Dynamics of Land Use/Land Cover Change in Debis Watershed, West Shewa Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: To implement sustainable natural resource management at local and national levels, up-to-date and area specific land use/land cover change information is required. However, dynamics of land use/land cover change in Debis watershed was not analyzed previously. Therefore, this study was designed to analysis the rate and pattern of land use/ land cover change in Debis watershed. To address the aforementioned research purpose, the period between 1984 and 2017 was considered. The results of the study reveals continuous expansion of cultivated land, urban built-up area and bare land with the increasing rate of 386ha/year, 33ha/year and 27 ha/year respectively. On the other hand, forestland, bush/shrub land and grassland showed reduction with the rate of 34 ha/year, 114ha/year and 297 ha/year respectively for the study period (1984 to 2017) in the watershed. Outrageous expansion of cultivated land, bare land and built-up area at the expense of bush/shrub land, forestland and grassland were observed in Debis Watershed. This implies that there was loss of vegetation because of expansion of cultivated land and settlement. In other words, Poor natural resources management in general and poor land use planning and management were practiced. This study recommends applying appropriate land management practices to reverse the undesirable land use/land cover change in the study area.

Keywords: Change, Debis Watershed, Ethiopia, GIS&RS, Land use/land cover