North Kenya Land Use and Resource GIS Database from 1996

19 geospatial themes cover landforms, vegetation, waterpoints, and rainfall risk across nine arid districts in northern Kenya. The project was created by Andrea Bottcher for GTZ at UNEP/GRID by digitizing and joining existing datasets from 1996. Source data was compiled from field surveys, satellite images, aerial photographs, and district reports by the Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing.

Use Cases

• Analyze median annual rainfall and productive risk due to lacking rainfall to model drought vulnerability across districts.
• Map seasonal rivers, waterpoints, and run-off zones to assess historical water resource availability for pastoral communities.
• Classify landforms and soils alongside vegetation and range units to understand historical land capability for livestock grazing.
• Overlay district borders, roads, and towns with forest areas and national park boundaries for historical infrastructure and conservation planning.

Strengths

• Contains 19 distinct geospatial themes providing multi-faceted environmental data.
• Covers approximately 292,870 square kilometers across nine specified districts in northern Kenya.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, representing a snapshot from 1996 with no subsequent updates.
• Original datasets were derived from a 1982 handbook, potentially introducing a 14-year lag in the underlying source information.
• Specific row counts, column details, and file formats are not provided in the description.

Provenance

Source

Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS), Nairobi, and the Range Management Handbook published by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1982.

Collection Method

Digitization of datasets compiled from field surveys, satellite images, topographic maps, aerial photographs, district reports, aerial observations, and previous studies.

Time Range

Primary dataset compilation date is 1996, with source handbook from 1982.

Freshness

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Geography

Nine Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) districts in northern Kenya: Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Mandera, Marsabit, Samburu, Turkana, Wajir, West Pokot.