Land use land cover analysis of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) catchment using remote sensing and GIS techniques

Abstract

ABSTRACT Evaluation of land use change is important for understanding the relationship between nature and the future policy design in sustainable natural resources management. In this study the dam-triggered land use cover changes since the time of its commencement of construction was evaluated by using satellite remote sensing and GIS techniques. To detect changes between 2011 and 2021, the post-processing technique was applied using QGIS’s SCP tool and two raster images of 2011 and 2021 as inputs for change simulation and the output classes were edited using reference classes. The study results revealed that the overall accuracy for the 2011 classification and 2021 classification was 0.89 (89%) and 0.94 (94%) respectively. The highest conversion was recorded between agricultural land to the mixed forest (14.61%) and mixed forest to shrub land (13.40%), while the lowest conversion was observed between the built-up area to a water body (0.02%) and to agricultural land (0.1%). It was recommended to consider the correlation between forest biodiversity conservation and the sustainability of hydroelectric dam by increasing restoration of degraded forests in the GERD catchment and growing forest cover should be viewed as an issue of national energy security as early as possible.