Analyses of land cover changes and major driving forces assessment in middle highland Tigray, Ethiopia: the case of areas around Laelay-Koraro
Journal Title: Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES) - Year 2011, Vol 1, Issue 6
Abstract
Analyzing the land cover changes and understanding the subsequent trends of change contribute to present complex dynamics of land cover and is important for policy making, planning and implementing of natural resource management. In this study, the land cover changes in a 64512 ha, in areas around Laelay-Koraro middle highland Tigray, Ethiopia has been investigated. Aerial photos from 1964 and 1994 and satellite imagery for the year 2007 were used to appraise the land cover changes and Geographic Information System (GIS) were employed to interpret maps and ground truth checking. Changes have also been detected using semi-structured questionnaire from a randomly selected 400 households on socioeconomic factors driving land cover changes. The aggregate of change through time tested using the combined techniques revealed that, the rates of conversion of land cover types were observed between 1964 and 1994 and this were during the second period in forest cover, degraded and bare land areas. The size of forest cover increased by 10.5% between 1994 and 2007 contributed to a remarkable increment in irrigable land from -0.3% to 3.4% of the total area. Interviewed households revealed that increasing population aggravated the rates of conversion of cultivated land and built up areas at the expense of vegetation cover caused high rates of soil erosion, runoff, excessive sedimentation, reduced infiltration rates and soil moisture. Finally, this study validates the reversibility of natural resource as the result of extensive management practices and community participation.
Authors and Affiliations
Thadiparthi Byragi Reddy, Mekonen Aregai Gebreselassie
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP37205
- DOI -
- Views 212
- Downloads 0
Chemical and physical changes during ripening raspberry (Rubus caesius L.) fruits
Raspberries (Rubus caesius L.) were harvested a three developmental stages (unripe, semi-ripe, ripe) to study changes associated with (dry mater, soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH, total phenolics and total anthocy...
Prediction of shrub forms production by integrating statistical and remote sensing data (a case study: Chehelgazi watershed of Sanandaj-Iran)
Rangelands vegetation cover is the main resource production of protein in Iran. Inappropriate usage and misknowing of species combination, is the agent of decreasing of valuable species in rangelands. Annual production...
Prognostication of total greenhouse gas emissions and economic indices for hazelnut production in Guilan province, Iran
In this study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was developed to estimate the total GHG emissions and economic indices of hazelnut production in Guilan province of Iran. In this regard, the data collected from 120 orchar...
Determination of rock typing in one of carbonate reservoirs in South of Iran by using of MRGC method and hydraulic flow
Find the productive zones in carbonate reservoirs are challenging issues in the petroleum industry. In this study, Determination of Rock Typing by help of petrophysical rock typing (determine electrofacieses type) descr...
Fasting cardiovascular risk factors are not different between smoker and non-smokers
Smoking is known to be associated with cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome. In order to investigate whether cardiovascular risk factors such as triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low and high density...