Hydrologic and land use/cover change analysis for the Ruvu River (Uluguru) and Sigi River (East Usambara) watersheds

Abstract
CARE International in Tanzania in partnership with WWF Tanzania Programme Office is in a process of establishing a new project entitled “Equitable Payment for Watershed Services (PWS) in the Uluguru and East Usambara Mountains focusing on Ruvu and Sigi river basins. The central premise of this project is to establish an equitable payment mechanism between buyers and sellers of the watershed services. The PWS mechanism will actually promote equity in the distribution of benefits so far as this can be achieved without significantly undermining the financial viability of the initiative. The proposed Equitable Payments for Watershed Services (PWS) initiative which is the subject of this study entails the major users of water from the Ruvu river and Sigi River (“the buyers”) making a long term financial investment in modifying land use within the river basin to improve “watershed services” – specifically the reliability, and quality of their water supply. This financial investment (“the payments”) would be used to provide benefits to communities that act as an incentive for them to make the changes in land use and/or natural resource management (NRM) needed to deliver the improved watershed services, and to sustain these changes over time. The major aim of this assignment was to undertake detailed hydrological analysis of the Ruvu and Sigi River basins in relation to land use/cover change to provide guidance on what and where the PWS initiative should be focused within the upper catchments based on maximizing the buyers’ return on investment in terms of their particular interests in improving watershed services. In other words where will the buyer get “the best bang for their buck”. This will also within the focal areas address poverty of the poor farmers or people in general.
Description
Full text available at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.575.2361&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Keywords
Hydrologic, land use, watersheds, Ruvu River
Citation
Yanda, P.Z. and Munishi, P.K.T., 2007. Hydrologic and land use/cover change analysis for the Ruvu River (Uluguru) and Sigi River (East Usambara) watersheds. For WWF/CARE Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.