Gis Based Analysis Of Land Use Land Cover Land Degradation And Population Changes. (a Study Of Boru-metero Area Of South Wello Amhara Region)

The North-Central high lands of Ethiopia have been exploited over centuriesrnand their present status is alarming. A subsistence rain fed production usingrnobsolete methods characterizes agriculture the predominant economic activityrnof the area. The study area which cover about 3088ha of South Wello found inrnTehuledere Wereda known as Boru-Metero is one of the representative area ofrnthe highlands in the region where its land use and land cover has significantlyrnchanged due to demographic pressure.rnToday in many parts of the North-central highlands, cultivated and grazingrnlands are commonly seen dissected by gullies and gorges of different sizes.rnAlmost all natural forests have been cleared irrespective of slope steepness andrnare now under cultivation without proper land management. The size ofrnfarmland per household is very low due to population growth. Because of thesernand other factors the rural population of the region and the study area arernvulnerable to food shortage every year.rnThe study is designed to address the above interwoven problems in the arearnrelated mainly to land use/land cover, land degradation and human populationrnpressure. Accordingly two main objectives were designed: first, establishing therncurrent status and trends in changes of population distribution, land use/landrncover changes and identifying areas severely affected by the changes. Second,rnidentifying the causes and consequences of temporal and spatial changes inrnpopulation distribution, land use/land cover changes and land degradation.rnIn order to fulfill the above objectives, assessment of land use/land coverrnchanges in relation to population growth was done using the available aerialrnphotographs of 1936,1965, 1986 and 1994.rnAn-in-depth investigation of each aerial photographs of the study area wasrncarried out using different raster and vector GIS soft wares such asrnphotogrammetric workstation known as VIRTUOZO, ERDAS Imagine ver.8.3rnMap/Info ver.4.1 Arc/view ver.3.2 and others. In order to support those GISrntechnologies analogue instruments such as Procom-2, pocket Stereoscope, fieldrncamera, handheld GPS-45 and others were used. With the help of theserntechnologies and field assessment, land use/land cover changes takingrnvegetation cover as an indicator was investigated and rural population of thernarea was also estimated from the stated aerial photos and mapped for eachrnyear.rnThe 1936 aerial photographs of the Italians was interpreted for sample area ofrnBorur Sellassie and Gora area and separately compared with the recent 1994rnaerial photographs to evaluate land use land cover changes, land degradationrnand population distribution. While the 1965, 1986 and the 1994 aerialrnphotographs were applied for the whole study area. All the stated year aerialrnphotographs were converted in to digital formats using the above stated softrnwares and then geo-referenced, land cover types identified are digitized.rnThe result shows that, cultivated land in Boru-Metero increased from 44.86rnpercent in 1965 to 49.44 percent and 49.62 percent in 1986 and 1994rnrespectively. In this respect the change of crop land was not significant becausernthe areas suitable for cropland was already farmed by the 1980’s and since.rnConversely, the natural vegetation cover declined from 3.43 percent in 1965rnand became 2.74 percent in 1986 and 2.59 percent in 1994. The most significant land cover change found was the increasing of tree farming ofrnEucalyptus trees. It was only 1.63 percent coverage in 1965 and increased torn4.71 percent in 1986 and 4.63 percent in 1994. This change was the result ofrnthe aforestation and enclosure of hill side program done in the 1980’s as well asrnthe increasing of financial income gained from the selling of fuel wood and polesrnthat initiate farmers to plant Eucalyptus trees around their homestead and onrntheir farms.rnThe result of land use/land cover changes investigated on aerial photographs ofrn1936 in the sample areas of Boru sellassie shows that, cropland which wasrn50.83 percent coverage in 1936 increased to 64.25 percent in 1994, which wasrn69.51 additional hectare within 58 years difference. This indicates that therernwas an expansion of farmland since the 1936 in the area.rnThe analyzed result for Gora area shows that, the cover of natural forestrn(dominated by Juniperous procera) declined from 18.22 percent in 1936 to 7.70rnpercent in 1994. The area coverage of natural forest in 1936 shows about 130.9rnha and declined to about 55.1ha in 1994. Therefore, the natural forest coverrncleared within 58 years was 57.91 percent of the cover existed in 1936 aroundrnGora area.rnThe investigation of rural population done from the stated aerial photographsrnshow a population of 5404 in 1965, 8050 in 1986 and 9774 in 1994 settled inrnBoru-Metero. Based on this the population density of the study area shows 175rnpersons/km2 in 1965, 261 persons /km2 in 1986 and 317 persons /km2 inrn1994.rnPopulation density regarding the sample area of Boru Sellassie area in 1936rnshows 298 persons/km2 and increased into 628 persons/km2 in 1994. Onrnsimilar trend the population density of Gora area during the 1936 accountedrnabout 44 persons/km2 and increased to about 364 persons/km2

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