Retrospective Analysis of Land Cover and Use Dynamics in Gilgel Abbay Watershed by Using GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques, Northwestern Ethiopia

Amare Sewnet Minale

doi:10.4236/ijg.2013.47093

Abstract

This study was aimed at examining land cover changes for the last 35 years and its causative factors in Gilgel Abbay watershed by using GIS and remote sensing, survey and population data. The land use and cover changes study will help to apply the appropriate land use. The land cover/use status for the years 1973, 1986, 1995 and 2008 were examined using land sat images. The changes in different land cover units such as forest, wood and bush lands, grass, wetlands and water bodies, and farm and settlements were analyzed. Population change, tenure, poverty and lack of market and credit facilities in the watershed area were analyzed as causes of land cover changes. The results of the study have shown that during the last 35 years forest, grass lands, wetlands and lake areas were converted to farm and settlement areas. There was rapid increase of population with growth rates of 4.9% and 3.5% (1984-1994 and 1994-2007), respectively per annum which caused more land cover changes.

Highlights

Interpreting and conceptualizing the land cover/use changes contribute to complex dynamics of land cover and is important for policy and planning actions [1,2]
This study was aimed at examining land cover changes for the last 35 years and its causative factors in Gilgel Abbay watershed by using GIS and remote sensing, survey and population data
Population change, tenure, poverty and lack of market and credit facilities in the watershed area were analyzed as causes of land cover changes

Summary

Introduction

Interpreting and conceptualizing the land cover/use changes contribute to complex dynamics of land cover and is important for policy and planning actions [1,2]. Land use changes are caused by both natural and socioeconomic factors [3]. Land use land/cover (LULC) is perhaps the most prominent form of global environmental change phenomenon occurring at spatial and temporal scales. The conversion of natural land to cropland, pasture, urban area, reservoirs, and other anthropogenic landscapes represents the form of human impact on the environment [5]. Large-scale land cover change is largely a rural phenomenon, but many of its drivers can be traced to the consumption demands of the swelling urban population [7]. Deforestation, wetland drainage, and grassland degradation have all amounted to a globally significant alteration of the land cover changes. Large scale environmental phenomena like land degradation and desertification, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and species transfer are consequences of land use by converting natural land covers [8]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion