Analyses of LULC dynamics in a socio-ecological system of the Bale Mountains Eco Region of Southeast Ethiopia.
Analysis of land use and land cover (LULC) change and its drivers and impacts in the biodiversity hotspot of Bale Mountain's socio-ecological system is crucial for formulating plausible policies and strategies that can enhance sustainable development. The study aimed to analyze spatio-temporal LULC changes and their trends, extents, drives, and impacts over the last 48 years in the Bale Mountain social-ecological system. Landsat imagery data from the years 1973, 1986, 1996, 2014, and 2021 together with qualitative data were used. LULC classification scheme employed a supervised classification method with the application of the maximum likelihood algorithm technique. In the period between 1973 and 2021, agriculture, bare land, and settlement showed areal increment by 153.13%, 295.57%, and 49.03% with the corresponding increased annual rate of 1.93%, 2.86%, and 0.83%, respectively. On the contrary, forest, wood land, bushland, grass land, and water body decreased by 29.97%, 1.36%, 28.16%, 8.63%, and 84.36% during the study period, respectively. During the period, major LULC change dynamics were also observed; the majority of woodland was converted to agriculture (757.8 km2) and grassland (531.3 km2); and forests were converted to other LULC classes, namely woodland (766.5 km2), agriculture (706.1 km2), grassland (34.6 km2), bushland (31.9 km2), settlement (20.5 km2), and bare land (14.3 km2). LULC changes were caused by the expansion of agriculture, settlement, overgrazing, infrastructure development, and fire that were driven by population growth and climate change, and supplemented by inadequate policy and institutional factors. Social and environmental importance and values of land uses and land covers in the study area necessitate further assessment of potential natural resources' user groups and valuation of ecosystem services in the study area. Hence, we suggest the identification of potential natural resource-based user groups, and assessment of the influence of LULC changes on ecosystem services in Bale Mountains Eco Region (BMER) for the sustainable use and managements of land resources.
Ayana B
，Senbeta F
，Seyoum A
《-》
Dynamics of land use/land cover: implications on environmental resources and human livelihoods in the Middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia.
Quantifying the recent LULC changes and associated impacts on pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihood systems is important since the effects of LULC changes on environmental resources and human livelihood are not fully understood in our study area. This paper analysed the trend of land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics and its implications on natural resources and human livelihood in the Middle Awash Valley, Central Ethiopian Rift Valley. For the purpose, Landsat imageries of thematic mapper (1987), enhanced thematic mapper (2002) and operational land imager and thermal infrared sensor (2016) were employed and analysed using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) software and techniques, and qualitative data analysis had been performed as well. The results showed that cultivated land expanded at a rate of 2.6% year-1, whereas forestland and grassland shrunk at a rate of 1.2% year-1 and 2.4% year-1, respectively. The invasive Prosopis juliflora has been expanded from 3.7% in 1987 to 37.9% in 2016 at a rate of 1.2% year-1. The introduction of both small- and large-scale commercial irrigation farming and the implementation of villagization programme focused on transforming pastoralists into sedentary lifestyles. Consequently, irrigation farming, launching of villagization, climate variability as in series of droughts, construction of water dam and the rapid expansion of Prosopis juliflora were the major drivers of LULC changes in the study area. Although we found some positive developments such as improvement on infrastructural and social services (e.g. school and domestic water supply), income diversification and ecological benefits from Prosopis juliflora (e.g. saline soil treatment, carbon sequestration and soil erosion control), there were a range of negative impacts resulting from LULC changes in the study area. LULC changes reduced quality of rangeland resources as the ecologically and economically valuable indigenous tree and grass varieties were significantly degraded. As a result, the traditional pastoral livelihood system has been much vulnerable with the LULC dynamism of the study area. Furthermore, the implementation of the villagization programme has brought socioeconomic impacts on the community and challenges on the ecology, e.g. changing productive rangeland to irrigation crop farms. Our research results, thus, suggest the urgent need for relevant policy interventions in support of the pastoral livelihoods and landscapes with the modification in the implementation of villagization as well as irrigation farming programmes and its better management and controlling Prosopis juliflora expansion in the study area.
Abebe MT
，Degefu MA
，Assen M
，Legass A
... -
《-》
Analyzing Land Use/Land Cover Changes Using Google Earth Engine and Random Forest Algorithm and Their Implications to the Management of Land Degradation in the Upper Tekeze Basin, Ethiopia.
Land use and land cover change (LULCC) without appropriate management practices has been identified as a major factor contributing to land degradation, with significant impacts on ecosystem services and climate change and hence on human livelihoods. Therefore, up-to-date and accurate LULCC data and maps at different spatial scales are significant for regular monitoring of existing ecosystems, proper planning of natural resource management, and promotion of sustainable regional development. This study investigates the temporal and spatial dynamics of land use land cover (LULC) changes over 31 years (1990-2021) in the upper Tekeze River basin, Ethiopia, utilizing advanced remote sensing techniques such as Google Earth Engine (GEE) and the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. Landsat surface reflectance images from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) (1990, 2000, and 2010) and Landsat 8 Operational land imager (OLI) sensors (2021) were used. Besides, auxiliary data were utilized to improve the classification of LULC classes. LULC was classified using the Random Forest (RF) classification algorithm in the Google Earth Engine (GEE). The OpenLand R package was used to map the LULC transition and intensity of changes across the study period. Despite the complexity of the topographic and climatic features of the study area, the RF algorithm achieved high accuracy with 0.83 and 0.75 overall accuracy and Kappa values, respectively. The LULC change results from 1990 to 2021 showed that forest, bushland, shrubland, and bareland decreased by 12.2, 24.8, 1.2, and 15.4%, respectively. Bareland has changed to farmland, settlement, and dry riverbed and stream channels. Expansion of dry stream channels and sandy land surfaces has been observed from 1990 to 2021. Bushland has shown an increment by 17.2% from 1900 to 2010 but decreased by 19.5% from 2010 to 2021. Throughout the study period, water, farmland, dry stream channels and riverbeds, and urban settlements showed positive net gains of 484, 8.7, 82, and 26778.5%, respectively. However, forest, bush, shrub, and bareland experienced 12.17, 24.8, 1.2, and 15.37% losses. The observed changes showed the existing land degradation and the future vulnerability of the basin which would serve as an evidence to mitigate land degradation by avoiding the future conversion of forest, bushland, and shrubland to farmland, on the one hand, and by scaling up sustainable farmland management, and afforestation practices on degraded and vulnerable areas, on the other hand.
Fentaw AE
，Abegaz A
《SCIENTIFIC WORLD JOURNAL》
ResearchGate
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钛学术
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