FIGURE 7.1
District map of Kenya

Chapter 7
Area inventory of climatic resources

The area inventory of thermal zones, pattern of growing period zones and length of growing period zones, by district was prepared at 1 : 1 million scale.

The mapped inventory was compiled by:

1. plotting the individual station data of temperature, pattern of length of growing period and mean total dominant length of growing period¹; and

2. constructing boundaries of thermal zones, pattern of length of growing period zones and isolines of mean total dominant length of growing period with the values 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, 330, 365^-and 365⁺ days respectively, delineating the mean total dominant length of growing period zones of 0,1–29, 30–59, 60–89, 90–119 120–149, 150–179, 180–209, 210–239, 240–269, 270–299, 300–329, 330–364, 365^-and 365⁺ days.

In addition to normal extrapolation techniques, extensive use was made of landsat images, climatic maps, vegetation maps, land use maps, topographic maps and soil maps to guide the delineation of boundaries and isolines.

The three climatic inventories in map form, together with seven other layers (Exploratory Soil Map, land use maps, tse-tse infestation map and a district/province map) all at a scale of 1 : 1 million, were digitized by the Comprehensive Resource Inventory and Evaluation System Project (CRIES 1983) of Michigan State University (Section 9.2).

The digitized information from the maps was converted to a grid cell data base. The cell size is one squared millimetre corresponding to 100 ha.

A map of provinces and districts is presented in Figure 7.1, and their extents are presented in Table 7.1. A generalized thermal zones map is presented in Figure 7.2, and their extents are presented in Table 7.2. A generalized map of mean total dominant length of growing period zones is presented in Figure 7.3, and their extents are presented in Table 7.3. A generalized map of pattern of length of growing period zones is presented in Figure 7.4, and their extents are presented in Table 7.4.

TABLE 7.1
Extents of Districts and Provinces of Kenya

FIGURE 7.2
Generalized map of thermal zones

TABLE 7.2
Extents of thermal zones

TABLE 7.3
Extents of mean total dominant length of growing period zones

FIGURE 7.3
Generalized map of mean total dominant length of growing period zones

FIGURE 7.4
Generalized map of pattern of length of growing period zones

TABLE 7.4
Extents of pattern of length of growing period zones

¹ The individual component lengths of both the dominant (mapped) and associated length of growing period zones are presented in Appendixes 5.1 and 5.2 respectively.