Land use and land cover change detection in rural areas of River Lwiro micro-catchment, Lake Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

Land use and land cover change in River Lwiro micro-catchment was assessed for the period 1987-2010 using satellite imagery of Landsat 5 and 7. Images were clustered into four categories: forest, built-up areas, wetland and small scale farmland area; using unsupervised classification approach. The generated land-use and cover layers were ground truthed and the accuracy of classification determined. The results show that forest cover has declined by 23%, and wetland area increased by 2%, small scale farmland by less than 1% and the residential areas by 2.3%. The different trends of change indicated that the micro-catchment has been affected by political instability in the region. The possible environmental impacts resulting from these change need to be identified.