Impacts of land use and land cover change on surface runoff, discharge and low flows: Evidence from East Africa

Region East Africa. Focus A review of catchment studies (n = 37) conducted in East Africa evaluating the impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Changes (LULCC) on discharge, surface runoff, and low flows. New hydrological insights Forest cover loss is accompanied by increased stream discharges and surface runoff. No significant difference in stream discharge is observed between bamboo and pine plantation catchments, and between cultivated and tea plantation catchments. Trend analyses show that despite forest cover loss, 63% of the watersheds show non-significant changes in annual discharges while 31% show increasing trends. Half of the watersheds show non-significant trends in wet season flows and low flows while…