Drought vulnerability drives land-use and land cover changes in the Rift Valley dry lands of Ethiopia

Biazin, Birhanu; Sterk, G.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2012.09.012

Cited by 135 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Particularly, it is the semiarid zone which has the largest degraded area, adversely affecting the livelihoods of considerable number of people (Table 1). Worldwide, land degradation affects about 1.5 billion people, out of these 250 million people reside in drylands and about one billion people in over 100 countries are at risk (Reynolds et al 2007;Lean 2009;UNCCD 2014).The number of people affected by dryland degradation may increase substantially as the estimated number of people living in dryland environments will increase from 2 to about 3 billion by 2020 (Fischer and Heilig 1997;Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005a;Biazin and Sterk 2013). These people include many of the world's poorest, most marginalized, and politically weak citizens (WMO 2005).…”

Section: Dryland Degradation: Extent Drivers and Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rehabilitation of degraded dryland ecosystems – review

Yirdaw¹,

Tigabu²,

Monge³

2017

Silva Fenn.

114

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Highlights• The prospect of restoring degraded drylands is technically promising.• The forest landscape restoration concept can be used as the overarching rehabilitation framework.• Development of process-based models that forecast rehabilitation outcomes is needed.• Rehabilitation methodologies developed for moist areas are not necessarily suitable for drylands.• More data is needed on cost-benefit analysis of rehabilitation interventions. AbstractLand degradation is widespread and a serious threat affecting the livelihoods of 1.5 billion people worldwide of which one sixth or 250 million people reside in drylands. Globally, it is estimated that 10-20% of drylands are already degraded and about 12 million ha are degraded each year. Driven by unsustainable land use practices, adverse climatic conditions and population increase, land degradation has led to decline in provision of ecosystem services, food insecurity, social and political instability and reduction in the ecosystem's resilience to natural climate variability. Several global initiatives have been launched to combat land degradation, including rehabilitation of degraded drylands. This review aimed at collating the current state-of-knowledge about rehabilitation of degraded drylands. It was found that the prospect of restoring degraded drylands is technically promising using a suite of passive (e.g. area exclosure, assisted natural regeneration, rotational grazing) and active (e.g. mixed-species planting, framework species, maximum diversity, and use of nurse tree) rehabilitation measures. Advances in soil reclamation using biological, chemical and physical measures have been made. Despite technical advances, the scale of rehabilitation intervention is small and lacks holistic approach. Development of processbased models that forecast outcomes of the various rehabilitation activities will be useful tools for researchers and practitioners. The concept of forest landscape restoration approach, which operates at landscape-level, could also be adopted as the overarching framework for rehabilitation of degraded dryland ecosystems. The review identified a data gap in cost-benefit analysis of rehabilitation interventions. However, the cost of rehabilitation and sustainable management of drylands is opined to be lower than the losses that accrue from inaction, depending on the degree of degradation. Thus, local communities' participation, incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge, clear division of tasks and benefits, strengthening local institutions are crucial not only for cost-sharing, but also for the long-term success of rehabilitation activities.

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Section: Dryland Degradation: Extent Drivers and Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rehabilitation of degraded dryland ecosystems – review

Yirdaw¹,

Tigabu²,

Monge³

2017

Silva Fenn.

114

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“…Various authors addressed LULCC in Ethiopia, their focus varying greatly in terms of thematic area as well as spatial locations [20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. However, comprehensive and national scale analysis was conducted by the Woody Biomass Inventory and Strategic Planning Project (WBISPP), which has produced land use and land cover maps for Ethiopia [27].…”

Section: Yearmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LULCCs have been widely investigated in different parts of the world, e.g., in the USA and Europe [49], South America [44,50], Australia [51], Asia, and Africa [44], including Ethiopia [22,23,26,30,40]. These studies have shown that the expansion of agricultural land, both for commercial and subsistence crop production, is the main driver of LULCC [52].…”

Section: Major Drivers Of Lulcc/deforestationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Bale Mountain Eco-Region of Ethiopia during 1985 to 2015

Hailemariam

Soromessa

Teketay

2016

Land

135

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Anthropogenic factors are responsible for major land use and land cover changes (LULCC). Bale Mountain Eco-Region in Ethiopia is a biodiversity-rich ecosystem where such LULCC have occurred. The specific objectives of this study were to: (i) determine which LULC types gained or lost most as a result of the observed LULCC; (ii) identify the major drivers of the LULCC/deforestation; and (iii) assess the approximate amount of carbon stock removed as a result of deforestation during the study period. Remote sensing and GIS were used to analyze LULCC. Landsat images acquired in 1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015 were used. Additionally, data from the Central Statistics Agency on cropland expansion, and human and livestock population growth were analyzed and correlations were made. The results showed that forest lost 123,751 ha while farmland gained 292,294 ha. Farmland and urban settlement expansion were found to be major drivers of LULCC. Aboveground carbon stock removed from forest and shrubland was more than 24 million tons. In the future, allocation of land to different uses must be based on appropriate land use policies. Integrating biodiversity and ecosystem values for each land cover as per the UN Sustainable Development Goal (UN-SDG) 15.9 may be one of the mechanisms to limit unplanned expansion or invasion of one sector at the expense of another.

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“…The drivers of these changes may be well known, such as demographic change (Salvati et al, 2017), industrial development , agricultural expansion (Kibret et al, 2016), urbanization (Deng et al, 2015;Xian and Crane, 2005), global market forces (Temesgen et al, 2013), and climatological change, such as drought and rainfall variability (Amuti and Luo, 2014;Biazin and Sterk, 2013; Luo and Zhang, 2014; Román-Cuesta et al, 2014), or they may also involve interactions of institutional or cultural impacts (Kindu et al, 2015;Sakayarote and Shrestha, 2017). These drivers have triggered drastic LULC conversions by substituting one type of LULC with another.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Drivers of Spatio-Temporal Land Use/Land Cover Changes in a Rapidly Urbanizing Area of China, the Su-Xi-Chang Region

Yirsaw¹

2017

Appl. Ecol. Env. Res.

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Abstract. The rapid economic development resulting from Chinese economic reform has greatly accelerated urbanization and industrialization, thus leading to alterations in the natural landscape. Understanding the extent of these changes is important for regional sustainable land management. An integrated approach with a geographic information system and remote sensing was used to extract land use/land cover (LULC) change information for the Su-Xi-Chang region over the period of 1980 to 2010. To calculate the dimensions of fragmentation and to observe changes in spatial patterns, FRAGSTATS was used. Major drivers were determined through bivariate statistical analysis of socioeconomic data sources. Three change matrices were constructed for detecting LULC changes from 1980 to 1990, 1990 to 2000, and 2000 to 2010. In the study period, farmland, water bodies and wetlands significantly decreased. However, construction land, grassland and woodlands increased considerably. The pattern and composition of the landscape exhibited significant fragmentation for the whole area. Socioeconomic analysis showed that population growth and economic development, urbanization and subsequent construction land expansion, and industrialization were the major socioeconomic drivers of LULC changes. Changes in farmland resulted in decreases in area and production that might impair ecological functions and decrease food production. Therefore, better land use policy would address the consequences of the loss of the natural landscape due to drastic socioeconomic drivers in the region. Further research along these lines should be encouraged, because additional studies will be helpful for the decision makers engaged in planning activities at various levels.

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Drought vulnerability drives land-use and land cover changes in the Rift Valley dry lands of Ethiopia

Cited by 135 publications

References 59 publications

Rehabilitation of degraded dryland ecosystems – review

Rehabilitation of degraded dryland ecosystems – review

Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Bale Mountain Eco-Region of Ethiopia during 1985 to 2015

Socioeconomic Drivers of Spatio-Temporal Land Use/Land Cover Changes in a Rapidly Urbanizing Area of China, the Su-Xi-Chang Region

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