Evaluation of the status of land use/land cover change using remote sensing and GIS in Jewha Watershed, Northeastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Evaluation of land use/land cover (LULC) status of watersheds is vital to environmental management. This study was carried out in Jewha watershed, which is found in the upper Awash River basin of central Ethiopia. The total catchment area is 502 km2. All climatic zones of Ethiopia, including lowland arid (‘Kola’), midland semi-arid (‘Woinadega’), humid highland (Dega) and afro alpine (‘Wurch’) can be found in the watershed. The study focused on LULC classification and change detection using GIS and remote sensing techniques by analyzing satellite images. The data preprocessing and post-process was done using multi-temporal spectral satellite data. The images were used to evaluate the temporal trends of the LULC class by considering the years 1984, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Accuracy assessment and change detection of the classification were undertaken by accounting these four years images. The land use types in the study area were categorized into six classes: natural forest, plantation forest, cultivated land, shrub land, grass land and bare land. The result shows the cover classes which has high environmental role such as forest and shrub has decreased dramatically through time with cultivated land increasing during the same period in the watershed. The forest cover in 1984 was about 6.5% of the total catchment area, and it had decreased to 4.2% in 2015. In contrast, cultivated land increased from 38.7% in 1984 to 51% in 2015. Shrub land decreased from 28 to 18% in the same period. Bare land increased due to high gully formation in the catchment. In 1984, it was 1.8% which turned to 0.6% in 1995 then increased in 2015 to 2.7%. Plantation forest was not detected in 1984. In 1995, it covers 1.5% which turned to be the same in 2015. The study clearly demonstrated that there are significant changes of land use and land cover in the catchment. The findings will allow making informed decision which will allow better land use management and environmental conservation interventions.

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

“…About, 3616.45 ha of this land were converted to cultivation land and settlement area. This study is in agreement with some of the studies in Ethiopia where a significant change of grassland into cultivation land[2,20,24,70]. All these studies reported in their respective found that local communities are converting grassland into cultivation land to satisfy the need of the ever growing population.Forest Land (FL):FL was the largest LULC class, with the share of 3287.79 ha (9.52 %) of the total area of the study area in 1974 (Table6).…”

Impacts of land use and land cover change on ecosystem service values in the Afroalpine area of Guna Mountain, Northwest Ethiopia

“…It is a crucial way human activities affect ecosystems (Li et al., 2018). Over recent decades, LULC has been substantially changed ( Belay and Mengistu, 2019 ; Betru et al., 2019 ; Habte et al., 2021 ; Sisay et al., 2021 ), which have had an incredible impact on ecosystem services by influencing ecosystem patterns and processes ( Gashaw et al., 2018 ; Kindu et al., 2016 ). Humans benefit directly from changing land use types but dramatically alter ecosystem services.…”

Historical and future dynamics of land use land cover and its drivers in Ajora‐Woybo watershed, Omo‐Gibe basin, Ethiopia

“…The percent and rate of changes in LULC in the Ajora-Woybo watershed from 1990to 2000, 2000to 2010, 2010, and 1990 contributed to the expansion of various land-use types (Gashaw et al, 2017;Habte et al, 2021;Leta et al, 2021;Tadese et al, 2021).…”

“…In addition, they determined that intensive agriculture with poor management methods is a widespread problem in the watershed. Furthermore, different studies revealed that population pressure, various agricultural techniques, urbanization, drought frequency, and poor land use planning, as well as institutional and environmental challenges, were the primary reasons of land use change in Ethiopia (Dagnachew et al, 2020;Dibaba et al, 2020a;Ewunetu et al, 2021;Fasika et al, 2019;Gashaw et al, 2017;Habte et al, 2021;Hassen & Assen, 2018;Tadese et al, 2020Tadese et al, , 2021.…”