Evaluation of land use/land cover changes of Bantneka Watershed, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the trend of land use and land cover changes of Bantenka watershed, Ethiopia through time. It was conducted using satellite image of Landsat5 TM 1986, Landsat7 ETM⁺ 2000 and Spot 2006. In addition, field observations and focus group discussions were conducted. ERDAS Imagine 9.1 and ArcGIS 9.3 software for satellite image processing, and global positioning system as well as topographical maps of scale 1:50,000 for ground verification were used. The result of the study revealed that annual cereal crop, mixed and woodland showed a negative rate of change. However, perennial crop land and settlement land were increased by 5.83 and 1.41 ha/year respectively from 1986-2006. It implies that perennial crop land and settlement land were the major driving forces for the change of watershed biodiversity and other land resources.

Key words: Land use and land cover change, watershed