Water Accounting Plus for Water Resources Reporting and River Basin Planning

اهداف: پایش تغییرات کاربری‌ها و درک پویایی آن در یک حوضۀ آبخیز، از جایگاه خاصی در مدیریت پایدار آن حوضه برخوردار است. هدف تحقیق حاضر، استفاده از سنجش از دور و GIS جهت تهیۀ نقشۀ تغییرات و شناسایی انتقالات کاربری اراضی و پوشش زمین با به‌کارگیری ماتریس انتقال و تصاویر ماهوارۀ لندست در حوضۀ آبخیز دریاچۀ ارومیه می‌باشد. روش: جهت انجام تحقیق، از تصاویر ماهوارۀ لندست در دورۀ زمانی 2015 ـ 1988 استفاده گردید. بدین‌منظور پس از انجام پیش‌پردازش‌های موردنظر، جهت انجام طبقه‌بندی از روش‌های ماشین‌بردار پشتیبان و روشیءگرا استفاده و سپس اعتبارسنجی گردیدند. همچنین جهت برآورد میزان انتقالات و دیگر ویژگی‌های حوضۀ آبخیز دریاچۀ ارومیه، ابتدا ماتریس انتقالی استخراج شده و سپس طبقه‌بندی شئ‌گرا بین دوره‌های زمانی 2015ـ1988 ارائه شد. سپس با استفاده از فرمول‌های موردنظر، میزان پایداری، افزایش، کاهش، تغییرات کل، تغییرات خالص و مبادلۀ همزمان کاربری‌های اراضی و پوشش زمین مشخص گردید. یافته‌ها/ نتایج: پس از ارزیابی صحت، صحت کلی برای نقشه‌های حاصل از ماشین بردار پشتیبان و روش شئ‌گرا به‌ترتیب برابر با 94 و 92 درصد و مقدار کاپای آنها به‌ترتیب 92 و 89 برآورد شد که نشان‌دهندۀ برتری روش شئ‌گرا در مقایسه با روش ماشین بردار پشتیبان است. در کل، هر دو روش طبقه‌بندی توانستند صحت قابل‌قبولی برای نقشه‌های کاربری اراضی و پوشش زمین ارائه دهند. نتایج حاصل از انتقالات نشان داد به‌طور میانگین، 59 درصد از چهرۀ زمین در حوضۀ آبخیز دریاچۀ ارومیه در فاصلۀ زمانی 2015ـ 1988 پایداری پوشش داشته است، که بیشترین میزان این تداوم براساس مقدار این کاربری در فاصلۀ زمانی 2015ـ1988 مربوطه به مناطق مسکونی می-باشد. حدود 14 درصد از سطح حوزۀ آبخیز دریاچۀ ارومیه به‌صورت تبادل همزمان بوده است. همچنین سطوح آبی حوضۀ آبخیز دریاچۀ ارومیه در دورۀ زمانی فوق، بیشترین ازدست‌دادگی و کمترین تبادل همزمان را تجربه کرده است. نتیجه‌گیری: حوضۀ آبخیز دریاچۀ ارومیه در این فاصلۀ زمانی (2015ـ1988) تغییرات و انتقالات شدیدی را تجربه کرده است، تاجایی‌که تنها 59 درصد از چهرۀ زمین، ثابت مانده و قسمت‌های دیگر، انواعی از انتقال‌ها را تجربه کرده‌اند. همچنین سطوح آبی و سپس مراتع، بیشترین آسیب-پذیری را تجربه کرده‌اند که نشان از افزایش اراضی فاقد پوشش و اراضی زراعی (کشاورزی) می-باشد. این تجزیه‌وتحلیل ما را به سنجش و تجسم میزان انتقالات عمدۀ LULC درجهت برنامه‌ریزی آیندۀ حوضۀ آبخیز دریاچۀ ارومیه توصیه می‌کند.

As one of the most important study fields of global change, land use and land cover change has significant impacts on regional and global climate, soil characteristics, and function of terrestrial ecosystem. Most researchers, both in China and abroad, have given much more attentions to the study on land use types and the laws of regional land cover change with synthetic analysis of the factors that influence land use and land cover change. In recent years, some Chinese researchers have carried on studies in this field by stationary inspection methodology, e.g., Professor Fu Buojie and others studied the impacts of land use and land cover change on soil nutrients, regional hydrological condition in loess hilly areas and Zunhua low mountainous areas in Hebei province, Professor Shi Peijun and others studied the impacts of land use and land cover change on natural agricultural disasters in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on the basis of long period investigations and statistical materials. But few researchers studied the impact of land use and land cover change on soil erosion by stationary methodology, and few papers have been published in this area. This paper studied the impacts of land use and land cover change on soil erosion in Fujian mountainous areas on the basis of analysis on long period observational and experimental materials at Jianou Niukenglong Experimental Station and the Provincial Soil and Water Conservation Station, researched soil erosion mechanisms of mountain grassland ecosystem, and different soil erosion modulus under different land use and land cover types. The analytical results indicate that the coefficient of runoff has minus linear relation with grassland coverage, and the modulus of soil erosion has index relation with grassland coverage. This paper also studied the mechanisms and processes of land cover impacting runoff and soil erosion, i.e., land cover influences runoff and soil erosion through the following processes: 1) The grassland cover reduces the forces of rainfall that beats on earth surface, which will impact soil erosion on the surface of the earth, grassland cover has minus index relation with soil erosion modulus, and minus linear relation with coefficient of runoff. 2)The roots of vegetation strengthens the erosion resisting capacity of soils through interluding, twinning and fixing forces on soil particles, and increases the absorbing water capacity of soils . 3) The increase of soil organic material concentration makes the soil particles and structure more and more stable. This paper also points out that there are other mechanisms and processes that need to be further studied, e.g., the relation between land use/land cover and runoff coefficient, the variations of different vegetation's impacts on soil erosion,etc.

The present study analyses the land use change caused by the construction of Tehri dam in Bhagirathi river. Geospatial techniques like Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing have been used to make land use map using Landsat satellite image of 2000 and 2014. In Tehri district, change in land use and new developments (industrial, urban and commercial) were observed. Land use land cover change was done using two satellite images, classifying them via supervised classification and applying change detection in the classified images. Classified images had an overall accuracy of 88.57 and 88.31%. The results were validated using the ground truth points distributed all over the study. Seven main classes were identified in the study area as water, open forest, dense forest, river bed, agriculture, urban and others (which includes scrub and barren land). The increase was observed in built-up class from 2000–2014. The decrease was observed in the open, dense forest and river bed. The present study showed that the construction of the hydropower and associated construction activities had caused changes in the Tehri valley. Keywords: Change detection, land use, land cover, hydropower, Tehri, supervised classification Cite this Article Disha Punetha, Archana Sharma, Pooja Panwar. Monitoring of Tehri Hydroelectric Plant Induced Land Use Land Cover Change Detection in Garhwal District of Uttarakhand. Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS. 2018; 9(2): 1–9p.

The Victorian Land Use Information System (VLUIS) dataset has been created by the Spatial Information Sciences Group of the Agriculture Research Division in the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport, and Resources. The method used to create VLUIS is significantly different to traditional methods used to create land use information and has been designed to create regular and consistent data over time. It covers the entire landmass of Victoria and separately describes the land tenure, land use and land cover for each cadastral parcel across the state, biennially for land tenure and use and annually for land cover; for each year from 2006 to 2015. The data can be provided as a spatial dataset or in tabular format. To use the VLUIS data correctly it is important to understand the difference between the three components of VLUIS. The Guidelines for land use mapping in Australia: principles, procedures and definitions, Edition 3 published in 2006 by the Commonwealth of Australia, defines them as follows: Land tenure is the ownership and leasehold interests in land (VLUIS only reports ownership). Land use means the purpose to which the land cover is committed or the property type. Land cover refers to the physical surface of the earth, including various combinations of vegetation types, soils, exposed rocks and water bodies as well as anthropogenic elements, such as agriculture and built environments. The Victorian Land Use Information System (VLUIS) is an ongoing project designed to maintain and manage the Victorian land use mapping dataset. The methodology is still being refined and as such the dataset is subject to improvements and the release of later versions. It is important you speak to the custodian to be advised of the technical details of the dataset and its utility for your desired use. Land Cover 2014: Land cover classification accuracy statements for the entire state may not be representative of land cover classification accuracy levels in the north-west of the state due to a paucity of ground truth data in this area (particularly west of Swan Hill and north of Sea Lake). Users are advised to use this land cover information with discretion and contact the data custodians for further information if required. Land cover classification accuracy varies between classes and the overall classification accuracy may be misleading in terms of the accuracy of an individual class. Users are asked to contact the data custodians for detailed class accuracy information if required for their purposes. A metadata statement, for the VLUIS 2014/15 product, and ESRI symbology files for the data can be freely downloaded from the VLUIS project page on the Victorian Resources Online website: http://vro.agriculture.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.nsf/pages/vluis

Abstract. Coping with water scarcity and growing competition for water among different sectors requires proper water management strategies and decision processes. A pre-requisite is a clear understanding of the basin hydrological processes, manageable and unmanageable water flows, the interaction with land use and opportunities to mitigate the negative effects and increase the benefits of water depletion on society. Currently, water professionals do not have a common framework that links depletion to user groups of water and their benefits. The absence of a standard hydrological and water management summary is causing confusion and wrong decisions. The non-availability of water flow data is one of the underpinning reasons for not having operational water accounting systems for river basins in place. In this paper, we introduce Water Accounting Plus (WA+), which is a new framework designed to provide explicit spatial information on water depletion and net withdrawal processes in complex river basins. The influence of land use and landscape evapotranspiration on the water cycle is described explicitly by defining land use groups with common characteristics. WA+ presents four sheets including (i) a resource base sheet, (ii) an evapotranspiration sheet, (iii) a productivity sheet, and (iv) a withdrawal sheet. Every sheet encompasses a set of indicators that summarise the overall water resources situation. The impact of external (e.g., climate change) and internal influences (e.g., infrastructure building) can be estimated by studying the changes in these WA+ indicators. Satellite measurements can be used to acquire a vast amount of required data but is not a precondition for implementing WA+ framework. Data from hydrological models and water allocation models can also be used as inputs to WA+.

Land use land cover is an important part to understand present as well as past status of the earth’s surface. Land use and land cover are two different terminologies. Land use and land cover is dynamic in nature and provides a comprehensive perceptive of human activities with the environment. As land is becoming a scarce resource due to immense agricultural and demographic pressure, therefore the information on land use land cover and possibilities for their optimal use is essential for the selection, planning and implementation of land use schemes to meet the increasing demands for basic human needs and welfare. The study area is in the limelight due to continuous mining leading to large scale reduction in dense forest. The main objective of this study is to monitor change in landuse and land cover in sadhera and its surrounding mines of Katni district by using of remote sensing and geographic information system technique. The land use land cover change detection has been performed based on the analysis of the digital data of landsat TM (30 Meter) and landsat 8 (OLI)+ Pan (15 Meter) pertaining to 2009-10 and 2015-16. It has been observed that there has been a significant change in the land use pattern with an increase of 287.46 % in the mining area whereas the area under dense forest has decrease drastically by - 60.21 %. Hence, the information obtained from landuse landcover change detection map help to provide optimal solutions for the selection, planning, implementation and monitoring of mining areas.

Modification of the Earth’s surface i.e. land use change, is the main human activity for survival and is the key player in the management of natural resources, including water. Little attention has, however, been given to understand the role the territorial vegetation changes may play in strategic management of water resources. In the basin of Aswa northern Uganda, the changes in land use due to complex demographic and social economic factors is among the numerous challenges faced in management of the limited water resources in the area. The aim of the current study was to explore the opportunities land use changes in the basin may offer to water resources management, looking mainly at the expansion in future agriculture and afforestation as the critical land use change issues. The study was structured into four broad objectives: The first objective was to generate the reference land use dataset (1986 & 2001). The available techniques (the supervised and the unsupervised image classification) were explored using Landsat multi-spectral images. Through careful evaluation, the supervised image classification with the best classification accuracy of 81.48% was used to generate 1986 and 2001 land use maps. The second objectives of the study was to generate experimental land use scenarios required for testing the effect of spatial land use policies on hydrologic processes in the basin. The Multi-criteria-GIS methodology was developed and six experimental land use scenarios were generated using simple but consistence set of bio-physical and socio-economic parameters. The third objective was to customise the hydrologic process model SWAT that was used to simulate the hydrologic impact of the land use change scenarios. The calibration of the hydrologic model SWAT used monthly historical streamflow records from 1970 to 1974 recorded at the basin outlet. The model was manually calibrated using the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient as objective function. The efficiency of the model during calibration was 0.46. Validation of the model using an independence monthly streamflow records from 1975 to 1978 was done and the model efficiency was 0.66, much better than in calibration period. The forth and last objective of the study was to simulate the hydrologic processes in the reference years and the hydrologic processes impacted by the land use change scenarios and to evaluate how this impact affects water resources management strategies. An independent validation of the model to identify the validity of extending the optimal parameters set in simulation of 2001 and land use change hydrologic processes was carried out by comparing the simulated actual evapotranspiration fraction with estimated actual evapotranspiration fraction obtained using surface energy balance method and the thermal MODIS images. Validation indicated acceptable model performance in simulating 2001 hydrologic processes, with a spatial correlation coefficient of 0.45. The application of the model in simulations of the hydrologic processes in the reference years noted that 2001 had more water yield than 1986 by 9.2 mm. The analysis of the impact of land use change in the reference years indicated an increase of 2.52 mm of water yield in the year 2001. Simulation of the hydrologic impact of the experimental land use indicated that Land use types, which in this study were restricted to plantation forest and generic agriculture, land use extent and location of the land use with respect to precipitation rate and amount, greatly influence the hydrologic process of the basin and the net water yield. It was noted that the water yield of the basin can be significantly decreased by over 15%, if more than 37% of the plantation forests are introduced in the wet zone. In the dry sub-basins however, afforestation of up to 42% had insignificant effect on water yield, which could therefore be exploited so as to offset the afforestation pressure in the wet sub-basin while at the same time enhancing the basin water yield. The effect of agricultural land use change on water yield was however less sensitive to climatic zones. 53% increase in agricultural land cover responded with an increase in water yield by about 27%.

The impact of land use- and climate change on the managed eco-geomorphic balance in the Alps

The general objective of the MADFORWATER project is to develop an integrated set of technological and management instruments for the enhancement of wastewater treatment, treated wastewater reuse for irrigation and water efficiency in agriculture, with the final aim to reduce water vulnerability in selected basins in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. In particular, Work Package 3 “Adaptation of technologies for efficient water management and treated wastewater reuse in agriculture” aims to investigate several technological and non-technological solutions to enhance the use of treated waste water as alternative source of water for the irrigation sector, and to adapt them to the local contexts of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Among the non–technological solutions, in Task 3.3 an agro physical (yield and water balance) - economic integrated model for land and water use optimization has been built and calibrated in the three case studies area of MADFORWATER, which are: the irrigated farming system in the Kafr-El- Sheikh Region in Egypt, the citrus farming system in Souss-Massa region in Morocco and the Nabeul Governorate in Tunisia. This deliverable presents the integrated model by describing the objective function to be maximized and the numerous physical (water resources availability, land use and climate change), technological, socio-economic (production costs, labour, prices) and water policy (pricing, licensing) constraints to be considered. In addition, the main outputs to be estimated have been identified, and the needed data to run the model that have been collected and used to calibrate it for the three case studies areas are also presented.

The present study focuses on the economic, political/institutional, technological, cultural, demographic and environmental drivers of land use change. It aims to understand the factors influencing land use decisions at the household level, in particular the influence of migration. The study is guided by the hypothesis that international migration is driving land use change through the investment of remittances, funds sent back by migrants to their families in the country of origin. This research is based on a political ecology approach and the conceptual framework relies on three theoretical concepts. First, the concepts of proximate causes and driving forces were used to identify the factors behind changing land use. In addition, the concept of remittance landscapes, a concept developed in the framework of this study, which is defined as an emerging type of landscape driven by the investment of remittances, was used to evaluate the impact of remittances on land use in the study area. Fieldwork was conducted in the municipality of Autlán in the state of Jalisco in Mexico over a total period of 8 months between 2002 and 2004. Land use changes between 1990 and 2000 were quantified based on satellite image analysis. Underlying driving forces of these changes were examined based on land use change data collected by survey as well as data available from municipal, state and federal agencies. Land use changes observed in the study area between 1990 and 2000 include a slight increase of agricultural land (2%), of urban land cover (0.5%) and of pine-oak forest (0.7%). Over the same period, pasture increased by 18% while dry forest decreased by 10%. Rapid and extensive land use change is occurring on rainfed agricultural land, as maize cultivation is converted to the cultivation of agave azul used for the production of tequila. The first plantations of agave azul were established in 1996 and by 2002, agave azul was planted on 33% of all rainfed agricultural land of the municipality. 84% of owners of rainfed land included in the survey had changed land use from maize to agave during this time period. The dynamics of several proximate causes are driving this change: 1) Market prices for maize decreased by 46% between 1994 and 2004 while the costs for agricultural inputs continually increased so that the cultivation of rainfed maize was no longer economically profitable; 2) The variability of rainfall combined with a lack of irrigation water limits the choice of economically viable alternatives to agave azul; 3) In the large majority of cases, landowners rent out their land to tequila companies in reverse leasing arrangements for seven-year periods (the duration of one growing cycle of agave azul). During this time they do not have to work on their own fields and are free to find off-farm employment or to migrate to the US and; 4) Landowners continue to receive agricultural subsidies even though the land is rented out, as agave azul is one of the eligible crops. Overall, the main driving forces identified in the study area are economic (market prices), environmental (variability of rainfall, soil quality, topography), political/institutional (agricultural subsidies, land tenure) and demographic (labor availability). Technology and culture appear to be less important. Results of the present study confirm the hypothesis that global factors, especially international trade agreements such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) increasingly influence land use change. However, they are not sufficient to function as a sole driver of land use change. Environmental factors are a critical determinant of whether a certain land use change will occur or not. The decisive aspect behind the observed land use changes are the multiple interactions between specific factors at different levels and not the predominance of one particular driving force functioning at a particular level. International migration is a significant livelihood strategy in the study area, especially for lower-income communities. On average, 50% of all households have or had at least one family member in the US as a migrant between 1980 and 2004, and remittances represent 45% of total household income. In general, the bulk of remittances income is used for subsistence needs and to repay debts. Nevertheless, on average, 30% of migrant households invest remittances in land, livestock, agricultural production and in house construction. All these investments lead to land use changes. The impact of remittances on land use changes is variable, and depends on the socio-economic, political and environmental context of the community and the individual situation of the migrant household. In low-income communities, remittances might be used to repair existing housing, while in higher-income communities, remittances are used to construct a new house, converting agricultural to urban land. With regard to changes in labor availability due to out-migration, the results are ambiguous. Migration can drive land use change by encouraging a shift to low-labor land use systems, but these land use changes that require less labor can also drive migration. The concept of remittance landscape developed by the researcher has proved useful for analysing the impact of remittances on land use changes. A combination of area-based and actor-based evaluation criteria are effective in order to describe quantitative as well as qualitative landscape transformations driven by the investment of remittances. Landscapes where the investment of remittances leads to a change of land use from subsistence to cash crop cultivation should be included as a potential type of remittance landscape, even though the basic type of the landscape (agricultural) remains unchanged. Accordingly, at least six different types of transformations into remittance landscapes are possible: a) forest to pasture, b) forest to agriculture, c) forest to urban, d) agriculture to pasture, e) agriculture to urban and f) change of agricultural system. In conclusion, the study area on which this research focused is not considered to contain any remittance landscapes because remittances are only partially driving the extensive land use changes occuring in the region.

Land use land cover (LULC) changes are inherently spatial and dynamic with high spatiotemporal variability resulted from complex human-environmental interactions. Current extents, rates and intensities of LULC changes are driving unprecedented changes in ecosystems functions and environmental processes at local, regional and global scales. The study was conducted to assess LULC changes and its drivers using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) in Gojeb River Catchment, Ethiopia. The satellite images at different reference years (1978, 1987, 2001 and 2015) were obtained from Landsat images. Supervised classification with maximum likelihood algorithm was applied for image processing and change analysis. The LULC classes identified were cropland, forestland, shrubland, swamp, and woodland. The study found that the catchment has undergone significant LULC changes. The major changes were expansion of cropland at the expense of other LULC classes at the rate of 29.56% in 1978, 38.91% in 1987, 46.62% in 2001 and 52.74% in 2015. It has gained about 160,736.08 ha with an annual average increment of 4,344.22 ha. Conversely, forestland has undergone reductions at an annual rate of 9,030.0 ha between 1978 and 1987. The conversions of other classes to cropland are mainly associated with more demand for crop production. On the other hand, the conversion of relevant part of forest land to other classes could be due to vegetation degradation. Hence, the conversion of forestland to other land use classes could be attributed to the highly demand of agricultural land, firewood, charcoal, timbers and housing materials. The major driving forces which should be considered in sustainable watershed management were population growth and government induced settlements. Provision of modern alternative sources of energy, agricultural inputs and promoting non-agricultural sectors are also other considerations for the community sustainable livelihood. It is critical to follow holistic view and management of the catchment for successful integrated watershed management endeavours.

Using Landsat remote sensing images, we analyzed changes in each land use type and transitions among different land use types during land use and land cover change(LUCC) in Ningwu County, located in the eastern Loess Plateau of China, from 1990 to 2010. We found that grassland, woodland, and farmland were the main land use types in the study area, and the area of each type changed slightly from 1990 to 2010, whereas the area of water, construction land, and unused land increased greatly. For the whole area, the net change and total change were insignificant due to weak human activity intensity in most of the study area, and the LUCC was dominated by quasi-balanced two-way transitions from 1990 to 2010. The insignificant overall amount of LUCC appears to have resulted from offsetting of rapid increases in population, economic growth, and the implementation of a program to return farmland to woodland and grassland in 2000. This program converted more farmland into woodland and grassland from 2000 to 2010 than from 1990 to 2000, but reclamation of woodland and grassland for use as farmland continued from 2000 to 2010, and is a cause for concern to the local government.

Identifying sustainability challenges on land and water uses: The case of Lake Ziway watershed, Ethiopia

Markov model was used to represent the land-use change data for several reasons.Firstly,land use change is not unidirectional in nature.A given parcel of land theoretically may change from one category of land-use to any other at any time.Markovian analysis uses matrices that represent all the multi-directional land-use changes between all the mutually exclusive land-use categories.Land use changes and scenarios in Lhasa district were analyzed in this paper using Markov model.The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Land use changes in Lhasa district during the last ten years were related to this period's integrated agricultural development project.In 10 years from 1990 to 2000,186.53 ha of cultivated land were converted into forest land,accounting for 54.857% of the total cultivated land area converting into the other land use categories;and 130.05 ha were converted into residential area,being 38.247%.The remaining limited area was converted into the other land use categories such as rangeland and water body. (2) The most extensive changes of land use from 1990 to 2000 in Lhasa district was rangeland conversion.Rangeland was converted into cultivated land,horticultural land,forestland,residential area and water body.Among them,2333.33 ha of forestland were converted from rangeland,or 94.093 %,the largest of all in area.These land use changes were related directly to the integrated development and construction project carried out in the central Tibetan Plateau in the mid 1990s.Because of the implementation of biological and engineering measures consisting of large scale of forestation and construction of field safeguarding forest,since the 1990s,remarkable effects in soil erosion control have been obtained through improving surface vegetation and land cover conditions. (3) Markov chain model prediction indicated that the general trends of land use changes,in Lhasa district in future were that cultivated land,rangeland,water body and unused land will decrease and forest,horticultural land and residential area will increase. (4) It should be pointed out that since there are many factors impacting land use changes,in particular in a short period of time,policies,regulations,important regional projects and human activities and other uncertain factors will affect regional land use changes,hence causing certain errors in prediction accuracy of land use changes in Lhasa district. (5) The simulated areas of land use changes in the future in Lhasa district by Markov mode are very close to the planning areas of land use changes of Tibet,therefore,land use change scenario based on the Markov model has an important value for making land use plan.

Forest and wood land ecosystems in Tanzania occupy more than 45% of the land area, more than two thirds of which made up of the Miombo woodland. The main form of land use in the Miombo region has long been shifting and small-scale sedentary cultivation. The lack of infrastructure and prevalence of deadly diseases such as malaria and trypanosiomiasis have long limited extensive clearance for cultivation, livestock farming and settlements. However, due to positives changes in the socio-economical, political and technological setup in miombo region, the types and intensity of land use are now changing. This paper discusses preliminary results from a study conducted with the aim of contributing to the understanding of dynamics of land cover and use changes in miombo woodlands of eastern Tanzania. The study area comprises four villages around the “Kitulangalo Forest Reserve”, 140 km west of Dar es Salaam on either side of the Morogoro-Dar es Salaam highway. Landsat MSS satellite images of July 1975, Landsat TM satellite images of July 2000 were used to assess land cover changes between 1975 and 2000. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), questionnaire survey and checklists for key informants were the major methods used for collecting socio-economic data. The land cover/use class of woodland with scattered cultivation has recorded the highest percentage of change between July 1975 and July 2000. While all other classes have registered positive changes, only the closed woodland class has had negative change meaning that this class has been decreasing in favour of other land cover/use classes. Recent land cover and use changes are drastic in the study area. These changes have been triggered largely by varied factors including mainly increased population density and subsequent economic activities. Economic activities including charcoal business, shifting cultivation, opening up of improved highway and pastoralism in the study area have greatly contributed to deforestation and woodland degradation. In light of these findings, there is need for: (1) Adequate land use planning and survey of village lands so as to avoid exacerbation of land use conflict and environmental degradation in the study area. (2) Agrarian reforms to eliminate open access regimes to natural resources. (3) Enforcement of fiscal policies related to the extraction of natural resource products such as timber and charcoal so as to reduce pressure on woodlands. Keywords: land use – cover change – Kitulangalo – miombo woodlands