Atlas · São Tomé and Principe / Knowledge Base
KNOWLEDGE BASE

The Lamu seascape

Lamu has Kenya's largest continuous mangrove forest and is the best-mapped area in Atlas.

Beginner 1 min read LamuKenyacase studyLAPSSET

Lamu County, on Kenya's far north coast, includes the Lamu archipelago, the Kiunga marine reserve and a huge area of mangrove creeks and flats.

What Atlas holds for Lamu

  • A 2019 map by species formation: 60,004 polygons covering about 34,500 ha in seven classes, with Rhizophora dominant on about 42% of the area.
  • 28,000 sand and mudflat polygons and the swamp blocks managed by the Kenya Forest Service.
  • 139 field survey plots (about half agree with the map on the dominant genus).
  • Villages and towns, and the LAPSSET port and development footprint.

Why it is important. Lamu's mangroves support fisheries and the old town's economy, protect the coast and hold large amounts of carbon, but they sit next to the LAPSSET port and corridor project. About 54% of the mapped mangrove lies within 10 km of the development footprint.

Explore it. Open the map, tick the Lamu layers, then try "What if 10% of mangroves within 5 km of LAPSSET is lost?" in the AI analyst.

Limits. The detailed formation map is a single 2019 epoch; the Global Mangrove Watch maps give the time series.

Related reading

Guest preview · 159s left Explore until the timer ends. Then you’ll be asked to log in or create an account (about two minutes) to keep going.
Ask Atlas