Land-use/cover changes in relation to stream dynamics in a marginal graben along the northern Ethiopian Rift Valley

Abstract This paper investigates land-use/cover changes related to river dynamics in northern Ethiopia. Aerial photographs from 1965 to 1986, and SPOT images of 2007 and 2014 were used to extract land units. Land-use/cover changes took place in 48% of the entire landscape around the river across the last five decades. Changes related to swap accounted for 37%, whereas net changes accounted for 11%. The most systematic transitions in terms of gain were from shrubland to farmland, alluvial deposit to settlement, and alluvial deposit to active channel and settlement. Most of these transitions were related to the river dynamics and depict cyclic transitions: farmland → active channel → alluvial deposits → grassland/shrubland → farmland. Human interventions and natural vegetation succession were also very important. The study concludes that river systems have considerable impact on livelihood and need attention in land management undertakings in graben bottoms.

[1]  James R. Anderson,et al.  A land use and land cover classification system for use with remote sensor data , 1976 .

[2]  P. Coley,et al.  River dynamics and the diversity of Amazon lowland forest , 1986, Nature.

[3]  John R. Jensen,et al.  Introductory Digital Image Processing: A Remote Sensing Perspective , 1986 .

[4]  Lisa M. Brown,et al.  A survey of image registration techniques , 1992, CSUR.

[5]  J. Ward.  RIVERINE LANDSCAPES: BIODIVERSITY PATTERNS, DISTURBANCE REGIMES, AND AQUATIC CONSERVATION , 1998 .

[6]  Russell G. Congalton,et al.  Assessing the accuracy of remotely sensed data : principles and practices , 1998 .

[7]  K. Mardia,et al.  A review of image-warping methods , 1998 .

[8]  John A. Richards,et al.  Remote Sensing Digital Image Analysis: An Introduction , 1999 .

[9]  J. W. Bruce,et al.  The causes of land-use and land-cover change: moving beyond the myths , 2001 .

[10]  K. Fausch,et al.  Landscapes to Riverscapes: Bridging the Gap between Research and Conservation of Stream Fishes , 2002 .

[11]  K. Tockner,et al.  The fauna of dynamic riverine landscapes , 2002 .

[12]  Richard H. Norris,et al.  The influence of scale and geography on relationships between stream community composition and landscape variables: description and prediction , 2003 .

[13]  Bart Muys,et al.  Sediment deposition and pedogenesis in exclosures in the Tigray highlands, Ethiopia , 2006 .

[14]  R. G. Pontius,et al.  Detecting important categorical land changes while accounting for persistence , 2004 .

[15]  J. Allan.  Landscapes and Riverscapes: The Influence of Land Use on Stream Ecosystems , 2004 .

[16]  Fernando Bação,et al.  Self-organizing Maps as Substitutes for K-Means Clustering , 2005, International Conference on Computational Science.

[17]  Donald E. Weller,et al.  SPATIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR LINKING WATERSHED LAND COVER TO ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS IN STREAMS , 2005 .

[18]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Global Consequences of Land Use , 2005, Science.

[19]  Niina Käyhkö,et al.  Change trajectories and key biotopes : Assessing landscape dynamics and sustainability , 2006 .

[20]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  Hydrologic variation with land use across the contiguous United States: Geomorphic and ecological consequences for stream ecosystems , 2006 .

[21]  E. E. Hardy,et al.  A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensor Data GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 964 , 2006 .

[22]  R. Kang,et al.  Geomorphic effects of rural-to-urban land use conversion on three streams in the Central Redbed Plains of Oklahoma , 2006 .

[23]  A. Braimoh.  Random and systematic land-cover transitions in northern Ghana , 2006 .

[24]  W. Andrew Marcus,et al.  Accuracy assessment of georectified aerial photographs: Implications for measuring lateral channel movement in a GIS , 2006 .

[25]  E. Lambin,et al.  The emergence of land change science for global environmental change and sustainability , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[26]  T. Anderson.  View from the river. , 2007, The practising midwife.

[27]  P. Billi.  Morphology and sediment dynamics of ephemeral stream terminal distributary systems in the Kobo Basin (northern Welo, Ethiopia) , 2007 .

[28]  P. Billi.  Bedforms and sediment transport processes in the ephemeral streams of Kobo basin, Northern Ethiopia , 2008 .

[29]  J. Poesen,et al.  Sediment yield variability in Northern Ethiopia: A quantitative analysis of its controlling factors , 2008 .

[30]  F. Stagnitti,et al.  Appraisal of random and systematic land cover transitions for regional water balance and revegetation strategies , 2008 .

[31]  J. Poesen,et al.  How soil conservation affects the catchment sediment budget – a comprehensive study in the north Ethiopian highlands , 2009 .

[32]  J. Poesen,et al.  Impact of soil and water conservation measures on catchment hydrological response—a case in north Ethiopia , 2010 .

[33]  Jan Nyssen,et al.  Linking long-term gully and river channel dynamics to environmental change using repeat photography (Northern Ethiopia) , 2011 .

[34]  Panos Panagos,et al.  European digital archive on soil maps (EuDASM): preserving important soil data for public free access , 2011, Int. J. Digit. Earth.

[35]  P. Billi,et al.  Flash flood sediment transport in a steep sand-bed ephemeral stream , 2011 .

[36]  M. Hodgson,et al.  Geomorphic change detection using historic maps and DEM differencing: The temporal dimension of geospatial analysis , 2012 .

[37]  E. Teferi,et al.  Understanding recent land use and land cover dynamics in the source region of the Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia: Spatially explicit statistical modeling of systematic transitions , 2013 .

[38]  Jan Nyssen,et al.  Transferring Google Earth observations to GIS-software: example from gully erosion study , 2013, Int. J. Digit. Earth.

[39]  J. Poesen,et al.  Historical landscape photographs for calibration of Landsat land use/cover in the northern Ethiopian highlands , 2014 .

[40]  Pei Zhou,et al.  Land Classification and Change Intensity Analysis in a Coastal Watershed of Southeast China , 2014, Sensors.

[41]  P. Billi.  Channel Processes and Sedimentology of a Boulder-Bed Ephemeral Stream , 2014 .

[42]  Andrew R.G. Large,et al.  Using Google Earth, A Virtual‐Globe Imaging Platform, for Ecosystem Services‐Based River Assessment , 2015 .

[43]  J. Nyssen,et al.  Biophysical Controlling Factors in Upper Catchments and Braided Rivers in Drylands: The Case of a Marginal Graben of the Ethiopian Rift Valley , 2015 .

[44]  Jeffrey L. Wirth,et al.  Assessment of the Accuracy of Google Earth Imagery for use as a Tool in Accident Reconstruction , 2015 .

[45]  Chenghu Zhou,et al.  A method of characterizing land-cover swap changes in the arid zone of China , 2016, Frontiers of Earth Science.

[46]  Hannah Jacobson,et al.  A novel approach to mapping land conversion using Google Earth with an application to East Africa , 2015, Environ. Model. Softw..

[47]  Jantiene E.M. Baartman,et al.  Evaluating sediment storage dams: structural off-site sediment trapping measures in northwest Ethiopia , 2015 .

[48]  Feng Qi,et al.  Building height estimation using Google Earth , 2016 .

[49]  K. Sadr.  A Comparison of Accuracy and Precision in Remote Sensing Stone‐walled Structures with Google Earth, High Resolution Aerial Photography and LiDAR; a Case Study from the South African Iron Age , 2016 .

[50]  T. Baye.  Poverty, peasantry and agriculture in Ethiopia , 2017 .

[51]  F. Hauer,et al.  Fluvial Geomorphic Processes , 2017 .

[52]  J. Nyssen,et al.  Excess River Sedimentation at Bridges in the Raya Graben (Northern Ethiopia) , 2017 .

[53]  Mwangi wa Gĩthĩnji,et al.  Small farms, smaller plots: land size, fragmentation, and productivity in Ethiopia , 2018 .