Monitoring of vegetation extent around Kitui pilot forest (afforestation test site) in Kenya with rainfall by satellite data Original Research Article

The extent of vegetation varies with the rainfall rate before the season in semi-arid region. Afforestation pilot experiment undergoing in Kitui, Kenya fulfills an important role to conserve the forest and to promote farm forest establishment in the country. In this kind of experiment, the environmental monitoring is important as well afforestation technology itself. As a distinct example, the difference of rainfall rate in 1985 and 1986 causes the drought and vegetation-rich condition of the next year in this region. The phenomena are clearly observed on two images of Landsat/TM acquired at almost the same day of the year. Comparing satellite images of past 20 years by Landsat/MSS, TM, and NOAA/AVHRR with meteorological statistics, a clear relationship between the rainfall rate and the vegetation extent has been observed. Second, the ground phenological aspects are recognized as of micro and macro topography of the region with the vegetation condition. Variety of vegetation distribution in the test site depends upon the topographic features as valley, slope or hillside and is explained on the 1:50,000 topographical map. A large-scale variety of vegetation depends upon the topographic feature.