Water is at the core of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival. This research study has been carried out in Nakuru County, a tropical region in the Rift Valley of Kenya, bounded between latitude 0.28˚N and 1.16˚S, and longitude 36.27˚E and 36.55˚E. The objective of the study has been to use GIS and remote sensing in assessment of water scarcity using Land use Land cover area changes, standard precipitation index and crop yields. Landsat satellite images for the year 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015 were used. Classification was done using maximum likelihood algorithm while classification accuracy assessment entailed the use of confusion matrix method and ground truth data. Post classification change detection results gave percentage cropland areas as 21% in 1985, 29% in 1995, 53% in 2005 and also 53% in 2015. Eleven (11) ground rainfall stations and TRMM satellite rainfall data from 1985 to 2015 has been used to show meteorological drought. Validation of rainfall data done using correlation coefficient (R 2 ) and root mean square (RMS) methods showed that ground rainfall data and TRMM data correlate. Modelling of 3 months SPI for each of the three seasons (MAM, JJA and OND) has been done using interpolation distance weighted method (IDW). 3 months SPI time scales curves gave October 1987, May 1993, and July 2004 as water scarce and dry seasons and were categorized as either Normal, moderately dry, severely dry and extremely dry. Crop yield trends curves showed crop yield decrease in this identified water scarce and dry years. Conclusion reached is that crop yields is not dependent on size of land ploughed only but mostly on rainfall quantities. Therefore, the findings of this research can be used as drought monitoring tools.
Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a phenomenon characterized by higher surface and atmospheric temperatures in urbanized areas as compared to the surrounding rural areas. This phenomenon is a consequence of increase in Land Surface Temperatures (LST) as a result of trapped heat energy on the surface. The objective of this study is establishing the trends in and relationship between LST and land use/land cover in Nakuru County as it seeks to achieve the ultimate goal to contain the UHI effect. Urban heat island inference was based on the generation of a time series set of Landsat imagery, with particular emphasis on the thermal band. Land use/land cover mapping was conducted using maximum likelihood classification techniques, and this, like the LST, is generated in a time series fashion from 1989 to 2015. Accuracy assessment was conducted in order to give confidence in the classification results. The accuracy of the development was assessed using observed temperature data as recorded by the ground stations at the Kenya Meteorological Department. This study employed Normalized NDVI and NDBI to investigate the variation land use/land cover. Results revealed that over the years, settlement has been on an upward trend in terms of area whereas forests have been decreasing due to deforestation. Also, the land surface temperatures have been increasing over the years. In order to qualify this, the correlation between LST and Land Use change was conducted and it indicated that changes to settlement/urban increased proportionately with Land Surface Temperature.
There has been an increasing need for geospatial information that is delivered through internet technologies. This broad category of systems is referred to as Web Geographic Information Systems (Web GIS). These systems exhibit characteristics common to both stand-alone and web-based systems making it necessary to apply a hybrid methodology during their development. This paper proposes a methodology for developing Web GIS that is herein referred to as the Y-Model Web GIS Development Methodology (YWDM) which has been adapted from existing software development methodologies and applied to the context of Web GIS development. The paper outlines in details the phases of the methodology. Its viability as a methodology has been tested through its use in the implementation of the Emuhaya Web GIS portal.The methodology presented here is not intended to be a rigid guide for web GIS development but instead it provides a useful framework for guiding the process.
Kenya has amassed a wealth of paper based land information records collected over the duration of more than a century. The National Land Commission (NLC) having the mandate to develop a National Land Information Management System (NLIMS) for Kenya partnered with the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology on a project to develop a pilot LIMS for Nyeri County. A pilot Land Administration System (LAS) has been developed in this work and utilizes an Africanized Land Administration Domain Model (A-LADM) fitted to the Kenyan context. Various processes involved in land administration that required to be automated were identified. Informed by the numbers of applications made for the change of User service, it was picked as the first workflow to be automated. The key outputs of this work were the A-LADM and pilot LAS. The pilot solution uses a webcentric solution, with the data stored and managed centrally from a PostGIS database backend, using the Python Django framework to implement the server side and client side frontend. This solution demonstrates the importance of automating processes and supporting standards based software development. Stakeholder participation is key when implementing systems and 2 workshops are held to capture requirements and validate the developed solution.
Globally, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rates have been higher in the urban areas . The cities, especially in fast urbanizing Sub-Saharan Africa , present conditions that influence the spatial characteristics of health including that of HIV/AIDS . Comprised of migrants from varying socio-cultural backgrounds, and having spatially diverse socio-economic characteristics , the cities are bound to have spatial patterns of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that are as heterogeneous as those at the global, continental, and country levels. This paper reports an endeavour to understand the spatial characteristics of the epidemic through a case study of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Nairobi, Kenya. The study, through a questionnaire survey on PLWHA, established that the AIDS pandemic within the city of Nairobi is spatially heterogeneous. Most of the PLWHA in the study resided in the densely populated administrative locations of the city. These locations are also characterised by high density of people living below the urban poverty line , unhygienic environment, and insecurity. However, the availability of affordable basic living necessities , and the presence of medical, financial and social support, among other reasons, makes these areas the only feasible residential option for most of the PLWHA. Besides these factors, family reunion (and separations due to HIV/AIDS), job-search, HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination, among other factors, are influencing the spatial distribution of PLWHA through intra-city residential movement and in-migration to Nairobi. The research suggests that addressing economic as well as medical infrastructure would be very important if other mitigation efforts in the spread of HIV are to gain sustainable effects.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.