Effects of Long-Term Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Ecosystem Service Values: An Example from the Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia

Abstract

Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are the leading contributors to the decline and loss of ecosystem services in the world. The present study covered the Central Rift Valley lakes basin in Ethiopia, focusing on the valley floor and the East and West escarpments, to analyze changes in LULC and to estimate associated losses in ecosystem service values (ESVs). Covering both upstream and downstream areas in the basin, the study addressed major gaps in existing studies by connecting the sources and sinks of material (e.g., sediment and water) in source-to-lake systems. Additionally, the study facilitated the identification of critical areas for conserving natural resources and reversing the decline of associated ESVs in the Central Rift Valley. A post-classification comparison approach was used to detect LULC changes between 1973 and 2020 using four Landsat images from 1973, 1990, 2005 and 2020. The value transfer valuation method was used to estimate the changes in ESVs due to LULC changes. Among the seven major identified LULC classes, farmlands, settlements, and bare lands showed positive changes, while forestlands, grasslands, shrublands and waterbodies showed negative changes over the last 47 years. The expansion of farmlands, for example, has occurred at the expense of grasslands, forestlands and shrublands. The changes in LULC over a period of 47 years resulted in a total loss of US $62,110.4 × 106 in ESVs. The contributors to the overall loss of ESVs in decreasing order are provisioning services (US $33,795.1 × 106), cultural services (US $28,981.5 × 106) and regulating services (US $652.9 × 106). The results imply that addressing the degradation of land and water resources is crucial to reversing the loss of ecosystem services and achieving the national Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food and water security (SDGs 2 and 6) and life on land (SDG 15).

Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics, Its Driving Forces and Impacts on Ecosystem Services in Jimma Rare District, North-Western Ethiopia

“…The overall reduction in the vital ecosystem service values are attributed to the reduction in the vital components of the landscape such as grass land, forest land and wet land. This result is similar to the findings of [60] which asserted that the dominant land use with the highest ESVs was cultivated land with an increasing values whereas the highest reduction in overall ESVs were recorded for forest land followed by the reduction in the total ESVs of wet land (30.15%). A general reduction in ESVs was also reported elsewhere in Malawi [83], Central highlands of Ethiopia [24] and Andassa watershed in Ethiopia [25].…”

“…The outputs from LULC analysis and global data sets developed for different biomes were used to assess the trends in ecosystem service values of the study district and period. The global ecosystem service valuation database (ESVD) was developed using over 1300 data points from 267 case studies on the monetary values of ecosystem services across all biomes to reduce uncertainties of the previous studies [59][60]. The recently updated global ESVD (Table 3) and the value transfer valuation method were used to estimate the changes in ESVs in response to LULC changes in the study area.…”

A Review of Ecological Assets and Ecological Products Supply: Implications for the Karst Rocky Desertification Control

“…The research conducted on the influencing factors of ecosystem services can help to accurately simulate future ecosystem service scenarios, and then serve the scientific formulation of strategies for improving the supply capacity of ecological products. To this end, many scholars have explored the effects of natural factors (climate change, soil, topography, vegetation) [ 72 , 73 , 74 ], socioeconomic factors (population, GDP, income, education, policy) [ 75 , 76 ] and human activities (land use, urbanization, ecological construction) [ 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 ] on ecosystem services. Land-use change can affect ecosystem service changes.…”

Mapping and assessing ecosystem services for sustainable policy and decision-making in Eritrea

“…MAES research in Africa can build upon an increasing number of studies, primarily from South Africa, Kenya, and more recently Ethiopia (Wangai et al 2016 ; Jamouli and Allali 2020 ; Mekuria et al 2021 ). Several studies have applied biophysical assessments of ES at sub-national scales, for example, studies in South Africa (Petz et al 2014 ), in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire (Leh et al 2013 ), and in Tanzania by (Fisher et al 2011 ; Swetnam et al 2011 ).…”

“…One of the prominent ES mapping studies was presented by Egoh et al ( 2008 ), focusing on five selected ES in South Africa. Noteworthy is the growing number of studies from Ethiopia, including Mekuria et al ( 2021 ) who analyzed changes in land use and land cover based on Landsat imagery and applied value transfer assessment methods to estimate associated losses in ecosystem services values (Mekuria et al 2021 ). Similarly, Tolessa et al ( 2017a ) and Tolessa et al ( 2017b ) considered satellite imagery for land use change detection as a basis for ES valuation.…”