[go: up one dir, main page]
Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Land-use change and its socio-environmental impact in Eastern Ethiopia’s highland

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Regional Environmental Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Alemaya district (Eastern Ethiopian highlands) is characterized by undulating physiographic features with arid, semi-arid, and humid climatic conditions. This study evaluated socio-environmental changes in land use and land cover during 1985–2011. Screen digitization on remotely sensed data (i.e., Landsat images from 1985 to 2011) was performed to produce 10 classes of land use and land cover. Then, final land-use maps were prepared using a geographic information system following field verification and accuracy assessment. The drying of water bodies, including the prominent lakes Alemaya, Adele, and Tinike, had been the most important environmental change observed. Degraded land, marsh, perennial cropland, and residential areas increased by 37, 438, 42, and 190 %, respectively, whereas grassland, plantation, shrubland, and temporal cropland decreased by 64, 11, 63, and 29 %, respectively. The increase in land degradation (+37 %), the other major observed problem, has made large areas unsuitable for agriculture and has reduced crop productivity. These land-use and land-cover changes have affected both the environment and the livelihoods of local residents; especially the issue related to land degradation requires urgent attention.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson R, Hardy EE, Roach JT, Witmer RE (1976) A land use and land cover classification system for use with remote sensor data. USGS Professional Paper 964, Sioux Falls

  • Argaw M, Teketay D, Olsson M (1999) Soil seed flora, germination and regeneration pattern of woody species in Acacia woodland of the Rift Valley in Ethiopia. J Arid Environ 43:411–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayalew D, Dercon S, Gautam M (2005) Property rights in a very poor country: tenure insecurity and investment in Ethiopia. WPS-021: Global Poverty Research Group (GPRG)

  • Baban SMJ, Yusof KW (2001) Mapping land use/cover distribution on a mountainous tropical island using remote sensing and GIS. Int J Remote Sens 22:1909–1918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bobe BW (2004) Evaluation of soil erosion in the Hararghe Region of Ethiopia using soil loss model, rainfall simulation and field trials. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pretoria, 218 pp

  • Braimoh AK (2003) Seasonal migration and land use change in Ghana. Land Degrad Dev 15:37–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Central Statistical Agency (CSA) (2005) National population statistics. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Central Statistical Authority, Addis Ababa

  • Chen J, Gong P, He C (2003) Land-use/land-cover change detection using improved change vector analysis. Photogram Eng Remote Sens 69:369–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Congalton R (1988) A comparison of sampling schemes used in generating error matrices for assessing the accuracy of maps generated from remotely sensed data. Photogram Eng Remote Sens 54:593–600

    Google Scholar 

  • Duadze KE (2004) Land use and land cover study of the Savannah ecosystem in the Upper West Region (Ghana) using remote sensing. Ecology and development series. 16. Cuvillier, Gottingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Eastman JR (1995) IDRIS for Windows, User’s Guide. Clark University, Worcester, 405 pp

  • FAO/WFP (2000) Crop and food supply assessment mission to Ethiopia. Final report Rome, Italy

  • Furi W (2005) Ground water productivity and the hydrology of the dry lakes basin in the north central sector of east Hararghe zone. M.Sc., Thesis, Addis Ababa University

  • Garedew E, Mats S, Ulf S, Bruce M (2009) Land-use and land-cover dynamics in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Environ Manag 44:683–694

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haregeweyn N, Berhe A, Tsunekawa A, Tsubo M, Meshesha DT (2011) Integrated watershed management as an effective approach to curb land degradation: a case study of the enabered watershed in Northern Ethiopia. Environ Manag 50:1219–1233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hurni H (1985) Erosion-productivity-conservation systems in Ethiopia. Soil Conservation Research Project (SCRP). In: Sentis IP (Ed.) Soil conservation and productivity. Proceedings of the 4th international conference on soil conservation, Venezuela, pp 654–674

  • Jia B, Zhang Z, Ci L, Ren Y, Pan B, Zhang Z (2004) Oasis land-use dynamics and its influence on the oasis environment in Xinjiang, China. J Arid Environ 56:11–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kebrom T (1999) Land degradation problems and their implications for food shortage in south Welo, Ethiopia. Environ Manag 23:419–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambin EF, Geist HJ (2001) Global land-use and cover change: What have we learned so far? Glob Change Newsl 46:27–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Li X, Wang Y, Ma A, Wang J (2004) Land-use change analysis in Yulin prefecture, Northwest China using remote sensing and GIS. Int J Remote Sens 25:5691–5703

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lillesand TM, Kiefer RW (1994) Remote sensing and photo interpretation, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York 750 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Mas J (1999) Monitoring land-cover changes: a comparison of change detection techniques. Int J Remote Sens 20:139–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meshesha DT, Tsunekawa A, Tsubo M (2012) Continuing land degradation: cause-effect in Ethiopia’s central rift valley. Land Degrad Dev 23:130–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muleta S, Yohannes F, Rashid SM (2006) Soil erosion assessment of Lake Alemaya catchment, Ethiopia. Land Degrad Dev 17:333–341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mundia CN, Aniya M (2006) Dynamics of land use and cover changes and degradation of Nairobi City, Kenya. Land Degrad Dev 17:97–108

    Google Scholar 

  • PCI (1997) Using PCI Software, PC1 Corp., Richmond Hill, Ontario, 551 p

  • Petit C, Lambin EF (2001) Integration of multi-source remote sensing data for land cover change detection. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 15:785–803

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reid R, Kruska R, Muthui N, Taye A, Wotton S, Wilson C (2000) Land-use and land-cover dynamics in response to changes in climatic, biological and socio-political forces: the case of southwestern Ethiopia. Landsc Ecol 15:339–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SCRP (1996) Soil Conservation Research Project Database Report 1982–1993. Ministry of Agriculture and University of Berne, Series Report III. Hundelafto Research Unit, Institute of Geography, University of Berne, Switzerland

  • Setegn SG (2003) Performance evaluation of small scale irrigation practices in lake Alemaya watershed, Ethiopia and methods of improving water application efficiency. M.Sc. Thesis in soil and water conservation engineering. Department of Agricultural Engineering, Alemaya University

  • Shan ZQ, Xiao YL, Hui PD (2007) Oasis land-use change and its environmental impact in Jinta Oasis, arid northwestern China. Environ Monit Assess 134:313–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw EM (1988) Hydrology in practice, 2nd edn. Chapman and Hall, New York 539 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Shibru D, Rieger W, Strauss P (1999) Assessment of gully erosion using photogrammetric techniques in Easter Ethiopia, Institute of Surveying, Remote Sensing and Land information, University of Agricultural Science, Vienna

  • Singh A (1989) Digital change detection techniques using remotely-sensed data. Int J Remote Sens 6:989–1003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh RB, Fox J, Himiyama Y (2001) Land use and cover change. Science Publisher Inc., Enfield

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon M (2002) Soil erosion and sedimentation analysis of lake Alemaya catchment. Department of Agricultural Engineering, Alemaya University, Ethiopia

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon D, Lehmann J, Zech W (2000) Land use effects on soil organic matter properties of chromic luvisols in semi-arid northern Tanzania: carbon, nitrogen, lignin and carbohydrates. Agric Ecosyst Environ 78:203–213

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stern DI (2006) Environmental and ecological economics: a citation analysis. Ecol Econ 58:491–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tadesse G (2001) Land degradation: a challenge to Ethiopia. Environ Manag 27:815–824

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamire H (1980) Agro-ecological impacts on soil fertility status and utilization of agricultural lands in Hararge highlands, eastern Ethiopia. College of Agriculture, AAU, Alemaya

    Google Scholar 

  • Tariku CH (2004) Multi-temporal analysis of the evolution of lake Alemaya, Ethiopia, using remote sensing data. M.Sc. Thesis in Physical Land Resources, Ghent University, Brussels, Belgium

  • Tekle K, Hedlund L (2000) Land cover changes between 1958 and 1986 in Kalu District, Southern Wello, and Ethiopia. Mt Res Dev 20:42–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner II, Meyer W, Skole D (1994) Global land use/land cover change: towards an integrated study. Ambio 23:91–95

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang XH, Zheng D, Shen YC (2008) Land use change and its driving forces on the Tibetan Plateau during 1990–2000. Catena 72:56–66

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zeleke G, Hurni H (2001) Implications of land use and land cover dynamics for mountain resource degradation in the Northwestern Ethiopian highlands. Mt Res Dev 21:184–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Global Center of Excellence (COE) Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, Arid Land Research Center (ALRC). We are indebted to the Ethiopian Mapping Authority, Harer Water Service Office, and the Agriculture and Rural Development Office of Alemaya for providing the data used in our study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, 1390 Hamasaka, Tottori, 680-0001, Japan

    Derege Tsegaye Meshesha, Atsushi Tsunekawa, Mitsuru Tsubo & Nigussie Haregeweyn

  2. Department of Geology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, UP, India

    Syed Ahmad Ali

  3. Department of Land Resources Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, Tigray, P.O. Box 231, Mek’ele, Ethiopia

    Nigussie Haregeweyn

  4. Institutes for Soil, Climate and Water, Agricultural Research Council, 600 Belvedere Street, Arcadia, Pretoria, 0083, South Africa

    Mitsuru Tsubo

Authors
  1. Derege Tsegaye Meshesha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Atsushi Tsunekawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mitsuru Tsubo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Syed Ahmad Ali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Nigussie Haregeweyn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Derege Tsegaye Meshesha.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 14 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Meshesha, D.T., Tsunekawa, A., Tsubo, M. et al. Land-use change and its socio-environmental impact in Eastern Ethiopia’s highland. Reg Environ Change 14, 757–768 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0535-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0535-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation