Using GIS and remote sensing to evaluate water resources adequacy within Lake Mburo National Park for large herbivores

Abstract

The major lakes within the 370km2 area of Lake Mburo National Park and its catchment are the primary sources of surface water consumed by wildlife. This project delved into establishing the extent of water scarcity driven by climate change in the area. To achieve this, water resources were quantified remotely, compared to the demand of 8 selected large wild herbivore species, competitors for water like humans and cattle in order to investigate if the supply over time was adequate for them in the park. The Global Information Systems and Remote Sensing Software gave us a bird’s eye view over a large area of wilderness and farmland, eased the process of establishing the 60.3 million m3 volume of the lakes and their water balance. By utilizing the SWAT plugin for QGIS, hydrological modeling was used to delineate the watershed which gave results of precipitation, evapotranspiration and surface inflows and outflows the key variables needed. Establishing their water balance gave a snapshot of the change in storage annually, which when compared with their maximum storage volumes enabled an estimate of the total available water in the park to be made over time. The water demand of major wild herbivores, people and cattle was also obtained by using their population, population growth rates and per capita water consumptions annually to give a temporal analysis of how these demands would increase. The water adequacy from 1980 to 2042 in which wild herbivores could comfortably share the resource was worth concluding that water quantity is in excess by a higher margin for more than 20 years in the future. Field visits confirmed that water scarcity was not only a function of water quantity but also distance from water in changing seasons. To this end the water quantity of valley dams under construction at different locations far from the lake for wild herbivores was calculated to assess its contribution and ascertain the effectiveness of this strategy. Ultimately the research concluded on a current adequacy of water by quantity but not by accessibility in terms of distance from the lakes. It brought to light a need to fast track drives to bring water sources nearer to large wild herbivores in Lake Mburo National Park as it will avoid conflicts between wildlife and people caused by large herbivores straying out of the park to nearer water sources in human settlement.