Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Sediment yield responses to land use land cover change and developing best management practices in the upper Gidabo dam watershed

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sustainable Water Resources Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Water resources that can be used for different purposes have persistently been affected by both temporal and spatial land use land cover (LULC) changes. However, quantifying the impact of LULC on water resources and developing best management practices (BMPs) is very important for the sustainable use of these resources. The broad objective of this study was to investigate the potential impacts of LULC change on sediment yield and developing the BMPs that have been paramount to alleviate sedimentation in the upper Gidabo dam watershed. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to examine the effects of LULC change on sediment yield. The LULC change analyses for three periods (1990, 2005, and 2019) were performed using ERDAS Imagine 2014 and ArcGIS 10.4. During the study periods, agricultural land has increased by 8.9%, while forest land and shrub-land have been declined by 7.11% and 7.53%, respectively. Due to LULC changes, average annual sediment yield was increased up to 3.45 t/ha/yr (44%) and 7.06 t/ha/yr (47.38%) for the period 1990–2005 and 2005–2019 respectively. The result of model performance indicators such as coefficient of determination (R2), Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (NSE), and percentage bias (PBIAS) in simulating sediment yield indicates a good agreements between simulated and observed values during calibration and validation periods. Based on the simulated average annual sediment yield using 2019 LULC, the 10 critical sub-watersheds above the tolerable limit were prioritized for effective watershed management. Hence, three BMPs, namely filter strips, terracing and reforestation were developed for critical sub-watersheds to reduce the sediment yield delivered to the Gidabo dam reservoir. The result revealed the terracing management option reduce the sediment yield up to 64.02%. Implementing filter strips with 5 m, 3 m, and 1 m wide indicates 59.12%, 55.97%, and 50.73% reduction, respectively, whereas reforestation has given the least reduction that is 40.98%. Therefore, applying terracing in critical sub-basins is the most effective practice for reducing sediment yield in upper Gidabo dam watershed.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  • Abbaspour K, Vejdani M, Haghighat S (2007) SWAT-CUP calibration and validation uncertainty programs for SWAT. In: International Congress on MoProcdelling and Simulation (MODSIM’07)

  • Abbaspour KC, Vaghefi SA, Srinivasan R (2017) A guideline for successful calibration and uncertainty analysis for soil and water assessment: a review of papers from the 2016 international SWAT conference. Water (switzerland) 10(1):6. https://doi.org/10.3390/w10010006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abebe T, Gebremariam B (2019) Modeling runoff and sediment yield of Kesem dam watershed, Awash basin Ethiopia. SN Appl Sci 1(5):1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0347-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adeba D, Kansal ML, Sen S (2015) Assessment of water scarcity and its impacts on sustainable development in Awash basin Ethiopia. Sustain Water Resour Manag 1(1):71–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-015-0006-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aghsaei H, Mobarghaee Dinan N, Moridi A, Asadolahi Z, Delavar M, Fohrer N, Wagner PD (2020) Effects of dynamic land use/land cover change on water resources and sediment yield in the Anzali wetland catchment, Gilan, Iran. Sci Tot Environ 712:134469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alawamy JS, Balasundram SK, Hanif AHM, Sung CTB (2020) Detecting and analyzing land use and land cover changes in the Region of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar, Libya using time-series landsat data from 1985 to 2017. Sustainability (switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114490

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arabi M, Govindaraju RS, Hantush MM, Engel BA (2006) Role of watershed sub-divisions on modelling the effectiveness of best management practices using SWAT. JAWRA J Am Water Resour Assoc 42(2):513–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2006.tb03854.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aragaw HM, Goel MK, Mishra SK (2021) Hydrological responses to human-induced land use / land cover changes in the Gidabo River basin Ethiopia. Hydrol Sci J 00(00):1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2021.1890328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold JG, Moriasi DN, Gassman PW, Abbaspour KC, White MJ, Srinivasan R, Santhi C, Harmel RD, Van Griensven A, Van Liew MW (2012) SWAT: model use, calibration, and validation. Trans ASABE 55(4):1491–1508

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayalew B, Chung I, Kim M, Woo S (2021) Assessing the effect of land / use land cover and climate change on water yield and groundwater recharge in east African Rift valley using integrated model. J Hydrol 37:100926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100926

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bekele D, Alamirew T, Kebede A, Zeleke G, Melesse AM (2019) Land use and land cover dynamics in the Keleta watershed, Awash River basin Ethiopia. Environ Hazards 18(3):246–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2018.1561407

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betrie GD, Mohamed YA, Griensven AV, Srinivasan R (2010) Sediment management modelling in Blue Nile Basin using SWAT model. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci Discuss 7(4):5497–5524. https://doi.org/10.5194/hessd-7-5497-2010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bewket W, Sterk G (2005) Dynamics in land cover and its effect on stream flow in the Chemoga watershed, Blue Nile basin Ethiopia. Hydrol Processes 19(2):445–458. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.5542

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhatia AK, Thawait AK (2015) Impact assessment of BMP scenarios on sediment yield in the Mohgaon watershed. Int J Eng Res 4(06):23–27. https://doi.org/10.17577/ijertv4is060013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bracmort KS, Arabi M, Frankenberger JR, Engel BA, Arnold JG (2006) Modeling long-term water quality impact of structural BMPs. Trans ASABE 49(2):367–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briak H, Mrabet R, Moussadek R, Aboumaria K (2019) Use of a calibrated SWAT model to evaluate the effects of agricultural BMPs on sediments of the Kalaya river basin (North of Morocco). Int Soil Water Conserv Res 7(2):176–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iswcr.2019.02.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choto M, Fetene A (2019) Impacts of land use/land cover change on stream flow and sediment yield of Gojeb watershed, Omo-Gibe basin, Ethiopia. Remote Sens Appl 14(January):84–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2019.01.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desta L, Volli C, Asrat W-A, Yiteyew A (2005) Community-based participatory watershed development: a guideline. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Addis Ababa

    Google Scholar 

  • Dibaba WT, Demissie TA, Miegel K (2020) Watershed hydrological response to combined land use/land cover and climate change in highland ethiopia: Finchaa catchment. Water (switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061801

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dwarakish GS, Ganasri BP (2015) Impact of land use change on hydrological systems: a review of current modeling approaches. Cogent Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1080/23312041.2015.1115691

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elias E, Seifu W, Tesfaye B, Girmay W (2018) Land use land cover changes and their impact on the lake ecosystem of the central Rift valley of Ethiopia. Cogent Food Agric 5(1). https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201812.0320.v1

  • Elias E, Seifu W, Tesfaye B, Girmay W (2019) Impact of land use/cover changes on lake ecosystem of Ethiopia central rift valley. Cogent Food Agric 5(1):1595876. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2019.1595876

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (2002) Major soils of the world land and water digital media series, Rome: CD-ROM 2002. FAO

    Google Scholar 

  • Heber Green W, Ampt GA (1911) Studies on soil phyics. J Agric Sci 4(1):1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021859600001441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hurni H (1985) Erosion–productivity–conservation systems in Ethiopia. In: IV International Conference on Soil Conservation November 3–9, 1985 Maracay, Venezuela, January 1985, pp 654–674

  • Jin X, Jin Y, Yuan D, Mao X (2019) Effects of land-use data resolution on hydrologic modelling, a case study in the upper reach of the Heihe River Northwest China. Ecol Modell 404(April):61–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.02.011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung BM, Fernandes EH, Möller OO, García-Rodríguez F (2020) Estimating suspended sediment concentrations from river discharge data for reconstructing gaps of information of long-term variability studies. Water (switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/W12092382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kassa T, Forech G (2009) Watershed hydrological responses to changes in land use and land cover , and management practices at hare watershed, Ethiopia. In: Ph.D Thesis, University of Siegen, Germany, p 229

  • Khan MYA, Hasan F, Tian F (2019) Estimation of suspended sediment load using three neural network algorithms in Ramganga River catchment of Ganga Basin India. Sustain Water Resour Manag 5(3):1115–1131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-018-0288-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kidane M, Bezie A, Kesete N, Tolessa T (2019) The impact of land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics on soil erosion and sediment yield in Ethiopia. Heliyon 5(12):2981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02981

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koch FJ, Van Griensven A, Uhlenbrook S, Tekleab S, Teferi E (2012) The effects of land use change on hydrological responses in the Choke Mountain Range (Ethiopia): a new approach addressing land use dynamics in the model SWAT. In: IEMSs 2012 - Managing Resources of a Limited Planet: Proceedings of the 6th Biennial Meeting of the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, pp 3022–3029

  • Lam NS (1983) Spatial interpolation methods review. Am Cartogr 10:129–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mather P (1995) Review of remote sensing and image interpretation (third edition). By Thomas M. Lillesand and Ralph W. Keifer. (New York: Wiley, 1994). Int J Remote Sens 16(3):561–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431169508954421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moges DM, Bhat HG (2018) An insight into land use and land cover changes and their impacts in Rib watershed, north-western highland Ethiopia. Land Degrad Dev 29(10):3317–3330. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3091

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moriasi DN, Arnold JG, Van Liew MW, Bingner RL, Harmel RD, Veith TL (2007) Model evaluation guidelines for systematic quantification of accuracy in watershed simulations. Trans ASABE 50(3):885–900

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morris GL, Fan J (1998) Reservoir sedimentation handbook: design and management of dams, reservoirs, and watersheds for sustainable use. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • MOWIE (2019) Environmental impact assessment report for gidabo irrigation project. MOWIE

    Google Scholar 

  • Muzein BS (2006) Remote sensing a GIS for land cover/land use change detection and analysis in the semi-natural ecosystems and agriculture landscapes of the central Ethiopian rift valley. Ph.D Thesis, University of Hamburg, Germany

  • Nadew B, Chaniyalew E, Tsegaye T (2019) Runoff sediment yield modeling and development of management hydrology : current research runoff sediment yield modeling and development of management intervention scenarios, case study of Guder watershed, Blue Nile Basin. Hydrol Curr Res 9(4):1–16. https://doi.org/10.4172/2157-7587.1000306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Negese A (2021) Impacts of land use and land cover change on soil erosion and hydrological responses in Ethiopia. Appl Environ Soil Sci 2021:15–17. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6669438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neitsch S, Arnold J, Kiniry J, Williams J (2011) Soil and water assessment tool theoretical documentation version 2009. Texas Water Resour Inst. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.11.063

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neitsch SL, Arnold JG, Kiniry JR, Srinivasan R, Williams JR, Haney EB (2012) Soil and water assessment tool theoretical documentation version 2012. Texas Water Resource Institute TR-439, pp 1–650

    Google Scholar 

  • Osei MA, Amekudzi LK, Wemegah DD, Preko K, Gyawu ES, Obiri-Danso K (2019) The impact of climate and land-use changes on the hydrological processes of Owabi catchment from SWAT analysis. J Hydrol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2019.100620

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raes D, Willems P, Gbaguidi F (2006) Rainbow: a software package for hydro meteorological frequency analysis and testing the homogeneity of historical data sets. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on ‘Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands’, pp 27–31

  • SCS (1972) USDA soil conservation service. National Engineering handbook section 4 hydrology. SCS

    Google Scholar 

  • Shawul AA, Chakma S, Melesse AM (2019) The response of water balance components to land cover change based on hydrologic modeling and partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis in the Upper Awash Basin. J Hydrol 26:100640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2019.100640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tesema TA, Leta OT (2020) Sediment yield estimation and effect of management options on sediment yield of Kesem dam watershed, Awash Basin Ethiopia. Sci Afr 9:e00425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanlauwe B, Asten PV, Blomme G (2014) Challenges and opportunities for agricultural intensification of the humid highland systems of sub-Saharan Africa. Springer International Publishing

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vanmaercke M, Zenebe A, Poesen J, Nyssen J, Verstraeten G, Deckers J (2010) Sediment dynamics and the role of flash floods in sediment export from medium-sized catchments: a case study from the semi-arid tropical highlands in northern Ethiopia. J Soils Sediments 10(4):611–627. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-010-0203-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waidler D, White M, Steglich E, Wang S, Williams J, Jones CA, Srinivasan R (2011) Conservation practice modeling guide for SWAT and APEX. J Hydrol 50(1–2):30–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Welde K, Gebremariam B (2017) Effect of land use land cover dynamics on hydrological response of watershed: case study of Tekeze Dam watershed, northern Ethiopia. Int Soil Water Conserv Res 5(1):1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iswcr.2017.03.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams J (1975) Sediment-yield prediction with Universal Equation using runoff energy factor. ARS-S 40–49:244

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolde Z, Wei W, Likessa D, Omari R, Ketema H (2021) Understanding the impact of land use and land cover change on water–energy–food Nexus in the Gidabo watershed, East African Rift valley. Natl Resour Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-021-09819-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the National Meteorological Agency of Ethiopia for providing us meteorological data and Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy of Ethiopia for providing us hydrological and some spatial data for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Resources Engineering Department, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Adama Science and Technology University, P.O. Box 1888, Adama, Ethiopia

    Kero Arigaw Adi & Abdulkerim Bedewi Serur

  2. Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering Department, Wachemo University, P.O. Box 667, Hosaena, Ethiopia

    Dawit Yohannes Meskele

Authors
  1. Kero Arigaw Adi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Abdulkerim Bedewi Serur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dawit Yohannes Meskele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kero Arigaw Adi.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interest or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Adi, K.A., Serur, A.B. & Meskele, D.Y. Sediment yield responses to land use land cover change and developing best management practices in the upper Gidabo dam watershed. Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. 9, 68 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-023-00850-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-023-00850-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation