SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING VEGETATION CHANGE IN

Abstract. Rangelands in Africa are under pressure from the increased human population that demand more land for food production and settlement. The once mobile communities have become more sedentary due to provision of centralized social and health amenities. These factors leads to concentrated use of land for grazing and settlement creating pressure on the vegetation and soil resources. This paper present a section of findings for study undertaken for Master thesis. Geographic information system was used to determine the distribution of various factors affecting vegetation change in Southern Samburu. This study dealt with analysis of the factors affecting the vegetation change in Southern Samburu. Data has been collected to determine the distribution of the land use and land cover of the study area. GIS Thematic maps showing distribution of schools, churches and clinic/health facilities as factors reducing the Samburu mobility have been developed and superimposed on the transport network and trading centres using ArcView 3.2 and ArcGIS. 1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY Vegetation change in a broader sense is a major problem experienced in many rangelands of the world. Change in plant species structure and composition is phenomenon across the various rangelands. Population pressure, change in lifestyle change in land tenure and climatic change are some of the factors attributed with the vegetation change in the rangelands