| Peer-Reviewed

Heterogeneity in Event-Based Soil Hydrologic Response to Different Land Use Types in Upper River Njoro Catchment, Kenya

Received: 16 August 2018     Accepted: 19 September 2018     Published: 19 October 2018
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Soil hydrologic response depends on the soil characteristics such as infiltration capacity, porosity, organic matter content and bulk density. Knowledge on the dynamics of these soil parameters and soil hydrologic response as a result of different land use types is crucial for formulation and adoption of proper soil and water conservation techniques for increased agricultural production. In this research, soil hydrologic response to different land use types is evaluated. Four land use types were purposely selected. These included natural forest, deforested land, fallow agricultural land and grassland. Soil samples were collected and soil hydraulic and hydrological properties that included soil texture, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, porosity and organic matter content were determined in the soil laboratory. The evaluated soil hydrological response parameters included runoff coefficients, infiltration rate, water repellency and ponding time. The findings showed that the highest and lowest mean bulk density of 1.36 and 0.96 g/cm3 was recorded for deforested and natural forest land respectively. The highest mean saturated hydraulic conductivity (170.21cm/day), porosity (0.62) and organic matter content (4.63%) were observed in the natural forest while the lowest values (24.78cm/day, 0.47 and 0.75%) respectively were found in the deforested land. High water repellency (100.34 cm/hr) and runoff coefficient (0.0077) was recorded in the deforested areas. The findings of this indicate how different land use types affect on-site hydrologic response and generation of stream flow in the catchment hence providing baseline data for future soil and water relations research.

Published in International Journal of Engineering Management (Volume 2, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11
Page(s) 47-57
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Hydrologic Response, Land Use, Event-Based Analysis

References
[1] Abu-Hashim, M. S. D. (2011). Impact of land-use and land-management on the water infiltration capacity of soils on a catchment scale. JKI.
[2] Assouline, S., Selker, J. and Parlange, J. Y. (2007). A simple accurate method to predict time of ponding under variable intensity rainfall. Water Resources Research, 43(3).
[3] Baker, T. J. and Miller, S. N. (2013). Using the soil and water assessment tool (swat) to assess land use impact on water resources in an east african watershed. Journal of Hydrology, 486, 100-111.
[4] Benavides, I. F., Solarte, M. E., Pabón, V., Ordoñez, A., Beltrán, E., Rosero, S. and Torres, C. (2018). The variation of infiltration rates and physical-chemical soil properties across a land cover and land use gradient in a Paramo of southwestern Colombia. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 73(4), 400-410.
[5] Bouyoucos, G. J. (1962). Hydrometer method improved for making particle size analyses of soils 1. Agronomy journal, 54(5), 464-465.
[6] Bruijnzeel, L. A. (2004). Hydrological functions of tropical forests: Not seeing the soil for the trees? Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 104(1), 185-228.
[7] Brutsaert, W. (2005). Hydrology: an introduction. Cambridge University Press
[8] Buczko, U., Bens, O., Fischer, H. and Hüttl, R. (2002). Water repellency in sandy luvisols under different forest transformation stages in northeast germany. Geoderma, 109(1-2), 1-18.
[9] Buttle, J. M., Beall, F. D., Webster, K. L., Hazlett, P. W., Creed, I. F., Semkin, R. G. and Jeffries, D. S. (2018). Hydrologic response to and recovery from differing silvicultural systems in a deciduous forest landscape with seasonal snow cover. Journal of Hydrology, 557, 805-825.
[10] Cerdà, A., & Doerr, S. H. (2007). Soil wettability, runoff and erodibility of major dry‐Mediterranean land use types on calcareous soils. Hydrological Processes: An International Journal, 21(17), 2325-2336.
[11] Chandramouli, S. and Natarajan, N. (2016). A Comparative Study on the Infiltration Characteristics of Soils in Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, 13(1), 73-79.
[12] Chrisphine, O. M., Maryanne, O. A. and Mark, B. K. (2016). Assessment of hydrological impacts of Mau Forest, Kenya. Hydrology: Current Research, 7(1).
[13] Doerr, S., Shakesby, R., Blake, W., Chafer, C., Humphreys, G. and Wallbrink, P. (2006). Effects of differing wildfire severities on soil wettability and implications for hydrological response. Journal of Hydrology, 319(1-4), 295-311.
[14] Dos Santos, V., Laurent, F., Abe, C. and Messner, F. (2018). Hydrologic Response to Land Use Change in a Large Basin in Eastern Amazon. Water, 10(4), 429.
[15] Dos Santos, K. F., Barbosa, F. T., Bertol, I., de Souza Werner, R., Wolschick, N. H. and Mota, J. M. (2018). Study of soil physical properties and water infiltration rates in different types of land use. Semina: Ciências Agrárias, 39(1), 87-98.
[16] Göl, C., & Yilmaz, H. (2017). The effect of land use type/land cover and aspect on soil properties at the gökdere catchment in northwestern turkey. Šumarski list, 141(9-10), 459-467.
[17] Guo, H., Hu, Q. and Jiang, T. (2008). Annual and seasonal streamflow responses to climate and land-cover changes in the poyang lake basin, china. Journal of Hydrology, 355(1-4), 106-122.
[18] Guzha, A. C., Rufino, M. C., Okoth, S., Jacobs, S. and Nóbrega, R. L. B. (2018). Impacts of land use and land cover change on surface runoff, discharge and low flows: Evidence from East Africa. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 15, 49-67.
[19] Havel, A., Tasdighi, A. and Arabi, M. (2018). Assessing the hydrologic response to wildfires in mountainous regions. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22(4), 2527.
[20] Konen, M. E., Jacobs, P. M., Burras, C. L., Talaga, B. J. and Mason, J. A. (2002). Equations for predicting soil organic carbon using loss-on-ignition for north central us soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 66(6), 1878-1881.
[21] Kundu, P., China, S., Chemelil, M. and Onyando, J. (2004). Detecting and quantifying land cover and land use change in eastern mau by remote sensing. Paper presented at the 20th ISPRS Congress. Istanbul, Turkey.
[22] Mwetu, K., Mutua, B., Kundu, P., Fürst, J. and Loiskandl, W. (2009). Effects of deforestation and climate variability on river discharge in the njoro river catchment, kenya. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Sumawa Mau forest complex conference, Egerton University.
[23] Okelo, M., Onyando, J., Shivoga, W. and Miller, S. (2008). Assessment of infiltration using a mini rainfall simulator in the river njoro watershed. Paper presented at the Proceedings of Taal 2007: The 12th World Lake Conference.
[24] Patil, V. S., Chavan, S. M. and Pawar, D. P. (2018). Spatial distribution of soil under the influence of infiltration rate. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 7(2), 2024-2029.
[25] Tilahun, C. and Asefa, T. (2009). Assessment of soil organic matter under four land use systems in bale highlands, southeast ethiopia: A. Soil organic matter contents in four land use systems: Forestland, grassland, fallow land and cultivated land. World Applied Sciences Journal, 6(9), 1231-1246.
[26] Tilahun, S. A., Guzman, C. D., Zegeye, A. D., Engda, T. A., Collick, A. S., Rimmer, A., & Steenhuis, T. S. (2013). An efficient semi-distributed hillslope erosion model for the subhumid Ethiopian Highlands. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 17(3), 1051-1063.
[27] Tuffour, H. O., Asare, J. and Nutakor, G. M. (2018). Prediction of infiltration from soil hydraulic properties. Eurasian Journal of Soil Science, 7(1), 64-72.
[28] Winkler, R. D., Moore, R. D., Redding, T. E., Spittlehouse, D. L., Smerdon, B. D. and Carlyle-Moses, D. E. (2010). The effects of forest disturbance on hydrologic processes and watershed. Compendium of forest hydrology and geomorphology in British Columbia. BC Min. For. Range, 66, 179.
[29] Yimer, F., Messing, I., Ledin, S., & Abdelkadir, A. (2008). Effects of different land use types on infiltration capacity in a catchment in the highlands of Ethiopia. Soil use and management, 24(4), 344-349.
[30] Zwartendijk, B., van Meerveld, H., Ghimire, C., Bruijnzeel, L., Ravelona, M. and Jones, J. (2017). Rebuilding soil hydrological functioning after swidden agriculture in eastern madagascar. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 239, 101-111.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Leah Amisi, Peter Musula Kundu, Raphael Muli Wambua. (2018). Heterogeneity in Event-Based Soil Hydrologic Response to Different Land Use Types in Upper River Njoro Catchment, Kenya. International Journal of Engineering Management, 2(3), 47-57. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Leah Amisi; Peter Musula Kundu; Raphael Muli Wambua. Heterogeneity in Event-Based Soil Hydrologic Response to Different Land Use Types in Upper River Njoro Catchment, Kenya. Int. J. Eng. Manag. 2018, 2(3), 47-57. doi: 10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Leah Amisi, Peter Musula Kundu, Raphael Muli Wambua. Heterogeneity in Event-Based Soil Hydrologic Response to Different Land Use Types in Upper River Njoro Catchment, Kenya. Int J Eng Manag. 2018;2(3):47-57. doi: 10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11,
      author = {Leah Amisi and Peter Musula Kundu and Raphael Muli Wambua},
      title = {Heterogeneity in Event-Based Soil Hydrologic Response to Different Land Use Types in Upper River Njoro Catchment, Kenya},
      journal = {International Journal of Engineering Management},
      volume = {2},
      number = {3},
      pages = {47-57},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijem.20180203.11},
      abstract = {Soil hydrologic response depends on the soil characteristics such as infiltration capacity, porosity, organic matter content and bulk density. Knowledge on the dynamics of these soil parameters and soil hydrologic response as a result of different land use types is crucial for formulation and adoption of proper soil and water conservation techniques for increased agricultural production. In this research, soil hydrologic response to different land use types is evaluated. Four land use types were purposely selected. These included natural forest, deforested land, fallow agricultural land and grassland. Soil samples were collected and soil hydraulic and hydrological properties that included soil texture, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, porosity and organic matter content were determined in the soil laboratory. The evaluated soil hydrological response parameters included runoff coefficients, infiltration rate, water repellency and ponding time. The findings showed that the highest and lowest mean bulk density of 1.36 and 0.96 g/cm3 was recorded for deforested and natural forest land respectively. The highest mean saturated hydraulic conductivity (170.21cm/day), porosity (0.62) and organic matter content (4.63%) were observed in the natural forest while the lowest values (24.78cm/day, 0.47 and 0.75%) respectively were found in the deforested land. High water repellency (100.34 cm/hr) and runoff coefficient (0.0077) was recorded in the deforested areas. The findings of this indicate how different land use types affect on-site hydrologic response and generation of stream flow in the catchment hence providing baseline data for future soil and water relations research.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Heterogeneity in Event-Based Soil Hydrologic Response to Different Land Use Types in Upper River Njoro Catchment, Kenya
    AU  - Leah Amisi
    AU  - Peter Musula Kundu
    AU  - Raphael Muli Wambua
    Y1  - 2018/10/19
    PY  - 2018
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11
    T2  - International Journal of Engineering Management
    JF  - International Journal of Engineering Management
    JO  - International Journal of Engineering Management
    SP  - 47
    EP  - 57
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2640-1568
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20180203.11
    AB  - Soil hydrologic response depends on the soil characteristics such as infiltration capacity, porosity, organic matter content and bulk density. Knowledge on the dynamics of these soil parameters and soil hydrologic response as a result of different land use types is crucial for formulation and adoption of proper soil and water conservation techniques for increased agricultural production. In this research, soil hydrologic response to different land use types is evaluated. Four land use types were purposely selected. These included natural forest, deforested land, fallow agricultural land and grassland. Soil samples were collected and soil hydraulic and hydrological properties that included soil texture, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, porosity and organic matter content were determined in the soil laboratory. The evaluated soil hydrological response parameters included runoff coefficients, infiltration rate, water repellency and ponding time. The findings showed that the highest and lowest mean bulk density of 1.36 and 0.96 g/cm3 was recorded for deforested and natural forest land respectively. The highest mean saturated hydraulic conductivity (170.21cm/day), porosity (0.62) and organic matter content (4.63%) were observed in the natural forest while the lowest values (24.78cm/day, 0.47 and 0.75%) respectively were found in the deforested land. High water repellency (100.34 cm/hr) and runoff coefficient (0.0077) was recorded in the deforested areas. The findings of this indicate how different land use types affect on-site hydrologic response and generation of stream flow in the catchment hence providing baseline data for future soil and water relations research.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Agricultural Engineering, Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya

  • Department of Agricultural Engineering, Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya

  • Department of Agricultural Engineering, Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya

  • Sections