Land Use Land Cover Change of Qotto-Asanao Micro Watershed

Abstract

The dependency of farming community on the natural resource base aggravates its degradation and deterioration. To reverse and mitigate such natural resource degradation integrated watershed management has been implemented as one of the best strategies. Integrated watershed management is an action oriented development intervention in which farming communities are actively participated in all process starting from its planning to implementation. In southern Ethiopia, a micro-watershed known as Qotto-Asano was identified and integrated watershed management has been implemented since 2011. The land use and land cover change of the micro watershed was detected using Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing techniques. The major land cover categories statistically compared in to two periods, i.e., before the intervention (1986 to 2010) and during the intervention (2011 to 2015) were cultivated land, forest, shrub, grass land, wet land and area allocated for built up. As a result of watershed intervention between the period 2011 and 2015, both positive and negative changes had occurred in the micro watershed. Positive land cover pattern was observed in forest (0.73%), grass land (0.35%) and cultivated land (1.12%) while shrub (-2.42%) and bare land (0.86%) showed negative increment.  In conclusion, integrated watershed management should be given due emphasis by development practitioners as a remedy action to maintain and conserve the natural resource base.

Keywords: Integrated watershed management, Land use/land cover, Geographical Information System.