Land use/land cover changes due to gold mining in the Singida region, central Tanzania: environmental and socio‑economic implications

Abstract

This study explored the land use and land cover (LULC) changes (1995–2023) in the gold min- ing hotspots of Mang’onyi, Sambaru, and Londoni in the Singida region of Tanzania. The study integrated remote sensing (RS) to evaluate the LULC transi- tions with social survey assessments (83 respond- ents) to determine the resident’s perceptions of the environmental, social, and economic implications of mining bridging technical data with socio-economic realities. Supervised classification of Landsat images was conducted using the random forest (RF) classifier to generate LULC maps with five classes (bareland, agricultural land, forest, built-up, and shrubs and grasses), followed by an analysis to identify LULC change trends. The results showed an overall increase in agricultural land 168.51 km2 (587.55%), bareland 7.70 km2 (121.45%), and built-up areas 0.55 km2 (134.15%), while forest and shrubs and grasses areas declined by 97.67 km2 (− 72.59%) and 79.09 km2 (− 43.49%), respectively. A social survey assessment revealed residents perceived environmental (defor- estation, biodiversity loss, land degradation, water, air, soil pollution), social (occupational hazards, land use conflicts, negative effects on livelihoods and culture, discrimination, child labor, community displacement), and economic (improved housing, infrastructural development, job creation, economy boost, improved access to services) impacts result- ing from mining activities. Our findings underscore