Flood hazard has long history in Dire Dawa. Surrounded by the highland areas, therntown has often been repeatedly devastated by powerful flood disasters in the past.rnXIrnThis work aimed at investigating the root causes of flood and the options for future riskrnreduction in relation to the land degradation of Dechatu watershed, Dire Dawa withrnthe objectives of describing the link between land use and land management practicesrnwith land degradation, runoff occurrence and flash floods, and assessing the impact ofrndeforestation on catchments hydrology and occurrence of floods. To do these differentrntechniques were applied. Such as, questionnaires survey of the study area, soil profilernstudy of the up land and lowland to compare soil erosion rate in the upland and itsrndeposition in the lowland and satellite image analysis of 1986 and 2000 using ERDASrn8.6 software in order to compare the land use land cover change of the study area.rnThe major findings of the study showed that most of the farmers in the rural area have arnland of less than half a hectare which is only suitable for sorghum, corn and Chat sornthey are forced to farm on sloppy areas on the route of the flood, and on marginal lands.rnLarge-scale destruction of forest resources in the highland areas has been practicedrnwhich has aggravated the rate of flooding in Dire Dawa. The most impressive problemrnin the rural area is land degradation where as flooding in the urban part of the studyrnarea. The soil profile study implies that there is high deposition problem in the lowlandrnarea and high erosion rate in the upper rural part, which has aggravated the floodrnproblem by increasing the runoff from the high land and decreasing the river waterrnholding capacity of the river in the lowland because of the soil deposition. The satelliternimage analysis shows that there is a change in land use land cover, where wood land,rnshrub land and bare land decrease sand deposit, cultivated area and built up area havernincreased. Conducting integrated soil and water conservation activities including thernconstruction of hill side terraces, check dams, soil and stone bunds, micro basin , arearnclosure with enrichment cultivation of selected tree species, etc. Identifying weak pointsrnthrough which flooding occurs; and constructing protection walls on identified points;rnconstruction of retaining wall and dam at the proposed sites are the mainrnrecommendations for the study area.