Land Use and Ecosystem Services Survey Data from Northeastern Kenya 2013

Northeastern Kenya qualitative survey data from 13 focus group discussions conducted between August and October 2013. The dataset contains anonymized transcripts on livelihood activities and ecosystem services, plus proportional piling scores for wealth categories and livestock species. Data was collected from farmers in Bura and Hola and transhumance pastoralists in Ijara and Sangailu by researchers from the University of Nairobi and the International Livestock Research Institute.

Use Cases

• Analyze anonymized focus group discussion transcripts to identify perceptions of land use change effects on ecosystem services.
• Use proportional piling scores to model the distribution of wealth categories among pastoralist and farming communities.
• Correlate livelihood activities described in transcripts with prevalent human and animal health problems in irrigated versus non-irrigated areas.
• Study the relationship between livestock species kept, as indicated by piling scores, and community wealth categories.

Strengths

• Data from 13 distinct focus group discussions, each comprising 10 to 12 participants.
• Includes two complementary data types: qualitative text transcripts and quantitative proportional piling scores.
• Collected by enumerators trained by experienced researchers from the University of Nairobi and the International Livestock Research Institute.

Limitations

• Sample size is limited to 13 focus groups, potentially restricting statistical generalizability.
• Data is from a single three-month period in 2013 and may not reflect current conditions.
• Qualitative text data requires manual coding or NLP techniques for structured analysis, which can be resource-intensive.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre

Collection Method

Focus group discussions guided by a checklist, with open-ended meeting notes and audio recordings transcribed into text files; proportional piling exercises for scoring.

Time Range

August 2013 to October 2013

Freshness

null

Geography

Northeastern Kenya, specifically irrigated areas in Bura and Hola, Tana River County, and pastoralist areas in Ijara and Sangailu, Garissa County.