Land-Use and Land-Cover (LULC) Change Detection and the Implications for Coastal Water Resource Management in the Wami–Ruvu Basin, Tanzania

Jamila Ngondo, Joseph Mango, Ruiqing Liu, Joel Nobert, Alfonse Dubi and Heqin Cheng
Additional contact information
Jamila Ngondo: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Joseph Mango: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Ruiqing Liu: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Joel Nobert: Department of Water Resources Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam 35131, Tanzania
Alfonse Dubi: Department of Transportation and Geotechnical Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam 35131, Tanzania
Heqin Cheng: State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-23

Abstract: Evaluation of river basins requires land-use and land-cover (LULC) change detection to determine hydrological and ecological conditions for sustainable use of their resources. This study assessed LULC changes over 28 years (1990–2018) in the Wami–Ruvu Basin, located in Tanzania, Africa. Six pairs of images acquired using Landsat 5 TM and 8 OLI sensors in 1990 and 2018, respectively, were mosaicked into a single composite image of the basin. A supervised classification using the Neural Network classifier and training data was used to create LULC maps for 1990 and 2018, and targeted the following eight classes of agriculture, forest, grassland, bushland, built-up, bare soil, water, and wetland. The results show that over the past three decades, water and wetland areas have decreased by 0.3%, forest areas by 15.4%, and grassland by 6.7%, while agricultural, bushland, bare soil, and the built-up areas have increased by 11.6%, 8.2%, 1.6%, and 0.8%, respectively. LULC transformations were assessed with water discharge, precipitation, and temperature, and the population from 1990 to 2018. The results revealed decreases in precipitation, water discharge by 4130 m 3 , temperature rise by 1 °C, and an increase in population from 5.4 to 10 million. For proper management of water-resources, we propose three strategies for water-use efficiency-techniques, a review legal frameworks, and time-based LULC monitoring. This study provides a reference for water resources sustainability for other countries with basins threatened by LULC changes.

Keywords: land-use and land-cover change; change detection; coastal zone; Wami–Ruvu Basin; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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