Land-Use and Land Cover Changes on the Slopes of Mount Meru-Tanzania

Abstract

The study of spatial land use and land change is inevitable for sustainable development of land use plans. Environmental transitions analysis was done in part of the land on the slopes of the foothills of Mount Meru in thirty (30) years’ time from 1986 to 2016 using satellite-derived land use/cover maps and a Cellular Automata (CA) spatial filter under IDRISI software environment and assessed the important land use changes. Also, the future land use for 2026 which is the next ten (10) years was simulated based on Cellular-Automata Markov model. The results showed significant land use transitions whereby there is a huge land use change of bush land (BL) and agriculture land (AG) into human settlement (ST) which resulted into conversion of Arusha town into a City. In addition, the changes have caused slight changes in water bodies into mixed forest. Moreover, the future land use/land cover (LULC) simulations indicated that there will be unsustainable LULC changes in the next ten years since most of bush land and part of agriculture land will be used for building different structures thus interfering with fresh water and food availability in the City. These changes call upon the relevant planning authorities to put in place the best strategies for good urban development.