Rapid increases in population, forest clearing and continuing search for a farm land haverninduced pressure on natural resource. In order to reverse such kind of problem assessing thernlevel of problem and finding solution at watershed level is necessary. The studies of land usernland cover changes and their effects on soil erosion and runoff patterns at the watershed levelrnare essential in water resource planning and management. This study provides an approach tornidentify the effects of land use land cover changes on runoff and sediment in Tikur Wuharnwatershed. The changes in land use land cover were associated with growing demand of woodrnfor fire, charcoal, construction materials, household furniture, pulp and paper industries, andrnexpansion of farming and grazing land.rnBy apply GIS technique with computer model in analysis of soil erosion and runoff, this studyrnestimates the sediment yield due to soil erosion, evaluate the yearly sediment transport ratesrnof the rivers flowing into the lake and examine the effects of change in land use land cover onrnwater yield. Daily meteorological data of Awassa and Haissawita station, 1965 and 2004 landrnuse map, soil map and daily and monthly Tikur Wuha river flow data were used and analyzedrnusing SWAT model.rnThe runoff and soil loss simulation were done by dividing the watershed into eight subwatershedsrnand by assigning a hydrological response unit based on multiple HRU definition.rnThis study presents the calibration and validation of SWAT for the stream flow for two periods,rn1990-1995 and 1996-2000.rnThe simulation result showed that runoff and soil loss were increased through out thernsimulation period. Model predictions on monthly basis show a strong relation between waterrnyield and land use change during the calibration and validation periods, as indicated byrncoefficient of determination (R2) and Nash- Sutcliffe simulation efficiency (E), 0.751 and 0.603rnfor calibration results and 0.848 and 0.738 for the validation respectively. As a result thernannual water yield was found with in the ranges of 459.546 mm to 757.48 mm for the 1965rnland use and from 498.223mm to 766.453mm for the land use 2004. Higher value of the surfacernrunoff correlated with Orthic Luvisols soil type and bare and open shrub land use system. Thernfinal actual erosion result for the catchment also shows that the value ranges fromrn0.162t/ha/year to 1.823 t/ha/year for the land use in 1965 and from 0.132t/ha/year torn1.75t/ha/year for land use type in 2004. The mean erosion rate is 0.67and 0.89 t/ha/year forrn1965 and 2004, respectively. The study also indicated land use /land cover change in the last 39rnyears (1965 to 2004), the dense wood land, dense bushy wood land, dense shrub land andrnwetlands-non forested changed in to bare land, open bush land, open shrub land, and swampyrnrngrass land. The findings of this particular study suggested that deforestation and soil erosionrnproblems need to be given due attention urgently to maintain the stability and resilience of thernecosystem.