scholarly journals Evaluating Ecosystems Services Values due to Land use Transformation in the Gojeb Sub-basin, Southwest Ethiopia

Author(s):  
Hailu Shiferaw ◽  
Tena Alamirew ◽  
Tibebu Kassawmar ◽  
Gete Zeleke

Abstract BackgroundLand use land cover (LULC) transformation and ecosystems service valuation (ESVs) play important roles for vegetation restoration and payment for ecosystems service (PES) programs. The objective of this work was to quantify LULC transformations and associated ESVs in the Gojeb sub-basin by analyzing LULC between 1986 and 2016 using satellite images, field observations and ancillary datasets. ResultsThe summarized LULC classes are: bareland, cropland, grassland, forest, plantation, settlement, shrub, water-body and woodland. The ESVs were evaluated for each LULC based on these LULC classes. Forests had the highest cover (> 423000ha ~60%) in 1986 but it reduced to 317000ha (~45%) in 2016. About >56000ha of forests were changed to cultivated land, and >105000ha to different classes. Cultivated land increased from >258000ha (~37%) in 2016 compared to 150000ha (~21.5%) in 1986. The sub-basin had ESVs of US$2.52 billion in 1986 but decreased to US$1.97 billion in 2016; losing about US$0.551 billion within the last 30 years (annual loss rate of US$18.4 million). Potential drivers would be agricultural expansion, land degradation/erosion, landslide and deforestation, indicating that requires concerted effort to restore and manage landscapes for sustainable socio-ecological and economic uses.ConclusionThis study is meaningful for management of natural resources in the catchment, improvement of hydropower production and lifespan of the hydropower reservoir on one hand and productivity of small holder farmers and inhabitants in the basin on the other besides to the lesson learned to other similar basins. Hence, payment for ecosystems service scheme is recommended as a win-win approach to be implemented between upper and downstream users for sustainable use of resources. This study assist policy makers in designing evidence-based solutions for PES programs in the study area and elsewhere.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailu Shiferaw ◽  
Tena Alamirew ◽  
Tibebu Kassawmar ◽  
Gete Zeleke

Abstract Background Land use land cover (LULC) transformation and ecosystems service valuation (ESVs) play important roles for vegetation restoration and design restoration options such as payment for ecosystems service programs. The objective of this work was to quantify LULC transformations and associated ESVs in the Gojeb sub-basin by analyzing LULC between 1986 and 2016 using satellite images, field observations and ancillary datasets. And Ecosystems service valuations of different land use types were carried out using benefit transfer method. Results The summarized LULC classes are: bareland, cropland, grassland, forest, plantation, settlement, shrub, water-body and woodland. The ESVs were evaluated for each LULC based on these LULC classes. Forests had the highest cover (> 423,000 ha ~ 60%) in 1986 but it reduced to 317,000 ha (~ 45%) in 2016. About > 56,000 ha of forests were changed to cultivated land, and > 105,000 ha to different classes. Cultivated land increased to > 258,000 ha (~ 37%) in 2016 compared to 150,000 ha (~ 21.5%) in 1986. The sub-basin had ESVs of US$2.52 billion in 1986 but decreased to US$ 1.97 billion in 2016; losing about US$ 0.551 billion within the last 30 years (annual loss rate of US$ 18.4 million). Potential drivers would be agricultural expansion, land degradation/erosion, landslide and deforestation, indicating that requires concerted effort to restore and manage landscapes for sustainable socio-ecological and economic uses. Conclusion This study is meaningful for management of natural resources in the catchment, improvement of hydropower production and lifespan of the hydropower reservoir besides to improving land productivity for small holder farmers as hydrological cycles and biodiversity components of the catchment can be improved. This study assist policy makers in designing evidence-based programs such as payment for ecosystem services in the study area and elsewhere.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dereje Gebrie Habte ◽  
Satishkumar Belliethathan ◽  
Tenalem Ayenew

AbstractEvaluation of land use/land cover (LULC) status of watersheds is vital to environmental management. This study was carried out in Jewha watershed, which is found in the upper Awash River basin of central Ethiopia. The total catchment area is 502 km2. All climatic zones of Ethiopia, including lowland arid (‘Kola’), midland semi-arid (‘Woinadega’), humid highland (Dega) and afro alpine (‘Wurch’) can be found in the watershed. The study focused on LULC classification and change detection using GIS and remote sensing techniques by analyzing satellite images. The data preprocessing and post-process was done using multi-temporal spectral satellite data. The images were used to evaluate the temporal trends of the LULC class by considering the years 1984, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Accuracy assessment and change detection of the classification were undertaken by accounting these four years images. The land use types in the study area were categorized into six classes: natural forest, plantation forest, cultivated land, shrub land, grass land and bare land. The result shows the cover classes which has high environmental role such as forest and shrub has decreased dramatically through time with cultivated land increasing during the same period in the watershed. The forest cover in 1984 was about 6.5% of the total catchment area, and it had decreased to 4.2% in 2015. In contrast, cultivated land increased from 38.7% in 1984 to 51% in 2015. Shrub land decreased from 28 to 18% in the same period. Bare land increased due to high gully formation in the catchment. In 1984, it was 1.8% which turned to 0.6% in 1995 then increased in 2015 to 2.7%. Plantation forest was not detected in 1984. In 1995, it covers 1.5% which turned to be the same in 2015. The study clearly demonstrated that there are significant changes of land use and land cover in the catchment. The findings will allow making informed decision which will allow better land use management and environmental conservation interventions.


Author(s):  
Laxmikant Sharma ◽  
Suman Sinha

Ecological Footprint (EF) analysis is the spatial measurement of ecological load exerted by the humans on the earth that arises from the concept of sustainability and sustainable use of Earth's resources. A region-based EF study is conducted for Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (India) campus to improve its sustainability. Highlight of the study is the explicitness of the methodology for determining the EF that incorporates analysis derived from conversion factors mentioned in the Ecological Footprint consultancy publications along with inputs from GIS domain. Questionnaire-based survey from the respondents regarding resource utilization and geospatial enumeration of land use land cover that harbors the population and their resources are the two integral parts of the analysis. Total EF of the institution campus is calculated to be 0.645 gha/ individual. This analysis provides a strong framework for combining efforts in a manner that can communicate the immediate priorities for improving the sustainability strategy of the campus area.


Author(s):  
Laxmikant Sharma ◽  
Suman Sinha

Ecological Footprint (EF) analysis is the spatial measurement of ecological load exerted by the humans on the earth that arises from the concept of sustainability and sustainable use of Earth's resources. A region-based EF study is conducted for Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (India) campus to improve its sustainability. Highlight of the study is the explicitness of the methodology for determining the EF that incorporates analysis derived from conversion factors mentioned in the Ecological Footprint consultancy publications along with inputs from GIS domain. Questionnaire-based survey from the respondents regarding resource utilization and geospatial enumeration of land use land cover that harbors the population and their resources are the two integral parts of the analysis. Total EF of the institution campus is calculated to be 0.645 gha/ individual. This analysis provides a strong framework for combining efforts in a manner that can communicate the immediate priorities for improving the sustainability strategy of the campus area.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günther Fischer ◽  
Sylvia Prieler ◽  
Harrij van Velthuizen ◽  
Göran Berndes ◽  
André Faaij ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Teshome Yirgu ◽  
Yibeltal Yihunie ◽  
Alemu Assele ◽  
Teklu Wogayehu

Gamo highland have experienced drastic cover dynamics of land resource resulted from historic settlement, heavy concentration of human and livestock population, and obsolete farming practices. The aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of the land use/land cover and its consequent environmental impacts in Kulfo watershed located in South Western Ethiopia. Historic spatial and socio-economic data were used in GIS and Remote Sensing environment to analyze and map the research data. The result of this study revealed that the Land use/ cover change analysis conducted in three periods (1986, 1999 and 2017) showed a remarkable dynamics and modification over varying cover types. In 1986 the dominant land use land covers were cultivated land (42%) followed by pasture land (23%) and forest land (18.3%). After 32 years (2017), cultivated land (71%), shrub land (7.5%) and bare lands (6.2%) were the three dominant land uses/cover types in the study area. During the study period, cultivation encroached to marginal steep slopes (with gradient more than 60%) and mountain grasslands where once used as a place of celebrating traditional festivals and grazing lands. Such a dramatic change in three-decade period has further increased degraded lands and raised erosion vulnerable areas to 97.2%, the resultant effects of which has greatly threatened the livelihood of communities in the watershed. The land use in the study watershed is not as of the land capability, excess forest, shrub and grasslands were unnecessarily brought under agriculture. Therefore, it is recommended that land has to be used as per its capability and conservation measures shall give attention to erosion prone areas.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi-hong Lian ◽  
Yuan Qi ◽  
Hong-wei Wang ◽  
Jin-long Zhang ◽  
Rui Yang

Water yield is an important ecosystem service, which is directly related to human welfare and affects the sustainable development. Using the integrated valuation of environmental services and tradeoffs model (InVEST model), we simulated the dynamic change of water yield in Qinghai lake watershed, Qinghai, China, and verified the simulation results. This paper emphatically explored how precipitation change and land use/land cover change (LUCC) affected the change of water yield on the spatial and temporal scales. Before 2004, the areas of cultivated land and unused land showed a dramatic increasing tendency, while forestland and water area presented a decreasing trend. After 2004 cultivated land changed slowly, unused land decreased. Grassland revealed a general trend of decline during 1977–2018, while built-up land basically presented a linear increase. The results show that water yield fluctuated and increased during 1977–2018. From 1977 to 2000, the mean water yield in each sub-watershed showed an increasing trend and afterward a decreasing one. After 2000, the sub-watersheds basically showed an increasing tendency. There was a strong correlation, with a correlation coefficient of 0.954 ** (** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level), between precipitation and water yield. Land use/land cover change can change the hydrological state of infiltration, evapotranspiration, and water retention. Meanwhile, the correlation between built-up land and water yield was the highest, with a correlation coefficient of 0.932, followed by forestland, with a correlation coefficient of 0.897. Through the analysis of different scenarios, we found that compared with land use/land cover change, precipitation played a more dominant role in affecting water yield.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Zhao ◽  
Yong Zhou ◽  
Xigui Li ◽  
Pengnan Xiao ◽  
Jinhui Jiang

Cultivated land is an important carrier of grain production, and scientific assessing of cultivated land productivity is of great significance to ensure food security. This paper assessed the overall productivity of cultivated land in Yuanjiang city from the perspectives of quantitative structure, spatial distribution and correlation with national land use. We applied statistical and GIS (geographic information system) spatial analysis methods to 16 secondary indicators of productivity. The results showed that the productivity index of cultivated land ranged from 1642.79 to 4140.09, concentrated in classes 2–6, among the most productive of 15 classes in total. The cultivated productivity indexes of most towns showed quantitative structural patterns of “inverted pyramid” and “dumbbell” types. Cultivated lands with high productivity showed a spatial distribution that decreased from the north to the south and increased from the center to the periphery. The spatial distribution of the higher-level classes in the cultivated land productivity index and the national cultivated land use index was similar. The correlation coefficient between the indexes for cultivated land productivity and the annual standard crop yield was 0.8817, implying that the index reflected local grain production capacity very well. In general, the research offered a reference and technical support for the sustainable use of cultivated land resources and enhanced regional cultivated land production capacity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fitsum Temesgen ◽  
Bikila Warkineh ◽  
Alemayehu Hailemicael

AbstractKafta-sheraro national park (KSNP) is one of the homes of the African elephant has experienced extensive destruction of woodland following regular land use & land cover change in the past three decades, however, up to date, data and documentation detailing for these changes are not addressed. This study aims to evaluate the land use land cover change and drivers of change that occurred between 1988 and 2018. Landsat 5(TM), Landsat7 (ETM+), and Landsat 8 (OLI/TIRs) imagery sensors, field observation, and socio-economic survey data were used. The temporal and spatial Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated and tested the correlation between NDVI and precipitation/temperature. The study computed a kappa coefficient of the dry season (0.90) and wet season (0.845). Continuous decline of woodland (29.38%) and riparian vegetation (47.11%) whereas an increasing trend of shrub-bushland (35.28%), grassland (43.47%), bareland (27.52%), and cultivated land (118.36 km2) were showed over thirty years. More results showed bare land was expanded from wet to drier months, while, cultivated land and grazing land increased from dry to wet months. Based on the NDVI result high-moderate vegetation was decreased by 21.47% while sparse & non-vegetation was expanded by 19.8% & 1.7% (36.5 km2) respectively. Settlement & agricultural expansion, human-induced fire, firewood collection, gold mining, and charcoal production were the major proximate drivers that negatively affected the park resources. Around KSNP, the local community livelihood depends on farming, expansion of agricultural land is the main driver for woodland dynamics/depletion and this leads to increase resources competition and challenges for the survival of wildlife. Therefore, urgent sustainable conservation of park biodiversity via encouraging community participation in conservation practices and preparing awareness creation programs should be mandatory.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document