Abstract
Quantitative research on land use and land cover (LUC) in Africa usually addresses the second half of the twentieth century, by using remote sensing data. Terrestrial photographs, which are available since 1868 in Ethiopia, are seldom used in a quantitative way. This paper presents a methodology that allows to produce land use and land cover (LUC) maps on the basis of old terrestrial photographs. Therefore, land use and land cover was investigated on historical and present-day photographs, and these interpretations were warped to the horizontal plane of the map. The resulting maps allow to gain better insights into LUC changes over a period of 140 years. The results show that woody vegetation increased strongly, together with an increase in built-up area. This occurred especially at the expense of bushland. The study validates pervious findings and shows that improved land management strategies in one of the world’s most degraded areas can lead to environmental rehabilitation.
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Acknowledgments
This study has been realized thanks to the support of the program for Travel Grants of the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR)-University Development Cooperation (UOS) and the Belgian Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO) research credit 31500409. The authors wish to acknowledge Stephanie de Mûelenaere, Gebrekidan Mesfin, Yohannes, Gebreyohannes Tsigae, and numerous farmers for the great assistance with fieldwork. Thankfulness also goes to Tsega Kiros Zebreabruk for household support. Couderé Geomatic Engineering is acknowledged for lending out GPS equipment. Thanks to Rudi Goossens for providing conceptual insights in geometrical warping. R. Neil Munro fostered contacts that allowed to obtain the historical photographs by Buxton and Grove. Scientific and technical staff at the Institute for Land and Water Management, Mekelle University, and at the Department of Geography, Ghent University, supported the research in various ways.
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10113_2012_347_MOESM1_ESM.doc
Online Resource 1 From interpreted terrestrial photograph to LUC map—Ashenge I and II. Supplementary material 1 (DOC 20930 kb)
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Online Resource 4 From interpreted terrestrial photograph to LUC map—Adi Shuho I and II. Supplementary material 4 (DOC 6976 kb)
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Meire, E., Frankl, A., De Wulf, A. et al. Land use and cover dynamics in Africa since the nineteenth century: warped terrestrial photographs of North Ethiopia. Reg Environ Change 13, 717–737 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0347-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0347-9