Floods and landslides in the Bakokwe catchment, Rwanda: Causes, consequences, and future challenges

Sammanfattning: Rwanda is highly exposed to floods and landslides due to intense precipitation, rapid population growth, varied topography and agricultural growth. One of the most vulnerable areas is the Nyabarongo catchment. A subcatchment of the Nyabarongo catchment, Bakokwe, was chosen as a case study for this thesis. The aim was to evaluate the causes, consequences and future challenges of floods and landslides in the subcatchment. This was done by evaluating soil profiles, reported disaster events, changes in land cover, and precipitation, and observations from the field visits. The causes of floods and landslides in the catchment could be concluded to be heavy rainfall together with land use and high population density. It could also be concluded that disaster events likely are being underreported, as the precipitation leading up to the reported events mostly was normal. The vulnerability to floods and landslides in the area is predicted to increase due to the alterations in the hydrological cycle that follows with climate change, together with a projected high population increase. This thesis suggests further research to be conducted, as the lack of data has been a limiting factor. It will be of importance that the governmentally proposed measures are implemented and regularly evaluated.