Urban Forest Change Detection in Endayesus Area, Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Urban forests are one of the crucial ecosystems for sustainability, by which they provide carbon sequestration, microclimate regulation, recreation and other ecosystem services. To attain the benefits and ensure the livability of urban areas communities and governments have been putting efforts to increase coverage of urban forests. Based on that, this paper aimed to detect forest cover change and contribution of forestry practices in enhancing forest cover of Endayesus urban forest area. Aerial photos were obtained from Ethiopian mapping agency and planning office of Mekele city. Other data were collected from randomly selected 196 sample households and purposively selected 20 officials using questionnaire and interview checklists. Descriptive statistics, SPSS and GIS software were used for analysis and generating figurative and spatial outputs. The study confirmed forest cover in Endayesus increased by 1387.43% from 1965 to 2009. However, existence of bare and bush land use types exist substantially. Exclosing the catchment, plantations, public education and tree management activities contributed in improving forest cover of the area. There should have to be land cover/use plan prepared in a way to maximize the benefits of urban forests within the area based on established multiple criteria. In addition, further research is needed in modeling the possible damage to Mekele city under vegetated and non-vegetated scenarios of Endayesus area in different climatic conditions. Keywords : urban forest cover, vegetation cover and urban forestry activities DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/83-01 Publication date: March 31 st 2022