Doctor of Philosophy / Environmental Design and Planning / Timothy D. Keane / Kenya has been adversely affected by soil erosion due to population growth, changes in land use and land cover, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Issues related to land degradation cost the Kenyan government approximately $390 million or 3 percent of the country’s GDP yearly (Government of Kenya, 2013). Despite extensive land degradation, many attempts to encourage the use of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices have been unsuccessful. The study focuses on Merigi Ward, Kenya. Merigi Ward lies within the Mara River Basin (MRB), an ecologically and economically important river basin that has experienced extensive erosion problems. Increased agricultural activities driven by population growth in the area and changes in land use and land cover have degraded the landscape. SWC practices are greatly needed to mitigate the effects of erosion and conserve the natural resources within the MRB. Past studies suggest that social capital may increase the adoption of SWC practices (Knowler & Bradshaw, 2007; Nyangena, 2008). This study defines social capital as the groups and networks, trust and reciprocity, formal and informal rules, and information that informs the interactions among persons that lead to collective action. Twenty-five smallholder farmers within Merigi Ward were interviewed and the relationship between the adoption of SWC practices and social capital was explored through a qualitative analysis. Additionally, the MRB is home to the Mau Mara Serengeti Sustainable Water Initiative (MaMaSe). The MaMaSe initiative is a public private partnership (P3) with the goal to promote sustainable water use, economic growth, and environmental conservation within the basin. The effect the MaMaSe initiative had on the level of social capital amongst the study participants was also investigated. Findings suggest that social capital is an important aspect of SWC adoption in Merigi Ward. Groups and networks provide farmers with implementation support and information. Particularly, the local farmers’ cooperative provides farmers with implementation assistance and links (bridging capital) to experts at the MaMaSe initiative and the Ministry of Agriculture. Strong bonding capital works in the favor of this community allowing for high levels of trust. Thus, farmers collaborate to help one another implement practices and exchange information, materials, and experiences. In general, social capital has helped facilitate better environmental conservation awareness and the use of SWC practices. The largest impact the MaMaSe initiative had on the community’s social capital was expanding networks (particularly bridging and linking capital) and providing in depth information and guidelines for SWC practice use. The P3 has also helped the farmers integrate environmental conservation into their daily lives and has helped promote a shared understanding of the importance of conservation. The findings of this study will help environmental conservation professionals understand how to use social capital to strengthen natural resource management.

The Mara River Basin (MRB) is endowed with pristine biodiversity, socio-cultural heritage and natural resources. The purpose of my study is to develop and apply an integrated water resource allocation framework for the MRB based on the hydrological processes, water demand and economic factors. The basin was partitioned into twelve sub-basins and the rainfall runoff processes was modeled using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) after satisfactory Nash-Sutcliff efficiency of 0.68 for calibration and 0.43 for validation at Mara Mines station. The impact and uncertainty of climate change on the hydrology of the MRB was assessed using SWAT and three scenarios of statistically downscaled outputs from twenty Global Circulation Models. Results predicted the wet season getting more wet and the dry season getting drier, with a general increasing trend of annual rainfall through 2050. Three blocks of water demand (environmental, normal and flood) were estimated from consumptive water use by human, wildlife, livestock, tourism, irrigation and industry. Water demand projections suggest human consumption is expected to surpass irrigation as the highest water demand sector by 2030. Monthly volume of water was estimated in three blocks of current minimum reliability, reserve (>95%), normal (80–95%) and flood (40%) for more than 5 months in a year. The assessment of water price and marginal productivity showed that current water use hardly responds to a change in price or productivity of water. Finally, a water allocation model was developed and applied to investigate the optimum monthly allocation among sectors and sub-basins by maximizing the use value and hydrological reliability of water. Model results demonstrated that the status on reserve and normal volumes can be improved to ‘low’ or ‘moderate’ by updating the existing reliability to meet prevailing demand. Flow volumes and rates for four scenarios of reliability were presented. Results showed that the water allocation framework can be used as comprehensive tool in the management of MRB, and possibly be extended similar watersheds.