Assessment of the linkages between ecosystem service provision and land use/land cover change in Fincha watershed, North-Western Ethiopia.

Fincha watershed is characterized by the presence of large scale government development projects, such as hydroelectric dam and sugarcane plantation. Within this watershed, land use/land cover (LULC) changes and its linkages with ecosystem services were analyzed for a period of more than three decades (1987-2019). The study first assessed LULC dynamics using ArcGIS software with a standard method.

Data on the dynamics of landscape structure and fragmentation in Ambo district, central highlands of Ethiopia.

The data presented in this article show changes in land use/land cover and fragmentation of land at a landscape level for a period of 45 years (1973-2018) in Ambo district of the central highlands of Ethiopia. Data generated from satellite images of Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) and Operational Land Image (OLI) with path/raw value of 181/54, 169/54 and169/54 for each images respectively were analyzed by Arc GIS 10.1 software using a standard method.

The impact of land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics on soil erosion and sediment yield in Ethiopia.

The central highlands of Ethiopia are characterized as a region of high rates of land degradation and soil erosion. This study aimed to estimate total amount of soil loss and sediment yield using RUSLE model within GIS environment. LULC maps of 1973-2015 were used to evaluate the impact of land use change on soil loss and sediment yield.

Landscape composition and configuration in the central highlands of Ethiopia.

Landscape dynamics are common phenomenon in the human-dominated environments whereby it can be observed that the composition and configuration between landscape elements change over time. This dynamism brings about habitat loss and fragmentation that can greatly alter ecosystem services at patch, class, and landscape levels. We conducted a study to examine composition and configuration of forested landscape in the central highlands of Ethiopia using satellite images of over a period of four decades, and FRAGSTAT raster dataset was used to analyze fragmentation.