Appraisal of Land Use Transformation using Remote Sensing in Kajiado County, Kenya

Abstract

Kajiado County is predominantly inhabited by the Maasai nomadic pastoralists who rely on natural systems for their provisions and production needs. Traditionally, communal land management has been the norm in the area but that has evolved under the swift development context with the private holding of land becoming prevalent. The land-use transformation has curtailed the traditional seasonal movement of livestock and that has exposed the Maasai community to production risks which have contributed to the widespread food insecurity in the area. To address this gap, the study investigated land-use transformation in the area using Landsat 8, 4 and 5 datasets, where 1987, 2000 and 2015 epochs with a spatial resolution of 30*30m were sourced from www.glovis.usgs.org Remote sensing technology used to evaluate biophysical attributes showed changes in land-use patterns with the bare area, built-up area, cropland, forested land, grassland, riverine, shrubland, waterbody and wetland having undergone significant changes in their respective sizes. These land-use transformations have been compounded with the spread of invasive species to the point of threatening pastoralism. However, the successive governments have shown a marked disdain for resource use patterns. Thus, there is need for an all-inclusive land-use policies to inform adaptation and resilience planning in Kajiado County, Kenya.