This study attempts to find soil erosion patterns from year 2000 to 2012 due to climate and land cover changes based on estimating annual soil loss by applying two different versions of RUSLE model in Manafwa micro-catchment, Mount Elgon region, Uganda. The methodologies are based on previous studies, Bamutaze (2010), Pilesjö (1992) and Prasannakumar et al. (2012). Based on the results and the further analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, no significant trends in precipitation changes during the last decade are found. Even if there are reports of more intense and increasing amounts of rainfall in the area, this could not be verified, neither through analysis of climate data, nor trends in estimated soil loss. Secondly, the risk of soil erosion is not significantly different year 2012 compared to year 2000, and also no significant trends through target years. Thirdly, no specific trends or patterns in soil loss, precipitation and land cover have been found. Fourthly, even though there are no significant trends found, the mean annual soil loss values seem more sensitive to precipitation changes. Finally, the modified RUSLE model using flow accumulation instead of slope length is more preferred when estimating risk of soil erosion.
The study comes here, all the aims are achieved and all the research questions can be answered. As mentioned before, no significant trends and patterns of soil erosion are found. Over exploitation of land is probably compensated by improved agricultural management and no significant increase in precipitation.
The results obtained by this study are basically reliable, even if there may be some uncertainties and limitations during the processing of the study. For future studies working on this field, more targets years are suggested to be treated on. Furthermore, for a much better research, better datasets are needed. Thus, the construction and improvement of the database used for environmental analysis are expected to be implemented to reduce the uncertainties and limitations. Hopefully, more studies in this field will be carried out to estimate and solve land degradation problems, provide early warming service for the geologic hazard.
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Appendix
Figure 1. The map of NDVI change between year 2000 and 2006.
Figure 3. The map of NDVI change between year 2000 and 2012.
Figure 5. The map of soil loss change between year 2006 and 2012.
Institutionen för naturgeografi och ekosystemvetenskap, Lunds Universitet.
Student examensarbete (Seminarieuppsatser). Uppsatserna finns tillgängliga på institutionens geobibliotek, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 LUND. Serien startade 1985. Hela listan och själva uppsatserna är även tillgängliga på LUP student papers (www.nateko.lu.se/masterthesis) och via Geobiblioteket (www.geobib.lu.se)
The student thesis reports are available at the Geo-Library, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, University of Lund, Sölvegatan 12, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden. Report series started 1985. The complete list and electronic versions are also electronic available at the LUP student papers (www.nateko.lu.se/masterthesis) and through the Geo-library (www.geobib.lu.se) 230 Cléber Domingos Arruda (2011) Developing a Pedestrian Route Network
Service (PRNS)
231 Nitin Chaudhary (2011) Evaluation of RCA & RCA GUESS and estimation of vegetation-climate feedbacks over India for present climate
232 Bjarne Munk Lyshede (2012) Diurnal variations in methane flux in a low- arctic fen in Southwest Greenland
233 Zhendong Wu (2012) Dissolved methane dynamics in a subarctic peatland 234 Lars Johansson (2012) Modelling near ground wind speed in urban
environments using high-resolution digital surface models and statistical methods
235 Sanna Dufbäck (2012) Lokal dagvattenhantering med grönytefaktorn
236 Arash Amiri (2012)Automatic Geospatial Web Service Composition for Developing a Routing System
237 Emma Li Johansson (2012) The Melting Himalayas: Examples of Water Harvesting Techniques
238 Adelina Osmani (2012) Forests as carbon sinks - A comparison between the boreal forest and the tropical forest
239 Uta Klönne (2012) Drought in the Sahel – global and local driving forces and their impact on vegetation in the 20th and 21st century
240 Max van Meeningen (2012) Metanutsläpp från det smältande Arktis
241 Joakim Lindberg (2012) Analys av tillväxt för enskilda träd efter gallring i ett blandbestånd av gran och tall, Sverige
242 Caroline Jonsson (2012) The relationship between climate change and grazing by herbivores; their impact on the carbon cycle in Arctic environments
243 Carolina Emanuelsson and Elna Rasmusson (2012) The effects of soil erosion on nutrient content in smallholding tea lands in Matara district, Sri Lanka 244 John Bengtsson and Eric Torkelsson (2012) The Potential Impact of Changing
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245 Linnea Jonsson (2012). Impacts of climate change on Pedunculate oak and Phytophthora activity in north and central Europe
246 Ulrika Belsing (2012) Arktis och Antarktis föränderliga havsistäcken
247 Anna Lindstein (2012) Riskområden för erosion och näringsläckage i Segeåns avrinningsområde
248 Bodil Englund (2012) Klimatanpassningsarbete kring stigande havsnivåer i Kalmar läns kustkommuner
249 Alexandra Dicander (2012) GIS-baserad översvämningskartering i Segeåns avrinningsområde
250 Johannes Jonsson (2012) Defining phenology events with digital repeat photography
251 Joel Lilljebjörn (2012) Flygbildsbaserad skyddszonsinventering vid Segeå 252 Camilla Persson (2012) Beräkning av glaciärers massbalans – En metodanalys
med fjärranalys och jämviktslinjehöjd över Storglaciären
253 Rebecka Nilsson (2012) Torkan i Australien 2002-2010 Analys av möjliga orsaker och effekter
254 Ning Zhang (2012) Automated plane detection and extraction from airborne laser scanning data of dense urban areas
255 Bawar Tahir (2012) Comparison of the water balance of two forest stands using the BROOK90 model
256 Shubhangi Lamba (2012) Estimating contemporary methane emissions from tropical wetlands using multiple modelling approaches
257 Mohammed S. Alwesabi (2012) MODIS NDVI satellite data for assessing drought in Somalia during the period 2000-2011
258 Christine Walsh (2012) Aerosol light absorption measurement techniques: A comparison of methods from field data and laboratory experimentation 259 Jole Forsmoo (2012) Desertification in China, causes and preventive actions in
modern time
260 Min Wang (2012) Seasonal and inter-annual variability of soil respiration at Skyttorp, a Swedish boreal forest
261 Erica Perming (2012) Nitrogen Footprint vs. Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods – A comparison of the methods in a case study.
262 Sarah Loudin (2012) The response of European forests to the change in summer temperatures: a comparison between normal and warm years, from 1996 to 2006
263 Peng Wang (2012) Web-based public participation GIS application – a case study on flood emergency management
264 Minyi Pan (2012) Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis in Soil Strata Model Generation for Ground Settlement Risk Evaluation
265 Mohamed Ahmed (2012) Significance of soil moisture on vegetation greenness in the African Sahel from 1982 to 2008
266 Iurii Shendryk (2013) Integration of LiDAR data and satellite imagery for biomass estimation in conifer-dominated forest
267 Kristian Morin (2013) Mapping moth induced birch forest damage in northern Sweden, with MODIS satellite data
268 Ylva Persson (2013) Refining fuel loads in LPJ-GUESS-SPITFIRE for wet- dry areas - with an emphasis on Kruger National Park in South Africa
269 Md. Ahsan Mozaffar (2013) Biogenic volatile organic compound emissions from Willow trees
study in Dongguan City, China
271 Hasan Mohammed Hameed (2013) Water harvesting in Erbil Governorate, Kurdistan region, Iraq - Detection of suitable sites by using Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing
272 Fredrik Alström (2013) Effekter av en havsnivåhöjning kring Falsterbohalvön. 273 Lovisa Dahlquist (2013) Miljöeffekter av jordbruksinvesteringar i Etiopien 274 Sebastian Andersson Hylander (2013) Ekosystemtjänster i svenska
agroforestrysystem
275 Vlad Pirvulescu (2013) Application of the eddy-covariance method under the canopy at a boreal forest site in central Sweden
276 Malin Broberg (2013) Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds in a Salix biofuel plantation – field study in Grästorp (Sweden)
277 Linn Renström (2013) Flygbildsbaserad förändringsstudie inom skyddszoner längs vattendrag
278 Josefin Methi Sundell (2013) Skötseleffekter av miljöersättningen för natur- och kulturmiljöer i odlingslandskapets småbiotoper
279 Kristín Agustsdottír (2013) Fishing from Space: Mackerel fishing in Icelandic waters and correlation with satellite variables
280 Cristián Escobar Avaria (2013) Simulating current regional pattern and composition of Chilean native forests using a dynamic ecosystem model 281 Martin Nilsson (2013) Comparison of MODIS-Algorithms for Estimating
Gross Primary Production from Satellite Data in semi-arid Africa
282 Victor Strevens Bolmgren (2013) The Road to Happiness – A Spatial Study of Accessibility and Well-Being in Hambantota, Sri Lanka
283 Amelie Lindgren (2013) Spatiotemporal variations of net methane emissions and its causes across an ombrotrophic peatland - A site study from Southern Sweden
284 Elisabeth Vogel (2013) The temporal and spatial variability of soil respiration in boreal forests - A case study of Norunda forest, Central Sweden
285 Cansu Karsili (2013) Calculation of past and present water availability in the Mediterranean region and future estimates according to the Thornthwaite water-balance model
286 Elise Palm (2013) Finding a method for simplified biomass measurements on Sahelian grasslands
287 Manon Marcon (2013) Analysis of biodiversity spatial patterns across multiple taxa, in Sweden
288 Emma Li Johansson (2013) A multi-scale analysis of biofuel-related land acquisitions in Tanzania - with focus on Sweden as an investor
289 Dipa Paul Chowdhury (2013) Centennial and Millennial climate-carbon cycle feedback analysis for future anthropogenic climate change
290 Zhiyong Qi (2013) Geovisualization using HTML5 - A case study to improve animations of historical geographic data
291 Boyi Jiang (2013) GIS-based time series study of soil erosion risk using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model in a micro-catchment on Mount Elgon, Uganda