Quantification Of The Impact Of Land Use Land Cover Changes On Ecosystem Services In The Winike Watershed Of The Omo-gibe River Basin Ethiopia

Ecosystems Services (ESs) are fundamental to sustaining life. However, they are under pressure due to anthropogenic activities such as the expansion of agricultural land and declining of forest cover, which causes loss of the ecosystem services. This study aims at quantifying and mapping of ESs, specifically, soil erosion control, water yield, habitat quality and carbon storage associated with Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) in the watershed. LU/LC change was analyzed from 1988 to 2018 using ENVI v5.3 software based on Landsat images. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model was used to estimate ecosystem services (soil erosion control, water yield, habitat quality and carbon storage). Eight major land-use types were identified and the ecosystem services were analyzed in each land use/land cover. Soil erosion modeling results showed that the total soil loss increased from 774.86 thousand tons in 1988 to 951.21 thousand tons in 2018. Cultivated fields generated the highest soil erosion rate, increasing from 10.02 t/ha/year in 1988 to 43.48 t/ha/year in 2018. This is logical as the correlation between soil loss and sediment delivery and expansion of cultivated area is highly significant (p

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