IGGReS Conference Proceedings
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/1288
2024-03-28T10:27:01ZAssessment of stream flow Variability in Response to the Changes in Climate, Rainfall and Water Demands
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8451
Assessment of stream flow Variability in Response to the Changes in Climate, Rainfall and Water Demands
Omanga, Abel M.; Sichangi, Arthur Wafula; Makokha, Godfrey O.
Water availability is facing intricate climate change and anthropogenic risks that have
worsened the deteriorating water resource quality and quantity. Long term streamflow
and groundwater monitoring in various catchments has shown seasonal and long-term
variation in water levels. This occurrence can be attributed to several events among
them: recession of water sources, increasing water demand, erratic changes in land use,
changing precipitation patterns and frequencies. The study assessed the current (2020)
and future (2050) spatial-temporal water variability within Thiba sub basin. The
historical trends in climate, rainfall and water demands were characterised and their
influence on water availability assessed using the Water Evaluation and Planning
(WEAP) model. Stream flow variability was evaluated in response to changes in climate,
rainfall, and water demands. Water Evaluation and Planning system with monthly
timesteps calculations was used to compute water situation, and Parameter Estimation
Tool used in calibration of the model. Model was calibrated sing; Nash-Sutcliffe
efficiency, coefficient of determination and Percent Bias, attaining values of 0.86, 0.85
and 6.64 while the validation coefficients were 0.90, 0.88 and 1.08 respectively.
Climate evaluation scenarios under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 and 8.5
predict mean rainfall to be 1420.1 mm and 1332.2mm and mean temperatures of 18.8ºC
and 19.1ºC respectively at the end of 2050. The results show a non-significant increase
in rainfall and significant increase in temperatures. Both pathways predict greatly
variable decreasing mean discharge by the end of 2050. This variability is attributed to
the increase in water demand and temperatures in the face of decreasing rainfall. The
best-case and worst-case scenario predicts total water demands to increase to 201,903
and 204,302 billion cubic meters per year respectively. Water consumption will increase
from 77.0 m^3 per capita per day in 2021, to 85.2 m^3 per capita per day, and a
30% increase in unmet demands in all sectors. Results indicate climate change will
significantly impact water resources under the rising water demands, change of land
uses and varying discharge. Mitigation efforts will result in better flows compared to no
intervention. Detailed study linking groundwater to surface water will help understand
better the problem. The study recommends the development of groundwater resources to take care of the expected rise in water demand in the face of dwindling surface water
2023-11-01T00:00:00ZA Framework for Implementing Participatory GIS For Environmental Conservation of The Muringato Catchment
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8449
A Framework for Implementing Participatory GIS For Environmental Conservation of The Muringato Catchment
Kipkemboi, Wisdom; Kuria, Bartholomew T.; Kuria, David N.
The recent decades have seen a growing interest in applying Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) to community empowerment and policy formulation. This has been made
possible through approaches like participatory design, data collection, and effective
implementation strategies. The limitations of traditional GIS alienated the local and
marginalized communities. This paved the way for the evolution of traditional GIS to
participatory GIS (PGIS) which has reshaped the way community engagement is
conducted. In environmental conservation, PGIS has been applied in various areas
b
including mapping naturally occurring harmful species to alert the general public and
monitoring river water levels to improve hydrologic forecasts. The Muringato
catchment, one of the River catchments within the Greater Tana basin, and is important
for the water recharge of the Greater Tana basin, has been faced with numerous
environmental challenges. These challenges include deforestation, water abstraction,
and riparian encroachment which have reduced the natural resources ability of the
catchment to support the growing population. PGIS approach needs to be implemented
within the catchment to identify and visualize the location of the incidents for the
appropriate agencies to act and thus curb the environmental destruction within the
catchment. This research sought to implement a PGIS approach to identify and visualize
the environmental incidents within the catchment in near-real-time for its conservation.
The approach utilized a mobile crowd mapping platform and a web-GIS platform PGIS
tools for effective engagement. The crowd-mapping platform was custom-developed,
using Android studio, PHP scripts, and PostgreSQL database, for reporting
environmental disturbance incidents within the Muringato catchment. The web-GIS
platform was also custom-developed using Django and GeoDjango frameworks and
PostgreSQL Database, to visualize the reported incidents data from the crowd mapping
platform in near-real-time. With the Government of Kenya enshrining public
participation in the constitution of Kenya, 2010, the study hypothesized that
implementing PGIS for environmental conservation would stir the Muringato
catchment stakeholders to conserve the catchment. These stakeholders included; the
Muringato water resource users’ association (WRUA), Water Resource Authority
(WRA), and Kenya Forest Service (KFS) among others. Because of their local knowledge
of the environment including knowledge of the environmental disturbance incidents
within the catchment, the Muringato WRUA were targeted to utilize the crowd
mapping platform to report the various incidents within the catchment. The other
stakeholders, since were involved mainly in policy formulation and implementation for
environmental conservation were targeted to utilize the web-GIS platform to monitor
the reported incidents by the Muringato WRUA. This ensured collaboration among the
various stakeholders who were all interested in the catchment conservation. A total of
85% (18) WRUA members attended the mobile PGIS tool training and fieldwork
110
sessions, while 71% (15) WRUA members attended the evaluation session conducted
16 weeks after the training session. A total of 53% (16) review responses of the webGIS
platform
were
received
from
the
30
sampled
stakeholders.
26
users
had
utilized
the
crowd
mapping
platform
to
report
various
environmental
disturbance
incidents
within
the
catchment
at
the time the evaluation session was being conducted. The incidents
included deforestation (25 incidents), dam construction (7 incidents), and soil dumping
(2 incidents). Thus, the PGIS tools developed aided the reporting and visualization of
the incidents in near-real-time. The near-real-time reporting of the incidents was crucial
for environmental conservation stakeholders to make preliminary assessments and draft
action plans to curb the incidents. Thus, the use of the PGIS tools aided the
implementation of the PGIS approach to the environmental conservation of the
Muringato catchment. The framework of implementation could be adopted for the
conservation of other river catchments as well.
2023-12-01T00:00:00ZSpatial Monitoring of River Discharge Using Low-Cost Sensors
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8448
Spatial Monitoring of River Discharge Using Low-Cost Sensors
Chege, Martin W.; Thiong’o, Kuria B.; Sichangi, Arthur Wafula; Ngigi, Moses Murimi; Muthee, Simon W.; Kipkemboi, Wisdom; Wanjala, Johana A.
Water scarcity is increasingly becoming a major and worrying concern in various global
locations. In many rural regions within Kenya, the provision of reticulated water supply
derived from reservoirs is either unavailable or inadequate, leading a significant
proportion of households to rely on groundwater, precipitation, river runoff, or a mix
thereof for their water needs. Nevertheless, the impacts of climate change have
significantly diminished the accessibility of this vital resource. In recent years, there has
been a noticeable global increase in population growth, resulting in high demands for
both surface and groundwater extraction. This phenomenon has led to increased
pressure on water resources through increased abstraction of river water, especially in
the upper Tana basin, leading to diminished water availability downstream in certain
streams. The escalation of abstraction rates presents a substantial peril to the economy,
social, environmental, and ecological equilibrium of ecosystems. The primary objective
of this research is to optimize river water abstraction spatially within the hydrological
reference units. This study presents a novel river discharge monitoring system that
enhances the efficiency, size, reproduction, deployment approach, and data
transmission capabilities of existing systems. The primary components of the system
consist of the flow velocity sensor, temperature sensor, and water level sensor. The
system utilizes an Arduino Nano, which is a programmable microcontroller using an
ATmega328P chip. This microcontroller is connected to a GSM SIM800L module,
a
b
enabling the transmission of data in real time to the server. The river discharge
monitoring system is deployed across the hydrological reference units just before the
confluence points within the Muringato catchment. In conclusion, this study integrates
GIS and IoT technologies to produce low-cost prototype hardware that improves the
efficiency and effectiveness of water resource abstraction by measuring discharge at
various hydrological reference units. The research has the potential to provide crucial
real-time data on river discharge, which contributes to the expansion of the national
spatial data infrastructure and enables the efficient and sustainable extraction of water
resources. Moreover, this will facilitate the informed decision-making of relevant
stakeholders. The information gathered will be used to assess the applicability of the
deployed system in accurately facilitating abstraction within the Muringato catchment.
2023-11-01T00:00:00ZThe Characteristics and Impacts of Streamflow Variation: A Review of The Influence of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities
http://repository.dkut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/8447
The Characteristics and Impacts of Streamflow Variation: A Review of The Influence of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities
Wanjala, Johanna A.; Kuria, Bartholomew T.; Sichangi, Arthur W.; Kuria, David N.; Mundia, Charles Ndegwa; Rienow, Andreas
The unpredictable climate change and increased anthropogenic activities cause
continuous streamflow variations, impacting the socioeconomic characteristics of many
regions relying on stream water for sustenance. This paper extensively reviewed the
literature on streamflow variation in the Upper Tana River Basin (UTRN) in Kenya,
highlighting the characteristics, causes and impacts of streamflow variability. The review
also looked at proposed resilience and coping strategies and stakeholders' engagement
in Kenya towards reducing streamflow variability. Twenty studies on streamflow
characteristics in the UTRB were reviewed following a systematic search using the
google scholar engine. Six of the identified studies looked at the impact of climate
change, three at water abstraction, and three at land use changes, while eight analysed
the combined effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities on streamflow
variations. The studies showed a positive correlation between climate change and
streamflow and a negative correlation between water abstraction and streamflow. An
overall gradual decrease in streamflow was identified. Based on the studies reviewed,
climate change and anthropogenic activities govern streamflow characteristics in the
UTRB. Analysis, however, showed in-situ data gaps and the paucity of scientific
knowledge on the actual measurements, monitoring and prediction of streamflow
variation. Future research should consider combining land use and hydrological models
to evaluate better the effects of land use changes on streamflow variation. Satellite and
reanalysis datasets should complement the scarce in-situ meteorological data and
regionalisation of hydrological model parameters employed in ungauged river basins
to increase the efforts geared towards monitoring and managing streamflow variations.
2023-11-01T00:00:00Z