Understanding the changeful patterns of land cover and land use in the tropical waterway basin over occasion is critical. Primary land conversions particularly in the 21st century have happen due to growing demands for the scarce raw materials within the water catchment regions. These alterations affect hydrological developments at basin and substitute basin scale. However, skilled is limited dossier and information on the magnitude to which hydrological processes reaction to dynamics of alterations of the basic land covers in miscellaneous river basins. The primary land cover in Sondu Miriu River Basin has been having transformations and it is main to investigate belongings of land cover and land use on quantity and status of the basin’s water possessions. This study determined the influences of substitute basins dominated by beverage plantations, woods and agricultural land uses in conditions of streamflow and sediment flow variability in Sondu Miriu River Basin in Kenya, East Africa. Seasonal instability of stream flows and sediment fluxes were contingent upon hydrological modelling and field-located investigations. In the three hard to do sub basins of penal institution basin, inspecting of flow velocities, turbidity and Total Suspended Sediment Concentration (TSSC) were conducted. The results presented that the sub bowl dominated by assorted farming land cover exhibit extreme turbidity approximately 620 NTU and extreme TSSC levels of about 630 mg/l in wet seasons. While in sub basins ruled by forest and beverage plantations, the turbidity levels and TSSC were reduced with nearly mean value of 17-29 NTU and 0.019g/l. The trash loads in sub watershed governed by mixed cultivation in the pre planting season in January to February was extreme about 900 tonnes/day than crop increasing season. While in sub lagoon dominated by jungle and tea homesteads cover, sediment loads were reduced being of the order 2-7 tonnes/day. The mean annual debris yields at the downstream of Sondu Miriu River Basin was nearly 140 tonnes/ha/annum. The positive and negative connections between stream flows, sediments and field of land cover showed that hydrological elements respond otherwise to land use changes in the sub basins.
Author(s) Details:
Nancy Cherono Koech,
Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation,
P.O Box-49720 – 00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
Johnson
U. Kitheka,
Department
of Hydrology and Aquatic Sciences, South Eastern Kenya University, P.O
Box-170-90200, Kitui, Kenya.
Hesbon Otieno,
Department of Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering, South Eastern
Kenya University, P.O Box-170-90200, Kitui, Kenya.
Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/RPST-V4/article/view/9444
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