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Land use/land cover dynamics in response to various driving forces in Didessa sub-basin, Ethiopia

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Abstract

This study analyzes land use/land cover dynamics in response to socioeconomic, political and climatic forces in the Didessa sub-basin of Blue Nile, Ethiopia for 1974–2014 using remote sensing, field observation and information from local people. A rapid reduction of wetland (97.5%), grass land (76%), forest land (50.6%) and shrub land (38.2%) took place in four decades (1974–2014). On the other hand, settlement increased extraordinarily (17,960.8%), while the size of cultivated land increased more than a fold (44.2%). Commercial farm land increased more than fivefold (414.4%). According to key informants, major events that largely explain the changes include: (1) drought and social unrest (e.g. Conflict and war); (2) demographic factors (resettlement and migration); (3) land tenure reform and political changes; (4) economic factors and decline in agricultural productivity. If the present land use/land cover changes continue coupled with climate change, people’s livelihoods will be highly affected and agricultural production system will be under increasing threat. This study suggests the restructuring of land use planning supposed to be based on land suitability and sustainable protection of fragile environments. These findings contribute to the understanding of patterns of the dynamics of historical land use change to predict the future dynamics at landscape scale to contribute for effective management strategies and policies for the rational use of land and land related resources.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Addis Ababa University (Grant No. AAU-2013).

Authors’ contribution

Both authors equally participated in generating research idea, designing methods, analyzing data and writing manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Chala Dechassa, Belay Simane & Bamlaku Alamerew

  2. College of Business and Economics, Wollega University, Nekemte, Ethiopia

    Chala Dechassa

  3. Institute of Cooperatives and Development Studies, Ambo University, Ambo, Ethiopia

    Terefe Tolessa

  4. College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, Ambo University, Ambo, Ethiopia

    Moges Kidane

Authors
  1. Terefe Tolessa
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  2. Chala Dechassa
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  3. Belay Simane
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  4. Bamlaku Alamerew
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  5. Moges Kidane
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Correspondence to Terefe Tolessa.

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The five landsat images were downloaded from U.S Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS).

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Tolessa, T., Dechassa, C., Simane, B. et al. Land use/land cover dynamics in response to various driving forces in Didessa sub-basin, Ethiopia. GeoJournal 85, 747–760 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-019-09990-4

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