Physical geographic land condition of livestock areas in the semi-arid Laikipia Plateau, Central Kenya

Abstract

In this presentation, we discuss on the physical geographic environment and geomorphological land condition of semi-arid livestock areas in the Laikipia Plateau, Central Kenya. The investigated areas are situated in the eastern part of the Laikipia County, the former Laikipia District, and at an altitude of approximately 1,800 meters. Annual precipitation is 300 to 400 mm, and the areas are widely covered with poor vegetation. In the investigated areas, the Proterozoic gneiss and quartzite crop out and inselberg-pediment complex is regionally distributed. Particularly in the uppermost pediment, including settlement sites, relatively active gully/sheet erosion is geomorphologically discernible, where the depth of gully heads reaches 10 to 15 meters in many cases and relatively narrow gullies predominate. In addition, we plan to mention of existing state on the land use and local people’s cognition of land environment in our presentation.