Mapping Land Use Land Cover Changes and Their Determinants in the Context of a Massive Free Labour Mobilisation Campaign: Evidence from South Wollo, Ethiopia

Abstract

Northern Ethiopia is characterised by fragile mountain eco-systems that are highly susceptible to land degradation, impacting food security and livelihoods. This study appraises Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULCC) and their determinants from 2000 to 2020 in Dessie Zuria and Kutaber Woredas. It explores the LULCC and the key anthropogenic drivers of the change over the past 20 years through a mix of satellite imagery and a survey of local understandings. Six land use types (agriculture, forest, area closure, grazing, settlement and bare land) were mapped from satellite imagery that was acquired from Landsat 7 for the years 2000, 2005, and 2010, and Landsat 8 and OLI multispectral imageries for the years 2015 and 2020 with a spectral resolution of 30-m obtained from USGS. The results showed that agricultural land increased from 29.68% in 2000 to 35.77% in 2020.Furthermore, settlement and grazing lands enlarged from 5.95% and 6.04%, respectively, to 8.31% and 6.35% during the same period, while bare land increased from 9.89% to 10.92% in 2020. On the contrary, forest and area closure decreased from 18.45% and 29.99% to 17.8% and 17.38%, respectively. Meanwhile, population growth, unrestricted grazing, losing a sense of ownership of protected area closures and forests, lack of cooperation, using the free labour mobilisation schemes for government-induced agendas, weak enforcement of laws and bylaws, and engaging farmers for extended days on the campaign were prominent determinants of the changes. This research has implications for development actors across land management and food security towards implementing sustainable land management in the area and beyond.

A Holistic Analysis of Food Security Situation of Households Engaged in Land Certification and Sustainable Land Management Programs: South Wello, Ethiopia

“…Land, a valuable resource for the farming community, continues to diminish over time, making it insufficient to meet the food needs of farming households. According to the study by Tesfaye et al [ 109 ], the average land size per household in the two studied Woredas declined to 0.75 hectares, significantly lower than the national average and comparable to the regional average of 1.01 and 0.7 hectares. Consequently, farmers are compelled to produce food from these tiny plots, leading to chronic and temporary food shortages for household members.…”

Assessment of Major Wetlands’ Current Situation and Their Contribution To Livelihood Improvement, South Wollo, Ethiopia

“…Since 2010, agricultural land, settlement, grazing land, and bare land are being increased. On the other hand, forest land and closure are being decreased [31,32].…”

“…Te major soil type in South Wollo Zone is sandy, sandy clay, and sandy loam with moderate fertility [32]. Te zone is known for its bimodal rainfall pattern, the big rainy season usually extending from June to September, and the small rainy season extending from February to May [33].…”

Multitemporal Spatial Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in the Lower Jaguaribe Hydrographic Sub-Basin, Ceará, Northeast Brazil

“…Remote sensing products have been widely used to monitor land use and land cover (LULC) change to collect and expand quantitative information about the Earth. This is mainly because of improved image interpretation techniques and evolutionary analysis using geoprocessing tools and digital image processing (DIP) [15][16][17].…”