scholarly journals Land Use/Land Cover Change and Its Driving Forces in Shenkolla Watershed, South Central Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Belayneh Bufebo ◽  
Eyasu Elias

Land use change is one of the challenges that aggravate environmental problems. Understanding the scope of land use change, driving forces, and consequences is very crucial for proper management of land resources. We investigated land use/land cover changes using remote sensing data (for the years 1973, 1995, and 2017), and field observation, household survey, key informant interview, and focus group discussion were used to determine the drivers and consequences of land use/land cover changes in Shenkolla watershed, south central Ethiopia. Unsupervised and supervised classification techniques were employed to get thematic information from satellite imagery. ArcGIS 10.3 and QGIS v 3.0 softwares were used to accomplish the analysis. The results disclosed that Shenkolla watershed has changed significantly during the past 4 decades between 1973 and 2017. This observed change indicates a reduction in forest land and an increase in agricultural land. Forest land was reduced from 29.51% in 1973 to 20.52% in 2017, but agricultural land was expanded from 70.49% in 1973 to 79.48% in 2017. Agricultural expansion, policy change and social unrest, population pressure, shortage of farm land, and biophysical factors were major driving forces of the LU/LC changes. Environmental implications such as climate change, biodiversity loss, scarcity of basic forest products, habitat alteration, decline in quality and availability of water, and crop yield reduction are the consequences of the LU/LC change. The expansion of agricultural land at the expense of forest cover in Shenkolla watershed has negative implications on the natural resources and the livelihood of local people. Hence, appropriate measures need to be employed to reduce the dramatic change in land use and to harmonize environmental conservation with human livelihood.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Belayneh Bufebo ◽  
Eyasu Elias

Land use change from natural ecosystems to managed agroecosystems is one of the main causes of soil fertility decline. Severe soil erosion caused by agricultural expansion and poor management worsened soil nutrient depletion in cultivated outfields (crop lands). This study was conducted to examine the effects of land use and land cover changes (LU/LC) on selected soil physicochemical properties in the Shenkolla watershed. A total of 40 top soil samples at 0–20 cm depth were collected from four land use/land cover types (forest land, grazing land, cultivated outfield, and cultivated homestead garden fields). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine differences in soil parameters among land use types. Treatment means comparison was determined using the least significant difference (LSD) at 0.05 level of significances. The result indicated that there were significant P<0.05 differences among the four LU/LC types for soil characteristics. For most parameters evaluated, the most favorable soil properties were observed in the forest land, followed by homestead garden fields, while the least favorable soil properties were found in intensively cultivated outfields. Increase in the extent of cultivated land at the expense of forest cover associated with poor management has promoted significant loss of soil quality in intensively cultivated outfields. Reducing the land cover conversion and adopting proper management practices of the soil commonly used in homestead garden fields are very crucial in order to improve soil fertility in intensively cultivated outfields.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1241
Author(s):  
Anastasia Krina ◽  
Fotios Xystrakis ◽  
Kostas Karantininis ◽  
Nikos Koutsias

Wetlands are areas of high biodiversity and provide many ecosystem services of high value. However, they are under constant threat from intense anthropogenic pressures, mainly agriculture intensification, urbanization, pollution, and climate change. The temporal and spatial patterns of land use/land cover (LULC) changes within eleven large wetlands in Greece were analyzed based on thematic maps generated from aerial orthophotos taken in 1945, 1975, and 2007. Socio-economic developments and the consequent need for more arable land and utilization of water resources are among the factors that mainly determine their evolution. In 2007, LULC classes related to wetland vegetation were reduced to one third as compared to 1945 and they were mainly replaced with croplands and urban infrastructures. Each of the different sub-periods that was considered (1945–1975 and 1975–2007) was distinguished by characteristic patterns of change. Agricultural land increased up to 42% from 1945 to 1975 and became the dominant LULC class in all deltaic areas but Evros. A considerable stability was observed for the period 1975–2007 for all LULC classed but it is remarkable the extent of urban areas that doubled. There is a tendency of landscape simplification and homogenization among the deltaic areas and the output of Markov chain analysis indicates that future composition of deltaic landscapes will be similar to the current one if the main driving forces remain constant. Changes in LULC composition and structure are also combined with coastal erosion in all deltaic areas. This is attributed to the modification of sedimentary deposits due to dam construction. The results summarize the change trajectories of the major deltaic areas in Greece from 1945 to 2007 thus offering a great outlook of changes that allows managers to understand how policies and socio-economic requirements affect the deltaic ecosystems and what decisions should be made to protect and enhance them.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3045-3053
Author(s):  
Kambo Dero ◽  
Wakshum Shiferaw ◽  
Biruk Zewde

The study was aimed to assess urban induced land use land cover changes in the upper Deme watershed. Three satellite images of 1986, 2002, and 2019 were analyzed by ArcGIS and processed by supervised classification. Land use land cover change in the watershed increased for settlement, bare land, and croplands in the period 1986-2019 by 56.6%, 53%, and 0.25%, respectively. However, the land use land cover change in the watershed decreased for a water body, forest, and grassland by 65%, 57.7%, and 7%, respectively. These enforced to change the work habit and social bases. Out of converted lands, during 1986-2002, 34.9%, 53%, 18%, 40.9%, and 10.6% of bare land, cropland, forest land, grassland, and water bodies, respectively, in the upper Deme watershed were changed into settlement areas. During 2002-2019, 30.7%, 36.8%, 26.9%, 66%, and 33.3% of bare land, cropland, forest land, grassland, and water bodies, respectively, were changed into settlement areas. This shows urbanization results in a different change in economic, social, land use land cover, and watershed management activities in the upper Deme watershed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karagama Kolo Geidam ◽  
◽  
Nor Aizam Adnan ◽  
Baba Alhaji Umar ◽  
◽  
...  

Change detection is useful in many applications related to land use and land cover change (LULCC), such as shifting cultivation and landscape changes. Land degradation and desertification. Remote sensing technology has been used for the detection of the changes in land use land cover in Damaturu town Nigeria. The main objectives of this research is to derive the land use/cover change map of Damaturu town from 1986 to 2017 and to quantify land use/ land cover change in the study area. Methodology employed while carry the research includes three satellites images for the year 1986, 1998 and 2017 were downloaded from USGS websites and used for detecting the land cover changes. Ground truth points were collected using google images and used for verification of image classifications. The accuracy of images classification was checked using ground truth point which showed the overall accuracy of 84.6% and a kappa coefficient of 0.89 which indicated that the method of classification was accurate. In the process of the research work, an increased was recorded in the built-up area which rose from 7.2% to 22.0%, open space increased from 10.8 to 22.8%, vegetation from 4.0% to 9.7%, water bodies from 0.0% to 0.1% while agricultural land decreased from 78% to 45.4% due to increase in interest of building as a result of the expansion of the town. The study arrived at the conclusion that there has been a significant land use change due to increase in population and development interest in built up areas which resulted in increased of amount of agricultural land being converted to build up areas over the period of 31 years.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Getaneh Haile Shoddo

Abstract Development initiatives like the recent increase in large-scale investment agriculture have made a significant impact on the forest. In the name of development, the land is often given to investors often in long-term leases and at bargain prices. Research on deforestation has been mostly restricted to poverty and population growth as the driving forces for tropical deforestation; however, explanations emphasizing market factors such as increases in large-scale investment agriculture as a cause of deforestation have only been carried out in a small number of areas. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of agricultural land expansion in changing land use and land use cover changes using remote sensing/GIS tools in Sheka zone southwester Ethiopia from 1995 to 2015. The results showed that expansion of investment agriculture has a clear impact on both the local people and the forest ecosystem. The conversion of forestland to investment agriculture has caused varied and extensive environmental degradation to the Sheka forest. The Land Use and Land Cover changes in the Sheka zone are discussed based on underlying socioeconomic factors.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misbah Fida ◽  
Irshad Hussain ◽  
Wang Tao ◽  
Abdur Rashid ◽  
Syed Amir Ali Shah

Abstract. The objective of this research study was to quantify land use and land cover changes before and after the 2010 flood at District Charsadda, Pakistan. The land use and land cover changes were evaluated with the help of advanced geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques (RST). Moreover, some remedial measures were taken to develop land use/land cover of the area to overcome future problems. Land use and land cover changes were measured by using satellite images. Two instances were compared, i.e. pre-flood and post-flood, to analyze the change in land use/land cover of District Charsadda within 5 Km along the Kabul River. Comparative analysis of pre and post-flood imageries shows drastic changes over the water body, built-up area, agriculture land, and bare land during flood instances. The study area is rural and agricultural land is dominant in the area. We evaluated the percentage of different land uses/land covers within our study area, as agricultural land was about 68.5 %, barren land was about 22.5 %, and the water body was 8.8 % before the flood. After inundation, the water body raised to 16.4 %, bare soil increased to 26.30 %, agriculture land degraded up to 57 %, and settlements (villages) along River Kabul were badly damaged and finished by this flood. Approximately, four villages of District Nowshera, six villages of District Peshawar, and twenty-seven villages of Charsadda District were badly damaged during the 2010 flood.


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