Spatio - Temporal Analysis of Land Use / Land Cover Changes in Cheha District, South - Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics pose negative impacts to land resources. Evaluation of the rate and extent of change is, therefore, indispensable for managing the environment and its implications on sustainable land resource management of the study area. The study was aimed to analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics of LULC of Cheha district during 1973 to 2017 periods and assess the implications in LULC changes. All acquired imageries of the study area were geo-referenced and re-projected. A supervised classification with maximum likelihood technique was employed to extract multispectral satellite data from Landsat using GIS and ERDAS imagine software. The Landsat imageries were monitored for (1973, 1987, 2000 and 2017) period. Seven thematic maps of land classes were identified and generated using remote sensing techniques and field verification. The study results showed the areal extent of shrub, bare and forest lands decreased by (29.6%), (19.4%) and (7.5%), respectively during 1973 to 1987 interval. However, built-up area was increased considerably by (57.3%) and agriculture land (18.9%) in the same span. The area coverage of built-up, agriculture and forest lands, during the entire study period (1973 - 2017) increased by (67.1%), (31.6%) and (59.7%), respectively. Conversely, the respective yearly change of grazing, shrub and bare land classes over the study period was (-194.4 ha), (-114.7 ha) and (-60.3 ha). The LULC dynamics pretended a serious threat to land resources in the study area over the past 44 years. Therefore, better understanding of its underlying causes and associated driving forces could support in developing sustainable land resource management in the area.

Keywords: land use/land cover change, Image classification, GIS, remote sensing

DOI: 10.7176/JEES/11-7-01

Publication date:July 31^st 2021