Trends of land use/cover change in Kecha-Laguna paired micro watersheds, Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract Understanding the extent and direction of land use/cover change (LULCC) is essential for planning sustainable land management options. Thus, this study examined the trends of LULCC in Northwestern Ethiopia. Panchromatic Aerial photographs of the years 1957 and 1984 QuickBird image (2006) and SPOT image (2016) were used to analyze the dynamics of LULCC. The land use/cover classes were classified using onscreen digitizing method. Six land use/cover types, namely, forest, bush, grazing, cultivated and settlement, degraded and khat plantation, were identified. The result showed that there have been substantial land use/cover change in the last 59 years in Kecha-Laguna micro watersheds. In Kecha micro watershed, cultivated land and settlement areas, degraded land and Khat plantation increased by 31.7%, 6.3% and 3.11%, respectively, at the expense of other land uses/cover types such as forest, bush and grazing land, which declined by 6.86%, 23.5% and 10.8%, respectively. In Laguna micro watershed, cultivated and settlement land, khat plantation and degraded land increased by 12.5%, 3.1% and 14.5%, respectively. While; forest, bush and grazing land declined by 18%, 9.4% and 2.6%, respectively, in the last 59 years. In association with recent watershed development efforts encompassing area enclosures and soil and water conservation practices in the Kecha micro watershed, degraded land reduced by 3.7% while forest land increased by 3.4% between 2006 and 2016. Therefore, proper land management is a key to reduce land degradation and improve forest cover.