Surface water monitoring programs rely on biological, chemical, and habitatrninformation to make science-based judgments on aquatic life use-supportrndesignations. Urbanization and extensive agriculture within and adjacent to streamrncorridors can seriously impact aquatic species and their habitats. This studyrnassessed biological impairment to macroinvertebrate communities in some rivers/rnstreams primarily disturbed by extensive agricultural activities, industrial and urbanrnland use in Ethiopia. These primary land uses are considered to be the mostrnimportant threatening factors to aquatic ecosystem. A total of 15 sites were sampledrnfor macroinvertebrates and environmental parameters. These data were collectedrnbetween August 2005 and June 2006. Sites were categorized a priori into threerngroups (reference, rural, and urban) based on the predominant land use upstream ofrnthe sampling reach. Macroinvertebrate sampling was conducted in accordance withrnRapid Bioassessment Protocol. Physicochemical parameters (by using standardrnmethods) were collected and habitat features were scored with the EPA RapidrnBioassessment Protocol (RBP) Habitat Assessment procedures. Streams data wererncompared to reference conditions. Sites were assessed with the Benthic Index ofrnBiotic Integrity (B-IBI), an aggregate index that incorporates 14 metrics. Exploratoryrnbox plots and scatter plots were viewed along with Pearson correlation coefficientsrnand linear regression to evaluate relationships between environmental and biologicalrndata. Multivariate techniques such as principal components analysis (PCA),rncorrespondence analysis (CA) and cluster analysis were used. Significance testsrnwere performed on environmental and biological Parameters with the student t- test.rnThere were significant differences in most of the environmental variables (p