Abstract:
Climate change is one of the most complex problems
facing humanity due to its profound impact on human livelihoods and
the numerous and complex variables that influence it. In this study,
Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper
(ETM+) images were used together with ancillary data to analyze the
effects and trends of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as climate change
indicators in the study area within the Masai Mara ecosystem. The
years of study were 1985, 1995, 2003 and 2010. A remote sensing
approach was used to extract LST and NDVI from the images and
analyze their trends. Land use/ Land cover (LULC) types were also
extracted from the images and an analysis of the relationship between
LST, NDVI and LULC carried out. The results show an increase in
anthropogenic land use in the form of cultivation from 196.64 Km
2
(3.04% of study area) in 1985 to 455.59 Km
(7.05% of study area) in
2010, representing a 131% increase in the 25 year period. We found
that a negative correlation exists between LST and NDVI in the
absence of presence of cloud cover and precipitation for all land
cover types as was the case between 1985 and 1995.
2
