The Dynamics of Land Use Land Cover and its Driving Forces in Mekelle City Region, Ethiopia

Wetlands are areas of high biodiversity and provide many ecosystem services of high value. However, they are under constant threat from intense anthropogenic pressures, mainly agriculture intensification, urbanization, pollution, and climate change. The temporal and spatial patterns of land use/land cover (LULC) changes within eleven large wetlands in Greece were analyzed based on thematic maps generated from aerial orthophotos taken in 1945, 1975, and 2007. Socio-economic developments and the consequent need for more arable land and utilization of water resources are among the factors that mainly determine their evolution. In 2007, LULC classes related to wetland vegetation were reduced to one third as compared to 1945 and they were mainly replaced with croplands and urban infrastructures. Each of the different sub-periods that was considered (1945–1975 and 1975–2007) was distinguished by characteristic patterns of change. Agricultural land increased up to 42% from 1945 to 1975 and became the dominant LULC class in all deltaic areas but Evros. A considerable stability was observed for the period 1975–2007 for all LULC classed but it is remarkable the extent of urban areas that doubled. There is a tendency of landscape simplification and homogenization among the deltaic areas and the output of Markov chain analysis indicates that future composition of deltaic landscapes will be similar to the current one if the main driving forces remain constant. Changes in LULC composition and structure are also combined with coastal erosion in all deltaic areas. This is attributed to the modification of sedimentary deposits due to dam construction. The results summarize the change trajectories of the major deltaic areas in Greece from 1945 to 2007 thus offering a great outlook of changes that allows managers to understand how policies and socio-economic requirements affect the deltaic ecosystems and what decisions should be made to protect and enhance them.

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Land-use/land cover changes and their driving forces around wetlands in Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province, China

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology ◽

10.1080/13504509.2014.915894 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 110-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Gang Wu ◽

Ya Gao ◽

Yi Wang ◽

Yangyang Wang ◽

Dong Xu

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Yunnan Province ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Land Cover Changes ◽

Land Use Land Cover

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Geospatial Analyses for Assessing the Driving Forces of Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics Around the Nile Delta Branches, Egypt

Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing ◽

10.1007/s12524-020-01189-2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (12) ◽

pp. 1661-1674

Author(s):

Hazem T. Abd El-Hamid

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Land Surface ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Nile Delta ◽

Annual Rate ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Environmental Indices ◽

Continuous Increase ◽

Delta Branches

AbstractMajor driving forces can alter Land use/Land cover (LULC) dynamics and affect landscape sustainability around the Nile Delta of Egypt. The present study aims at evaluating and mapping changes in LULC and assessing the dynamics of LULC and Land Surface Temperature (LST) around the two branches of the Nile Delta, Egypt using Landsat data and GIS. Calibrated Landsat images were acquired on 2000, 2014 and 2019 and processed to produce LULC, environmental indices and LST, respectively, using ENVI 5.3. ArcGIS 10.1 was used to extract a transition map from 2000 to 2019 around the two branches. The results displayed that five classes of LULC were extracted around Damietta and Rosetta branches; water, urban, bare, dense and spare vegetation. A continuous increase in water was recorded around Damietta branch; 13.66 km2 (197%), 14.21 km2 (2.04%) and 16.54 km2 (2.30%) in 2000, 2014 and 2019, respectively. Also, urban area was increased around Damietta and Rosetta branch as follows: 53.6 km2 (7.72%), 58.34 (8.37%) and 90.37 km2 (13.70%) in 2000, 2014 and 2019, 59.55 km2 (6.809%), 104.16 (11.90%) and 149.77 km2 (17.11%) in 2000, 2014 and 2019, respectively. Urban achieved the highest gain of 24.807 and 85.70 km2 at the expense of dense vegetation around Damietta and Rosetta branch, respectively. The results showed that the decrease in vegetation and the increase in urban density lead to increasing LST of the study area. The changes in LST can be monitored depending on the construction materials such as the presence of green areas and topography. Urban and bare lands have the highest LST while the water bodies and vegetation temperature showed a tendency to decrease. It can be concluded that urban areas increased with annual rate 0.27 and 0.54 km2 and vegetation decreased with annual rate −0.57 and−0.55 km2 around Damietta and Rosetta branches from 2000 to 2019. Results showed that comprehensive index was 321.14 and 330.03 around Damietta and Rosetta branch, the higher the degree of development and exploitation. There has been a significant land use change which was due to an increase in population. Overall, this research provides valuable data about changes in LU/LC around the Nile Delta branches, it is very important for decision maker and stockholders for proper management.

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Land Use/Land Cover Change and Its Driving Forces in Shenkolla Watershed, South Central Ethiopia

The Scientific World JOURNAL ◽

10.1155/2021/9470918 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Belayneh Bufebo ◽

Eyasu Elias

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Land Cover ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Land Cover Changes ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Forest Land ◽

Central Ethiopia ◽

South Central

Land use change is one of the challenges that aggravate environmental problems. Understanding the scope of land use change, driving forces, and consequences is very crucial for proper management of land resources. We investigated land use/land cover changes using remote sensing data (for the years 1973, 1995, and 2017), and field observation, household survey, key informant interview, and focus group discussion were used to determine the drivers and consequences of land use/land cover changes in Shenkolla watershed, south central Ethiopia. Unsupervised and supervised classification techniques were employed to get thematic information from satellite imagery. ArcGIS 10.3 and QGIS v 3.0 softwares were used to accomplish the analysis. The results disclosed that Shenkolla watershed has changed significantly during the past 4 decades between 1973 and 2017. This observed change indicates a reduction in forest land and an increase in agricultural land. Forest land was reduced from 29.51% in 1973 to 20.52% in 2017, but agricultural land was expanded from 70.49% in 1973 to 79.48% in 2017. Agricultural expansion, policy change and social unrest, population pressure, shortage of farm land, and biophysical factors were major driving forces of the LU/LC changes. Environmental implications such as climate change, biodiversity loss, scarcity of basic forest products, habitat alteration, decline in quality and availability of water, and crop yield reduction are the consequences of the LU/LC change. The expansion of agricultural land at the expense of forest cover in Shenkolla watershed has negative implications on the natural resources and the livelihood of local people. Hence, appropriate measures need to be employed to reduce the dramatic change in land use and to harmonize environmental conservation with human livelihood.

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