Remote Sensing & GIS for Land Cover/Land Use Change Detection and Analysis in the Semi-Natural Ecosystems and Agriculture Landscapes of the Central Ethiopian Rift Valley

Nowadays earth observation satellites continuously acquire huge amounts of data with the effect that the capacity of current technologies to extract and analyse spatial data can hardly cope up properly. This abundance of spatial data is especially in developing countries not adequately used because the setup of spatial data infrastructure is at its infancy. This research work represents a valuable step towards the establishment of the relationship of spectral signatures of MODIS satellite imagery and biophysical characteristics of agricultural and semi-natural ecosystems along parts of the Ethiopian Rift Valley. Important issues regarding the assessment of multi-temporal dynamics of the encroachment of protected areas by livestock are systematically investigated by analyzing the monthly animal feed shortage or surplus as detected by MODIS imagery. Easy-to-handle empirical formulae and extended models of respective calculation are provided. The trend of degradation of ecologically important areas is accurately mapped and the annual net loss is calculated. Experts and stakeholders in natural resources management, in remote sensing and GIS with special regard to assessment of land degradation and sustainable land management as well as policy makers dealing with environment governance and students aspiring to become experts in natural resources management and remote sensing and/or GIS for ecological regional development may find this book useful for enlarging their methodological as well as practical level of knowledge. Chapter 1 15 1 Introduction 17 1.1 Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Management 17 1.2 Alteration of Ecosystems and its Consequences in the Ethiopian Rift Valley 18 1.3 Aim and scope of the study 20 1.3.1 Conceptual Framework of the Study 20 1.3.2 General Objective 20 1.3.3 Specific objectives 21 1.4 Organisation of the Dissertation 21 Chapter 2 23 2 The Evolution and Revolution of Remote Sensing and GIS for Nature Conservation 25 2.1 Historical Development of Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in Conservation 25 2.1.1 History of Remote Sensing 25 2.1.2 History of GIS 27 2.2 Mapping for Monitoring and Conservation of Natural Ecosystems 28 2.2.1 The Emergence of Remote Sensing and GIS as a Major Tool for Ecosystems Monitoring 28 2.2.2 Mapping Habitat Ranges in GIS 32 2.2.3 Distribution of Migratory Species Rich Localities and their Conservation Status 34 2.3 Conservation Status of Migratory Species Rich Ecosystems 37 Chapter 3 39 3 Social and physical attributes of the study area 41 3.1 Location of the Study Area and Its Extent 41 3.2 Physical Attributes 42 3.2.1 Climate 42 3.2.2 Hydrology 43 3.2.3 Soils 44 3.2.4 Vegetation 44 3.3 Wildlife and Tourism 45 3.3.1 Protected Areas 45 3.3.2 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) 47 3.4 The Socio-cultural and Economic Situation of Abijjata Shala National Park and its Surroundings 47 3.4.1 Population 47 3.4.2 Farming Systems and Land Use 49 3.4.3 Relationship of the Inhabitants to the Protected Area System 49 3.4.4 Government Policies and the Natural Ecosystem 49 Chapter 4 51 4 Data Organization and Methodology 53 4.1 Materials Used 53 4.1.1 Satellite Imagery 53 4.1.2 Topographical Maps 57 4.1.3 Digital Elevation Models (DEM) 58 4.1.4 Metrological Station Data and Climate Map Formation 58 4.1.5 Field Surveying 62 4.1.6 Ecological Important Areas 65 4.1.7 Livestock Data 66 4.2 Pre-Classification of Digital Image Processing 66 4.2.1 Radiometric and Atmospheric Correction 66 4.2.2 Temporal Normalisation 70 4.2.3 Geocoding and Georeferencing 72 4.2.4 Topographic Normalisation 72 4.2.5 Tasselled Cap Transformation 75 4.2.6 Thermal Bands for Use in Land Cover Classification 75 4.3 Land Cover Classification Methods and Their Applicability to this Study 77 4.3.1 Deterministic Classification 77 4.3.2 Fuzzy/Soft Classification 81 Chapter 5 83 5 Multi-Temporal and Multi-Scale Land Cover Classification and Biophysical Information Extraction by Means of Low-Cost Remote Sensing 85 5.1 Results of Land Cover Classification 85 5.1.1 Derivation of Land Cover Classes from MODIS Datasets 85 5.1.2 Classification of Landsat Imagery 88 5.2 Accuracy Assessment 90 5.3 Procuring Biophysical Information through Low-Cost Remote Sensing 92 5.3.1 Spectral Characteristics of Plant Leaves 92 5.3.2 Estimating Leaf Area Index for Wide Area Coverage 94 5.3.3 Establishing Empirical Relation Ship Between Remote Sensing Variables and LAI 95 5.3.4 MODIS-LAI Product 103 5.3.5 Standing Biomass and NPP Estimation through Low-Cost Remote Sensing Products 103 5.3.6 Assessing the Potential Productivity by Means of Remote Sensing Variables and Physical Attributes of the Area 108 5.4 Summary and Discussion 116 Chapter 6 119 6 Livestock Centred Land Use and the Natural Ecosystem 121 6.1 Local and National Perspectives of Priorities of Land Use 121 6.2 The Land Cover Dynamics in and around the ASLNP 122 6.2.1 Land Cover Change Process 122 6.2.2 Major Land Use/ Land Cover Change Driving Forces 126 6.3 Identification of Critical Sites for Conservation around the Semi-natural Ecosystems in the Zeway-Awassa basin 126 6.3.1 Geographic and Topographic Distribution of Important Changes in the Landscape 126 6.3.2 Multivariate Gradient Analysis 128 6.4 Remote Sensing of Livestock Based Farming System: The Issue of Land Suitability and Carrying Capacity of Semi-Natural Ecosystem 129 6.4.1 Distribution of Livestock in the Study Area 130 6.4.2 Daily Average Feed Requirement in the Rift Valley 134 6.4.3 Land Suitability Assessment 134 6.4.4 The State of Other Protected Area Networks 136 6.4.5 Carrying Capacity of Livestock in and around Protected Areas 137 6.4.6 Carrying Capacity of Land Cover Classes 138 6.5 Environmental Implications of Land Cover Changes and Livestock Impact 139 6.6 Summary and Discussion 140 Chapter 7 143 7 Overall Conclusions, Discussion and Recommendations 145 7.1 Conclusions and Discussion 145 7.2 Limitation of the Study 149 7.3 Recommendations and Outlook for Future Studies 150 7.3.1 Remarks on Strategic Approaches to Save ASLNP 150 7.3.2 Suggestions to Preserve the IBAs 150 7.3.3 Institutional Coordination 151 7.3.4 Limits of Spatial Technology Adoption for Nature Conservation 151 7.4 Indications for Further Studies 152 8 References 153 9 Appendices 167