Factors driving land use change: Effects on ecosystems services and human wellbeing in Lake Victoria basin
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Date
2009Author
Odada, E. O.
Ochola, W.O.
Olago, D.O.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
To offer an increased understanding of the spatial patterns, temporal, social and physical
predictors of the conversion and transformations of land use and land cover in Lake Victoria
basin, an assessment of proximate and underlying forces is presented. This paper discusses
key theoretical underpinnings for the manifold linkages existing between selected drivers and
land use and cover change around the basin and their consequences on human wellbeing.
Using a meta-analytical research design, the paper analyses ecosystems level cases of the
causes ofland use and cover change in the basin, in order to determine any spatio-temporal or
institutional patterns and dynam.ics. A suite of recurrent core variables have been identified to
influence land use and cover changes in the basin. The most prominent of these at the
underlying category are climatic factors, economic factors, institutions, national and regional
policies, population growth, and other remote influences. At the proximate level, these factors
drive cropland expansion, overgrazing, infrastructure extension and rates of land degradation.
These are supported by empirical evidence from the basin. This assessment is crucial for
appropriate local and transboundary policy interventions, which have to be fine-tuned to the
locale-specific dynamic patterns associated with the inherent land use and land cover changes.
Publisher
Panafrican START Secretariat (PASS). Department f Geology. University of Nairobi. Department of Agricultural Education and Extension. Egerton University.