Impacts of land use and land cover change in response to different driving forces in Uganda: evidence from a review

ABSTRACT

This reviewe of Land Use Land Cover Change (LULCC) studies in Uganda indicates agriculture, forest, grassland, and woodland as the major land use and land cover types. Central Uganda is the most studied region (15%), followed by western (14), eastern (10), and northern Uganda (3). District scale studies were (48%), catchment (19%), forest (17%), national (10%), and park (7%). Landsat 30 m and remote sensing was most used (93%) . Population is the leadingdrivers of LULCC. The impacts of LULCC are site specific and includes reduction of: tree cover and species composition; water quality and quantity; and soil quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Uganda
• middle income economy
• fastest growing population
• livelihood
• environment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and Makerere University under Sida contribution N0: 51180060

Notes on contributors

Justine Kilama Luwa

Luwa is a Lecturer in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Gulu University-Uganda. Luwa holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Chemistry of Makerere University, and MSc Water Resources and Livelihoods Security of Linkoping University in Sweden. He is currently a PhD student in the Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences, Collage of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda. Luwa's PhD research focuses on Modeling the impacts of climate and land use/cover change on water quality in Sironko catchment, Mt. Elgon, Uganda. Luwa is interested in stakeholders’ participation for sustainable natural resources management and utilization for improved livelihoods.

Yazidhi Bamutaze

Bmutaze is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences, Collage of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University-Uganda. He holds a PhD in Geography, MSc in Geo-Information Sciences and Earth Observation, Master in Geography and Bachler of Arts in Geography. He has over 20 years’ experience in research, teaching, mentorship and scientific leadership in Makerere University. He has been involved in capacity building development and collaborative projects. He is a member of many International Associations and has over 20 scientific publications.

Jackson-Gilbert Majaliwa Mwanjalolo

Majaliwais a Professor in the Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences, Collage of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University-Uganda. Holds a 5 years degree in applied physics of ISP-Bukavu/DRC, 2 years in applied physics, a Master degree in Environmental science, and PhD in soil Science of Makerere University. He is interested in remote sensing, hydrology, environmental modeling.

Daniel Waiswa

Waiswa is a senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences, Makerere University where he has worked for over a decade. He holds BSc Forestry (Hons) First Class and MSc in Computer Science from Makerere University and PhD in Forest Biometrics and Geomatics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA. His areas of teaching, research and community outreach are Forest Resource Assessment and Management, Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing among others. He is the Focal Point and Manager for the European Commission/ African Union Commission supported Environmental Station which provides up to date data for Monitoring Environment and Security in Africa. He has a record of over 13 publications.

Petter Pilesjö

Professor Petter Pilesjö is the Director of Lund University GIS Centre, Sweden.His research is mainly focusing on hydrological and topographical modelling, as well as disaster management. Pilesjö has been involved in research and capacity building projects in Africa since the late 1980ies.

Espoir Bagula Mukengere

Espoir holds a BSc in Agricultural Engineering and MSc in Land Resources Management. Currently he is a PhD student in the Collage of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University-Uganda. His PhD research focuses on Soil Water Conservation. Espoir is interested in areas of Environmental Analysis and Modelling, Geo-informatics and Precision Agriculture.