Lake Tana is a shallow inland lake with an average depth of 9 m. It is fresh water lake with the total area of 3150 km
2
.The lake level has experienced a rapid water level fluctuation in recent ...years. The study was aimed at analysing the water level fluctuation of Lake Tana. Four Landsat images acquired at different times from the United States Geological Survey have been processed and analysed by using the ERDAS and ARC-GIS softwares to detect changes in the lake area through time. In addition to this, the long-time lake level and climate data obtained from National Metrological Agency were analysed using a linear regression model to complement the lake level change. Focus group discussion, key informant interview and direct observation were held to analyse the impact of lake level fluctuation on the livelihood of the community. The result of the study indicated that more than 180 km
2
of Lake Tana area has been converted to farm and other land uses during the last 35 years. The climate variability has been observed for the study period. There was continuous lake level fluctuation because of land-use changes, climate variability and water regulation for hydropower productions. Water level fluctuation of the lake had impacted on land use and its environment. The land use and regulated water at Chara Chara weirs, which are the contributing factors for Lake Tana water level fluctuation, should be managed regularly and critically.
Abbreviations: ERDAS, Earth resource dynamic analysis system; GLCF, Global Land Cover Facility; FGD, Focus Group Discussions; IPCC, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change
Ethiopia is one of the largest bamboo resource bases in Africa. However, a dearth of reliable data on bamboo resources has impeded the proper management of bamboo forests and limited their potential ...in providing more socio-economic and environmental benefits. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the socio-economic importance of
O. abyssinica
in the Lower Beles River Basin, north-western Ethiopia. Datasets were collected from both primary and secondary sources. A combination of techniques: descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis, was employed for data analysis. The results showed that a total of 10 services were identified as important socio-economic uses of bamboo. Bamboo as construction material, traditional furniture, income, food, and medicine were the top five uses of bamboo as perceived by respondents and confirmed through quantitative analysis. Differences in views among respondents of different ethnic backgrounds concerning some socio-economic uses of bamboo, namely food, medicine, and musical instruments, were statistically significant. Despite the wide range of services bamboo provides, the management practice is so unsustainable and rudimentary, which impedes the sustainability of the resource and livelihood of people relying on it. Therefore, concerned bodies should provide the priority attention that the resource deserves to curve the unsustainability spiral as well as properly utilize and conserve the bamboo resource.
Africa's urbanization rate has quadrupled from 14% in 1950 to about 44% in 2022. A variety of urban growth models have been used to measure and monitor urbanization, its drivers and implications for ...urban planning and sustainability. This paper reviews the performance of various Cellular Automata (CA)-based urban growth models and their implications for the urbanization processes in Africa. To this end, we employ a systematic review approach to identify the final 18 articles published in Web of Science-indexed journals until 2022. Our review found that the CA-based urban growth model has been successfully used in Africa to track the impacts of urban growth, assess different city growth scenarios and compare the performance of various CA-integrated models. Yet, most of the reviewed CA-based studies have focused on more urbanized regions of the continent. The result also reveals that integrating the CA model with other statistical methods improves its broader application and practicality than a conventional CA model. Our findings give planners, policymakers, and other urban stakeholders a more in-depth understanding of the challenges of unplanned urbanization and the need for meaningful participation from urban stakeholders in city growth and sustainable land use management that balances urban growth and the environment.
The aim of the study is to analyze the spatio-temporal variability and projection of rainfall and temperature (2021-2040) in Suha watershed, North West highlands of Ethiopia. The study used 4 km × ...4 km reconstructed (blended) monthly rainfall and temperature data from National Meteorological Agency of Ethiopia (NMAE) and Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) of Cen Trends v1 (0.25° × 0.25°), respectively. Mann–Kendall test, Sen’s slope estimator, coefficient of variation, autoregressive integrated model , and the inverse distance weighted tool were used to analysis the rainfall and temperature variability for different timescale and agroecology. The coefficient of variation showed the existence of high seasonal variability than the year-to-year in the watershed.
Kiremt
(main rainy season) rainfall showed substantial inter-annual variability throughout the time of observation (1990–2020). Besides, the Mann–Kendall test and the Sen’s slope estimator detected that except,
Belg
(little rainy season) rainfall, all the others including the annual exhibited a nonsignificant increasing trend at
p
< 0.05. Spatially, the upper part of the watershed is wetter than the lower portion and a large portion of it (40%) received 930–1024 mm of rainfall per year. The minimum temperature showed a decreasing trend (0.01 °C per year), while the maximum temperature exhibited the opposite result (0.02 °C per year). The seasonal variability in both cases showed mixed outcomes. Forty-two percent of the watershed experiences a minimum temperature of 10.6–12.0 °C, whereas 45% experiences a maximum temperature between 24.1 and 26.0 °C. Meanwhile, the projected result showed that there is a decreasing trend for mean annual rainfall and an increasing trend for mean annual temperature from 2021 to 2040. Hence, policymakers have to give priority to the designing and application of area-specific adaptive strategies to curb the impact of climate variability. Rainwater harvesting and small-scale irrigation practice could be possible options.
Information on soil loss and sediment export is essential to identify vulnerable area of soil erosion and to inform conservation interventions in a given watershed. The goal of this study was to ...analyze the changes in soil loss and sediment exports in the Rib watershed of Ethiopia's Upper Blue Nile Basin. The study used spatial data by using a variety of data sources, including topographic maps, soil maps, meteorological data, and satellite images. Cultivated land, forests, grazing areas, shrubs, water bodies, and settlements were all identified in the study watershed. Soil loss and sediment export were calculated using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoff (In-VEST) model. The model was calibrated using the sediment yield data gathered in the sample watersheds. The results reveal that while the equivalent sediment export grew from 6.54 t/ha/year to 11.05 t/ha/year in 2000 and 2020, respectively, the average soil loss increased from 22.37 t/ha/year in 2000 to 33.38 t/ha/year in 2020. The largest rate of soil erosion was seen on cultivated land, which increased from 40.86 t/ha/year in 2000 to 53.9 t/ha/year in 2020. This relates to the expansion of the agricultural land. The soil loss and sediment export rates in sub-watersheds three (SW-3) and five (SW-5) were the highest, at 61.80 and 63.48 t/ha/year and 18.75 and 19.35 t/ha/year, respectively. The least amount of soil loss occurs in sub-watershed twelve (SW-12) (2.56 t/ha/year). This is because SW-12 is situated in the watershed's lower reaches fogera plain parts of the watershed experiencing less erosion. The result concluded that prioritizing those sub-watersheds is important for informed decision-making processes.
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•Remote sensing technology is important to spatially-explicit assessment of soil loss and sediment export in a certain watershed.•The changes in land use/land cover affect significantly the soil erosion and sediment export dynamism.•Prioritize vulnerable sub watersheds is vital for decision-making processes.
Bamboo forests, which are an integral part of the eco-system and an important source of socio-economic life for rural communities in the vast savannah lowlands of Ethiopia, are experiencing ...significant changes. Therefore, examining bamboo forest cover changes and identifying responsible drivers for the changes are of the greatest importance for sustainable management of these useful resources. This study was intended to examine the spatio-temporal bamboo forest dynamics in the Lower Beles River Basin, north-western Ethiopia. A combination of pixel-based hybrid classification techniques and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was employed to analyze bamboo forest cover changes from 1985 to 2019. Focus group discussions, questionnaire, key informant interview and observation were used to identify the drivers for bamboo forest cover change. The study findings indicate that bamboo has experienced significant spatio-temporal change over the study period (1985–2019) in the study District. In the base year (1985), bamboo covered 5.1% (5277.1 ha) of the study area. Significant decline in bamboo forest had occurred in 2001 when the bamboo forests suffered the greatest devastation and shirked to 1.6%. In 2019, the bamboo has been rehabilitated from degradation and increased significantly. However, the net change over the study periods was negative where the bamboo forests declined by 0.8% (831.14 ha). The observed changes in bamboo forest cover were driven by an interplay of multiple factors. Agricultural land expansion, wildfire, free grazing, lack of regulatory mechanisms and improper harvesting and expansion of settlement areas were the top five drivers respectively while conflict, mass flowering and tenure contributed for the change. Therefore, the bamboo forests deserve great attention, and the results from this study imply the need for the concerted efforts of stakeholders for sustainable management, utilization and conservation of the bamboo resources.
•A combination of pixel-based hybrid classification techniques and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was employed.•Bamboo forest has experienced significant spatio-temporal change over the study period.•The observed changes in bamboo forest cover were driven by an interplay of multiple factors.
•Between 2007/08 and 2016/17 Bahir Dar city has expropriated 1500 ha of land.•The government is not compensating the market value of the lost property.•The farmers received on average 37 per cent of ...the market value of their property.•The rate of compensation does not depend on the type of land use changes.•The land expropriations do not give enough money to restore the farmers livelihoods.
In Ethiopia, the demand for land for urbanisation is primarily met by converting rural land through expropriation. However, land expropriations are adversely affecting the previous land users by reducing the amount of production and their sources of income. In Bahir Dar, one of the fastest-growing cities in Ethiopia, approximately 300 landholdings are expropriated each year, on average, for urban expansion. This paper assesses the land expropriations to examine whether they offer economically appropriate compensation for the previous land users. Land expropriations for urbanisation between 2007/2008 and 2016/2017 were analysed based on data on land expropriation and its compensation payment obtained from the Bahir Dar City Land Administration and Management Office. Data were analysed using an exponential growth model and a stochastic budgeting technique in which Monte Carlo simulations are performed. Between 2007/2008 and 2016/2017, more than 1500 ha of land were included in the city’s boundary through expropriation from 2900 landholders. The affected farmers received compensation that represents only 37 per cent of the value of current crop yields and its growth. The current compensation scheme ignores the impact of inflation on the prices of crops and assumes constant yields. It also excludes the value of crop residuals. We propose a workable discounted compensation framework that considers crop price and yield growths. This will make the compensation scheme more appropriate and make the affected farmers better off.
This study investigates farmers’ preferences and willingness to pay for cropland attributes in Bahir Dar, northwest Ethiopia. A choice experiment is used to elicit farmers’ preferences between ...different land use attributes, including a monetary attribute. The study was conducted in the croplands that are threatened by land expropriation for urban expansion. A survey was undertaken with 144 farmers in four rural kebeles surrounding the city (Addis Alem, Weramit, Wereb and Zenzelima). In the survey, respondents were provided with hypothetical land purchasing decisions, with three alternatives (i.e., two hypothetical parcels and an opt-out option). A choice experiment was undertaken to measure farmers’ interest in different types of croplands, which varies with respect to irrigability, number of trees per ha, soil erosion resistance and water holding capacity of the cropland. Estimation of two mixed logit models was carried out. The estimation results show that, although the farmers did not show strong preferences for each attribute of the cropland, many farmers in the area showed interest in the proposed alternative croplands. Farmers show more interest for the land that is irrigable, gentle slope and with medium water holding capacity. The results also indicate that farmers assign highest marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) (79.01 ETB per square meter) for irrigated land, followed by medium water holding capacity with MWTP of 52.13 ETB per square meter. We believe that the results of this study would help land use policy and decision makers in the study area to consider the various attributes of cropland in land use planning, including land expropriation programs, which assures the sustainability of ecosystem services.
•We use discrete choice experiments to elicit farmers land use preferences.•We examine the effect of land use attributes on farmers’ preferences.•We find farmers to have different land use preferences.•We estimated the marginal willingness to pay for land use attributes.•We find the highest marginal willingness to pay for irrigability.
This paper analyzes the impact of urban land-use changes on farmers’ livelihood around the city of Bahir Dar (Ethiopia). Rapid urban expansion in and around the city has resulted in massive land-use ...changes in its urban fringes, with land expropriation programs affecting communities' livelihood and the environment. A survey was conducted in three urbanizing villages near Bahir Dar, focusing on 150 farmers who were land-expropriated and 180 farmers who were non-land-expropriated. Regression models and propensity matching scoring are applied to examine the livelihood differences of farmers in terms of farm income, off-farm income, primary expenditure type, and perception of urban expansion benefits to farmers. The results reveal that land expropriation in the area has led to (a) a shift to off-farm income for land expropriated farmers; (b) an increase in their household expenditure on staple foods compared to other expenditure types, including farm inputs; and (c) diverging perceptions on whether and how city expansion benefits farmers in the neighboring villages. Our findings provide insight into the need for tighter and impactful policy actions to ensure the sustainability of urbanization through accommodating expropriated farmers' livelihood changes and protecting natural resources in the area.
•Most land-use changes in the area have had a substantial impact on the livelihood of neighboring communities.•Land expropriated farmers are shifting their main income earning source towards off-farm activities due to the expropriation.•Non-expropriated farmers are likely incurring much farm input cost as the expropriated farmers are for consumable foods.•Farmers are likely to be more dissatisfied with expropriation programs after experiencing them personally.
In Ethiopia, the state owns all lands within the territory of the country. Cities are incorporating large parcels of land from their surrounding rural agricultural areas through land expropriation. ...However, these land developments do not consider the nonmarket value of ecosystem services (ES), which is causing a deterioration of the existing ES and reduction on the potential supply of ES from agricultural land. The aim of this study was to estimate the monetary value of nonmarketable ES from the agricultural land using a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. A survey of 524 smallholder farmers was conducted. In the survey, respondents were asked to state their willingness to pay for the improvement of some of the nonmarketable ES: erosion control, air and climate regulation, water regulation, and soil fertility. The estimation was carried out using a bivariate probit model. The results revealed that farmers are willing to pay on average 276 ETB (7.9 USD) per hectare per year for a period of 10 years. We found that individual characteristics such as age, family size, and a recent land expropriation experience adversely affect the willingness to pay by the farmers. On the other hand, individuals with higher income and larger land size are willing to pay more. In general, the study indicated that the nonmarket ES, which are affected by the land expropriation for urban expansion, are valuable for the farmers. Therefore, we recommend that the government consider the value of nonmarketable ES in its land use decisions and hence achieve sustainable land development.
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