Application of Geospatial Techniques for Monitoring Gikondo Wetland Management: from Industrial Park to Eco-Tourism Park

In 1950, only 30 % of the world’spopulation was urban. In 2018, the world’spopulation was residing in urban areas reached 55 % and the figure is estimated to be 68 percent by 2050 (UN, 2019). Cities and towns are continuingly becoming the primary human living space as countries develop. However, different studies highlight that accelerated urbanization is blamed to have negative impacts on urban environment especially on wetland ecosystems. This is due to fact that many world wetlands were taken as wastelands, difficult to use for agriculture or urbanization purposes. The above perspective has found place in Rwanda wetland management. Rural urban migration, high population growth, and provision of improved urban infrastructures such as roads and industries have contributed to increased urbanization by 26.70%. Moreover, lack of coordination between environment and urban planning sector has contributed to human occupation of wetland ecosystems especially in Kigali. Residential expansion, industrial and commercial activities have contributed to the loss or degradation of wetlands of Kigali city. Uncontrolled engineering activities have contributed much on destruction of wetland flora and fauna. In the same vein, the lack of effective wetland management strategies has resulted in the development of infrastructures such as roads and buildings within wetland area.

The case of Gikondo wetland has drawn the attention on the underperformance of industry and urban planning. This wetland, stretching from Gikondo to Nyabugogo was selected as industrial area since the independence. Therefore, it was greatly affected, and its ability to control siltation, and clean wastewater and buffer flooding was jeopardized[2]. The development of some infrastructure such as factories, warehouses and paved roads has reduced the surface area available for infiltration, and the increased runoff causes erosion on bare soils and siltation of waterways in the lower parts of the wetlands. It was until 2005 that the government of Rwanda started to establish the clear linkages between development and sustainable wetland. In this regard, the Rwanda government promulgated the Organic Law on Environmental Management and established the agency charged with supervision, follow-up and ensuring of environment mainstreaming in all national and local policies. The policymaking has continued to focus on the importance of the Gikondo Wetland. Following the publication Sustainable Development Goals, specifically the SDG 11 on “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable and its inclusion in the National Strategy for Transformation NST1 in its objective 6 on “Sustainably exploit natural resources and protect the environment”, The Gikondo Wetland received the policy attention due to its functions and services. This shows that the motive to restore this wetland is enshrined in the above international, national and local policies. This calls for the need to provide decision making on historical evolution of the functions and services of the Gikondo Wetland to guide future decision making in the restoration and sustainable use of this wetland. However, there have been few studies on the integration of the Gikondo Wetland restoration in the sustainable urban management of Kigali. For instance, Bizimana & Schilling, (2010) have studied the flood risks and stressed the importance of integrating flooding risks in Kigali Master Plan. Kabanda, (2008)has analysed the level of environmental compliance to organic law in Gikondo wetland. His study demonstrated not only the low level of compliance, high level of violation and lack of capacity to monitor the violation in Gikondo Wetland. Etale,(2011)has studied the risks of cadmium and lead uptake from agriculture products farmed in Gikondo Wetland and demonstrated that high Cadmium and Lead concentration exceeding the EUstandard. In the same vein, Sekomo et al., (2011)have analysed pollution level in Nyabugogo Wetland, and showed that pollutant from Gikondo Industrial Park were discharged without treatment in Nyabugogo Wetland. In sum, these studied have demonstrated environmental and health risks posed by inefficient management of the wetland. However, none of them has shown the spatial dynamics of these risks through a spatio-historical perspective. Therefore, this study aims at using geo-spatial technology to unravel historical dynamics of the degradation of Gikondo wetland to guide future decision in the sustainable use of Gikondo Wetland.