Impacts of changes in climate and landuse on streamflow: assessing water availability in the drylands of northern Kenya

Water in this climate change era is perceived as a treasured commodity that can be traded but to be managed for human survival. The ballooning population further exacerbates climatic shocks evidenced in drylands with land fragmentation and degradation increasing in an effort to settle the growing populations. Increasing demands for food and shelter continue to contribute to land use changes which hamper the biophysical tenets required to sustain water availability in these regions. Turkana County was chosen for this study because of its unique location and its contribution to water availability for the communities. Further, challenges of water availability from rainfall in the drylands were addressed in relation to livelihood sustenance. Drylands often experience disruptions of livelihoods brought about by extremes of water availability. It was established that rainfall in the county is highly variable in both space (36% ≤ CV ≤ 135%) and time (1.0 ≤ SAI ≤ 4). Increasing rainfall trends and intensities provide a potential for runoff rainwater harvesting while high variability makes rainfall unpredictable thus calling for the development of an early warning system to support community resilience to floods and droughts. Land use is also changing with time and this has tended to complicate the biophysical aspect of water availability which is always the starting point in defining water availability for livelihood activities.