GIS application in rangeland management in Tanzania: a systematic review
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Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Rangeland Society of Tanzania (RST)
Abstract
A good proportion of the aspects of range resource management
are amenable to GIS technology because range resource
management integrates spatial and non-spatial aspects of data
and information for which GIS is best suited. Whether this
amenability is exploited was questionable and needed evidence-
based research to confirm. The current paper presents the results
of a systematic review of the application of GIS in rangeland
management in Tanzania. The specific objectives of the study
were: (1) to assess the distribution of the publications by year of
publication; (2) to examine the distribution of the publications by
subject area; (3) to analyse the relationships among key words
used in titles and abstracts of the publications; (4) to describe
details of a sample of selected publications, and; (5) to evaluation
the distribution of publications by institution of the authorship.
The study used the PRISMA method in searching, selecting and
analysing the publications. Records were retrieved from Google
scholar, Scopus, and science direct. We included 80 English
language studies done in Tanzania for the first four specific
objectives and 136 for the fifth specific objective. There is an increasing trend of application of GIS from 1 study in 1993 and
years close by to 11 publications in 2021. About 34%, 31%, 27%
and 8% of the publications applied GIS respectively in
environmental science, earth and planetary sciences, agricultural
and biological sciences and social sciences. The words μchange¶,
μaUea¶ and μTan]ania¶ ZeUe Whe moVW fUeqXenWl\ XVed in WiWleV and
abstracts. Furthermore, words in titles and abstracts formed
about five clusters representing study area (e.g. Tanzania),
method of analysis (e.g. remote sensing, assessment, data), topic
of study (e.g. change, land use, land, conservation) and land use
(e.g. grassland, woodland, forest). Most words clustered close
WogeWheU foUming a meVhZoUk bXW Whe ZoUd μconflicW¶ ZaV Whe moVW
distant from the rest of the meshwork. GIS data sets used included
land use land use/cover (LULC) layer, landscape features (e.g.
rivers, roads, topographic variables) and socioeconomic data.
Most publications came from Sokoine University of Agriculture,
University of Dar es Salaam and Nelson Mandela African
Institution of Science and Technology while the fewest came from
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Hohenheim University
and the University of British Columbia respectively. It is
concluded that GIS is increasingly being applied to rangeland
management. However, social sciences apply GIS the least.
Tanzanian institutions lead in application of GIS technology,
which means it is no longer foreign expertise. It is recommended
that all fields apply GIS wherever appropriate. In particular, why
GIS is least applied in social sciences aspects of rangeland
management needs further investigation.
Description
Healthy Rangelands for Sustainable Natural Resource Productivity
Keywords
Geographical Information System, remote sensing, rangeland, grassland, resource management, land use, land cover.