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Project properties |
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| Title | Assessing the effect of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices on hydrological responses and soil erosion processes in Manafwa sub watershed using the event based OpenLISEM Model. |
| Group | Soil Physics and Land Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Jantiene Baartman |
| Examiner(s) | Coen Ritsema |
| Contact info | jantiene.baartman@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2021/05/25 |
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| Description | For the last five decades, Mount Elgon region has experienced rapid population growth and expansion of arable land by increasing park encroachment. This has accelerated reoccurrence of soil erosion landslides in the Manafwa watershed. Besides loss of lives affecting farmer’s livelihoods, these disasters have also altered soil properties, hydrology, increased runoff and sedimentation of reservoirs downstream. The situation is worse during the onset of rainy seasons when the vegetation cover is very scanty. The rainfall amounts intensity combined with steep slopes with scanty surface cover makes the watershed susceptible to soil erosion and landslides, affecting communities and their livelihoods. In search of solutions, government and other stakeholders have jointly worked with farmers to put in place several soil water conservation (SWC) practices to reduce occurrence of disasters and restore degraded farmlands.
This study seeks to better understand the effect of SWC practices on the hydrological response and processes on a sub catchment in Manafwa watershed, by applying the physical event based soil erosion model (OpenLISEM). The student is expected to participate in fieldwork campaigns (if possible), for the collection of input data as also to understand which SWC practices have an impact on the hydrological and erosive response. The student is also expected to be able to work with GIS data, long term data analysis and learn to implement OpenLISEM model |
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