation and soil. Understanding the dynamics of land fencing in these areas is critical for sustainable camp management and can help to improve the knowledge about land management in drylands in general. Very high resolution satellite imagery provides a means to observe such areas over time and to document land cover and use changes. This study uses satellite images to map fenced areas, which can be divided into pastoral enclosures and the so called ‘green belts’ (areas fenced for afforestation) around the Hagadera Camp in Dadaab (Kenya). It then analyses change dynamics between 2006 and 2013, a period where the refugee camp has been subject to high oscillations in camp population, due to a combination of conflicts and droughts in Somalia. The applied methodology allows detailed fence mapping and shows a large increase in fenced area (56%) over the 7‐year period. Although new pastoral enclosures expanded into more densely vegetated surroundings, land cover density inside already fenced areas either decreased or remained stable. Green belt areas grew at a similar rate (58%) but did not show evidence of greening over time and their longer term success is strongly dependent on maintenance. The settlement area did also expand remarkably in the same time (65%), and human and animal movements in the surroundings intensified with a negative impact on vegetation density. The study could not fully investigate the socio‐economic drivers and impacts linked to the rapid increase of enclosures, which are inextricably linked to evolutions in local agro‐pastoral practices. However, by documenting spatial and temporal dynamics of fenced areas, it adds new evidence to their increasing relevance in rangeland management, and opens the way to a number of hypotheses, stimulating the debate about long‐term ecological and socio‐economic impact.

Satellite-Based Human Settlement Datasets Inadequately Detect Refugee Settlements: A Critical Assessment at Thirty Refugee Settlements in Uganda

“…The diversity of spatio-temporal data on refugee settlements is beneficial for a targeted assessment of their inclusion in broad-scale human settlement products, yet there has never been a formal assessment of the detection of refugee settlements. There are, by contrast, many analyses of individual refugee settlements using high or moderate resolution (e.g., Sentinel and Landsat) satellite imagery or derived products to estimate settlement area [31,32], enumerate dwellings [33][34][35][36][37], model refugee populations [38], guide the delivery of aid and relief [39,40], assess environmental conditions [41][42][43][44], map land cover/use change [45][46][47] and quantify economic development [48].…”

The Energy Potential of Harvested Wood Fuel by Refugees in Northern Uganda

“…e continued influx of refugees in Uganda has made it difficult to reduce overharvesting of firewood and charcoal because most of the solutions to wood fuel crisis are implemented at a local or pilot scale but not at settlement or regional levels. is study also recognises that many studies that have investigated refugees and wood fuel have paid more attention to the technologies involved in the use of wood fuel [14,15], access to wood fuel [16,17], the impact of refugees on vegetation [18,19], and wood fuel supply and demand [20][21][22]. However, little attention has been given to the determinant choices and constraints of wood fuel access, the energy potential of harvested firewood, and documentation of energy conservation measures implemented in the settlements.…”

Impacts of large-scale refugee resettlement on LCLUC: Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, Uganda case study

“…Satellite Earth-observation (EO) data provides critical, relevant, and timely information supporting development planning, including urban growth analysis [8], urbanization [9], drought monitoring and early warning [10][11][12], cropland and agricultural LU mapping [13][14][15][16][17], agricultural monitoring and food security [18][19][20], and burned area (BA) estimation [21,22]. This study is particularly interested in using EO data to understand the relationships between BA and LU [23,24] and the relationship between refugee settlements and LC [25][26][27][28]. However, the lack of up-to-date and high-resolution LC maps remains a critical barrier to their use in supporting policy planning, particularly in regions dominated by smallholder agriculture that are most vulnerable to food insecurity, including most refugee settlements [25].…”