GRACEMBUTHI/Optimizing-Agriculture-Land-use-in-Maseno-Kisumu-County.

Optimizing Agriculture Land-use for crop production in Maseno,Kisumu County. Description This project applies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing to optimize agricultural land use in Maseno, Kisumu County, Kenya. It analyzes land use/land cover changes, soil erosion risks, and crop suitability between 2016 and 2024 using tools like NDVI, NDBI, and RUSLE models. The goal is to identify high-potential zones for agriculture, assess environmental degradation, and inform sustainable land management. Project Objectives - To map current land use patterns in the Maseno area. - To analyze the suitability of land for growing crops in Maseno using GIS. - To identify areas prone to environmental degradation that is hindering sustainable agriculture land use practices. Tools & Data - ArcGIS - Landsat 8 imagery - SRTM DEM - FAO & WorldClim datasets - NDVI/NDBI index calculations - RUSLE for erosion estimation - Field surveys, questionnaires, and key informant interviews Data analysis The satellite imagery was used to map and classify land use patterns in Maseno area.GIS software,ArcGIS was utilized where supervised classification was the technique used. For the suitability analysis, weighted overlay analysis in GIS was used.This technique involved assigning weights to different factors ;soil type, rainfall, landuse landcover and slope based on their importance for crop growing. This method allowed the combination of the different suitability layers and assign weights to each factor based on its importance.Soil Suitability (40%),Climate (Rainfall ) (25%),Slope (15%),Land Use (10%).The result was a land suitability map indicating areas optimal for various crops. For Identifying areas showing high-risk areas for environmental degradation including soil erosion ,urbanisation and deforestation, the following analyses were conducted: Soil Erosion Risk Analysis:This analysis utilized Use the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) models …