The estimation of Lake Naivasha Area Changes using of Hydro-Geospatial Technologies

Abstract

Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) were proved as new technology to intervene in monitoring, managing and protecting environmental resources among others lake and water reservoir are mostly anxious resources. The objective of the study was to estimate the surface area change of the lake Naivasha using RS, GIS techniques and hydrological modeling for the lake water balance. Landat images Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (TM/ETM+) taken respectively in the same month of January 1986; 1995; 2003 and 2010 were the input data used to assess the different changes of the lake area on one hand. on other hand the spread sheet data set helped to build the hydrological model to estimate the long term lake Level fluctuation, the rainfall versus evaporation as in flow and out flow from the lake. The lake volume showed the dynamic of ground water to simulate the long-term fluctuation of the lake level. The lake area changes from the model were calculated from the spread sheet input data from 1986 to 2003 while the lake area changes from the Landsat images were calculated from 1986 to 2010. The comparative results from the area lake changes both from Landsat images and hydrological model confirmed the correlation results, 45.72 Km2 or 32.03 % in 2010 for the Landsat while the hydrological model estimated to 12km2 or 8% area reduction in 2003.

Keywords: Area lake change, Geographical Information System, Hydrological model, Landsat images, Lake Naivasha, Remote Sensing