Temporal and spatial changes of land use in rare metal mining areas of Rwanda

Abstract

To analyse the effects of mining activities on land use and land cover changes in the Gatumba mining district of Rwanda, aerial photos from 1958, 1974 and 2009 were classified using segmentation approaches. Drastic land cover changes were observed in the study region with the highest mining activities in 1974. From 1958 to 1974, woodland decreased by 54% and cropland increased rapidly. From 1974 to 2009 the process reversed, with woodland increasing while cropland decreased by 51%. This was mainly due to enforced legal regulations of the Government of Rwanda to control land degradation and a decline of mining activities.

Keywords:

• Coltan mining
• Rwanda
• land cover changes
• historical aerial photographs
• segmentation techniques

Acknowledgement

As part of the Coltan Environmental Management project this work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, Hannover, Germany within their Africa Initiative on ‘Resources, their Dynamics, and Sustainability - Capacity Development in Comparative and Integrated Approaches’.

Funding

This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, Hannover, Germany.