GIS Assessment of Environmental Footprints of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) on Nairobi National Park, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to assess the magnitude of the environmental problems caused by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project on Nairobi National Park (NNP) and hence model GIS aided solutions to the problems. People may know the impacts the SGR has or can have on the park. However, there is no research that has been done to unearth the magnitude of these impacts, hence a knowledge gap that needs to be filled. Furthermore, a deeper understanding of these impacts will open up a door for the formulation of the most appropriate solutions for the identified problems. Relevant spatial and non-spatial data, based on the objectives, were collected for processing and analysis using geospatial technologies to assess the environmental footprints before and after the planned SGR on the Nairobi National Park. The layers were overlaid to identify the most impacted areas and spatial statistical methods used to predict the expected continued impact over 5 years and 10 years. The results successfully demonstrated how the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has and will cause negative environmental impacts on Nairobi National Park by use of the various GIS analysis tools. The SGR-I has indeed encroached on Nairobi National Park occupying an area of 87.29 Hectares and the proposed SGR-IIA will cut across the park caving out an area of 42 Hectares. Moreover, approximately 500.61 Hectares of vegetation cover will be lost to construction and operation of the SGR. Ultimately, the noise and air pollution produced due to the SGR construction and operation will fragment the wild animals, affect the herbivores vegetation, and personnel as well. SGR encroachment into the park particularly affects the wildlife migration routes negatively. Some of the recommendations of the study are wet-spraying of cement and wet drilling to reduce dust emissions during the construction of SGR-IIA; often investigations of the construction sites and recommendation of a suitability analysis of the best SGR route to be carried out using GIS.