Results and Imagery

Imagery

Figure A

The most recent satellite image of Volcanoes National Park with the least cloud cover, taken with Landsat 7 TM, clearly showing the park's borders and the contrasting agricultural land that surrounds it. Taken October 2010 and subset created with ENVI November 2010.

Figure B

This image was taken from Google Earth, which shows an aerial view of the park. The labels show the division of the park between the three countries of Rwanda, Uganda, and DRC. The cloud cover when this image was taken blocks parts of the national park from being seen.

Figure C

Satellite image of Volcanoes National Park, taken with Landsat TM5 in 1987.

Figure D

"This is a false color radar image taken from the space shuttle Endeavor in
1994 showing the "island" of the Virunga range of volcanoes surrounded by
farmland and villages (purple areas).The faint lines in purple are terraced
fields. Photo courtesy of NASA." -Visible Earth NASA site

Figure E

This was obtained from Satellite Imaging Corp and it compares two satellite images of the clear border of Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. The one on the left uses Landsat TM5, its spatial resolution is 28.5 meters and it was taken in August 1987. The image on the right used IKONOS satellite sensor, it has a spatial resolution of 1 meter, and it was taken in June 2006.

Figure F

This image was made using data obtained from EarthExplorer of Volcanoes National Park. The image is of the National Park in February 2005, captured by the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus. Using the 3D Surface View tool on ENVI, I was able to make this 3D model of the national park and really show the contrast between the lowlands and the volcanoes by increasing the vertical exaggeration.

Figure G

This image was obtained from Satellite Imaging Corporation and it is a 3D terrain model of Visoke, a volcano located in Volcanoes National Park Rwanda. It was taken in 2007 using GeoEye.

Figure H

The data used to make the four images above were obtained using EarthExplorer. By inputing the coordinates of the Volcanoes National Park, I was able to find the Digital Elevation Data for the region. The Digitial Elevation Data uses Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 1 Arc and 3 Arc Second Digital Terrain Elevation Data. Then, by using ENVI I was able to make the four images. Starting from the top left image and going clockwise: Topographic, Elevation, Aspect, and Shaded Relief.

Figure I

This image shows the available fire data for the past 7 years in the Volcanoes National Park and the surrounding areas. This image was obtained from the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), which used MODIS and the Terra satellite to obtain fire data.

Figure J

These images were obtained using the USGS Global Visualization Viewer which used Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper at 240 meter spatial resolution. Using the 323 order of Red, Green, Blue bands on ENVI, the vegetation is clearly shown in dark green, in contrast to the more bare surrounding areas. Starting from the upper left image going counter clockwise: 1987, 2003, 2005, 2010.

Figure K

The image above compares two density slices of the Volcanoes National Park. I obtained the data from the USGS Global Visualization Viewer which used Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper at 240 meter spatial resolution. Using ENVI, I did a subset of the Volcanoes National Park from the original image for 1987 and 2005. I then performed a density slice of both images to show the extent of vegetation as well as the density of vegetation. By comparing the two, it seems that some parts of the park have grown over the years while some parts have been deforested.

Figure L

Landsat TM showing Rwanda before Genocide and Rwanda after Genocide. This image may show the correlation between human conflict and loss of vegetation. This is important in studying the habitats able to sustain populations of mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park. Photo courtesy of www.Yale.edu, Genocide Studies Program.

Figure M

The shaded areas below represent protected areas within the country of Rwanda, comparing 1990 to 2000. There is an obvious reduction in protected land on the eastern border, however, the Volcanoes National Park looks to have remained fairly intact.

Figure N

This figure shows the location of the mountain gorilla groups and the estimated size of each group throughout Volcanoes National Park.

Figure O

The figure below shows the habitable areas for the Virunga mountain gorilla in the white space. Although the park itself is fairly large, there are select locations where the gorilla populations can successfully survive due to the right elevation and vegetation.

Figure P

This table shows the population estimates of Virunga mountain gorilla populations between 1971 and 2000.

Figure Q

This graph shows the growth and decline patterns of Rwanda from 1961 to 2003. By observing this graph, we may be able to see how the civil war and genocide correlated with the populations of mountain gorillas.

Figure R
An NDVI showing vegetation cover in Volcanoes National Park.

Results: Data and Image Analysis

When beginning research on the Virunga mountain gorillas and civil war in Rwanda, I sought to answer the following questions:

Is there a correlation between increase in civil war/civil strife/genocide and environmental degradation in Rwanda?

Is there a correlation between the statistics of human mortality rate as a result of civil war and genocide and the statistics of forest area or wildlife abundance?

Is there a correlation between the statistics of human mortality rate as a result of civil war and genocide and the population growth or decline of the Virunga mountain gorilla over time?

What patterns support or disprove the hypothesis that civil war is detrimental to the Volcanoes National Park?

Is there a significant difference in forest land cover before and after civil war?

These questions can be answered by simply reviewing a timeline of Rwanda's major social conflicts such as the one provided by BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1070329.stm) and then comparing it to the vegetation density over time. By creating a time series, I was able to see how change has occurred over the past two decades within the Volcanoes National Park as seen in Figure J and K. However, by studying these images I found out that the countries have been fairly good at protecting their reserves, with only a few slight decreases in vegetation in a few regions.

By studying the Density slice in Figure K, we can see that the vegetation density has within the park has definitely decreased as the red areas represent the most dense and the green areas are a little less. Although it does not seem to be a huge loss of vegetation cover, it is still very significant as small populations of mountain gorillas are highly susceptible to change. This is because the regions in which they inhabit are extremely limited as seen in figures N and O. The Virunga mountain gorilla populations took a dip between 1976 and 1986 (figure P), while the Rwandan populations were still growing as seen in figure Q. According to the BBC timeline of Rwanda, it was during this decade that there was also a large migration of Ugandan refugees to Rwanda because of civil war that was occurring there. These large influxes of people may have been a very important cause in the gorilla population decline because more people need more land for subsistence agriculture, more opportunities for money which they could get from poaching, as well as more food which they could get from poaching as well.

Figure P shows that the gorilla populations were actually growing when the civil war and genocides were taking place in Rwanda (see graphs below), but these censuses are estimates as it was too dangerous for many researchers to go out and study. However, because of the war, perhaps military forces within the park were heightened and more effective in protecting the park because it also meant protecting its borders from rebels who were camping out there from Uganda and the DRC. In Figure I, Fires are mapped out over the past 7 years and there are only a handful that occurred within the borders of Volcanoes National Park. Fire naturally would cause devastating vegetation loss, meaning habitat loss for the mountain gorilla, but thankfully many of the fires were kept of the park, probably due to high military patrolling.