Land Use and Land Cover Change Impacts: A Google Earth Engine–Based Analysis of Kiambu County, Kenya

Land Use Land Cover Change is an exercise practised globally with massive benefits. Though done via acceptable procedures, the exercise leads to several impacts, such as climate change, flooding, diseases, and variations in rainfall and temperature patterns. This study, therefore, sought to investigate the trends in land use and land cover changes and the impacts accrued. The study utilised Landsat imagery for the years 2004,2014 and 2024 and Google Earth Engine (GEE) to come up with the trends in land use changes. The study also utilised questionnaires and interview schedules to come up with the impacts of Land Use Change. The results showed that between the years 2004 – 2024, vegetation declined by 18.40%, cultivated areas went down by 26.98%, water bodies declined by 5.43%, built-up areas went up by 46.36%, and bare lands increased by 3.64%. The study also investigated the impacts of Land Use Land Cover Changes, such as increased rainfall, temperature, flooding, food insecurity, diseases and wildlife habitat interference. The results revealed that all the impacts had a p-value of < 0.05, showing that the changes in land use resulted in the impacts accrued. The study results are hoped to be impactful on policies and laws related to Sustainable Land Use Development.