Soil degradation is evident in the mountainous areas of Ethiopia, is often represented as results of human pressure. It can be improved through different Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) measures. The study was conducted in Goromti watershed, in western Ethiopia to evaluate the impact of Fanya juu structures on some soil physical & chemical properties. Cultivated fields treated by five years and ten years old fanyajuu structures were compared with non conserved cultivated land (control) and evaluated under three slope gradients. The slope gradients were; gentle (3-15%), moderately steep (15-30%) and steep slope (>30%). A total of 27 soil samples were collected from the top 20 cm soil depth replicated three times and selected physical and chemical properties were analysed in the laboratory. The results of the study showed that soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (N) were significantly (p≤0.05) different on farms treated by the fanyajuu compared to the non-conserved plots as well as under the different slope gradients. Bulk density (Db), sand and clay fractions were significantly varied with slope gradient. Soil organic carbon and total N were higher while bulk density was lower in soil under the non-conserved fields than in fields with fanyajuu structures. But no significant difference was observed in soil bulk density, sand and clay fractions among treatments. Similarly, CEC, available K and available P, and exchangeable K + , Ca 2+ , and Mg 2+ didn't show any significant differences with respect to structures and slope gradient. The research indicates that structures could benefit farmers through improving the nutrient status better if integrated with agronomic measures by using vegetation suitable for the local environment in one hand, and properly maintained for longer period of time, on the other.

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Mapping and quantifying urban landscape dynamics and the underlying driving factors are crucial for devising appropriate policies, especially in cities of developing countries where the change is rapid. This study analyzed three decades (1984-2014) of land use land cover change of Addis Ababa using Landsat imagery and examined the underlying factors and their temporal dynamics through expert interview using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Classification results revealed that urban area increased by 50%, while agricultural land and forest decreased by 34 and 16%, respectively. The driving factors operated differently during the pre and post-1991 period. The year 1991 was chosen because it marked government change in the country resulting in policy change. Policy had the highest influence during the pre-1991 period. Land use change in this period was associated with the housing sector as policies and institutional setups were permissive to this sector. Population growth and in-migration were also important factors. Economic factors played significant role in the post-1991 period. The fact that urban land has a market value, the growth of private investment, and the speculated property market were among the economic factors. Policy reforms since 2003 were also influential to the change. Others such as accessibility, demography, and neighborhood factors were a response to economic factors. All the above-mentioned factors had vital role in shaping the urban pattern of the city. These findings can help planners and policymakers to better understand the dynamic relationship of urban land use and the driving factors to better manage the city.

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Background: In flood prone areas, understanding flood causing factors, assessing the flood induced risks and adopting landscape based mitigation strategies can increase the knowledge, awareness and individual initiatives to protect themselves and their properties using appropriate flood management measures before and during flood events. Dire Dawa city is located in the foothill of southern mountains from where rivers crossing the city are originated. The multidimensional causes of flood hazard and limited landscape based mitigation strategies in the study area have worsen the impacts of flooding. This study was conducted in the Dire Dawa city watershed with the aims of assessing flood causing factors and to propose landscape based flood mitigation strategies. Results: To meet the intended objectives, the study employed the collection of both primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected from 110 households located in flood vulnerable villages. Moreover, the secondary data were collected from the Ethiopian Meteorology Agency, land use map of Dire Dawa city administration and government reports. Rainfall index method and descriptive statistics were used for analysis of primary data. The former was used to check the effect of intense rainfall and flood risk in terms of different duration yearly, monthly, daily and hourly basis, while the latter was used for identification of various factors precipitating flood risks of the study area. The analysis of secondary data employed morphometric analysis so as to identify flood susceptible subwatersheds. Findings of the study indicated that flood risk in the study area has resulted from multiple factors such as intense rainfall, topography, encroachment to the river banks, institutional problems and aggravating factors resulted from power interruption during heavy rain and regime changes. More importantly, flood risk of the study area was found to be sensitive to hourly variation of rainfall distributions and varies on the location of the sub-watersheds. Following that, flood susceptibility of sub-watershed was ranked based on linear and shape morphometric parameters where higher values of linear and lower values of shape parameters were attributed to high flooding risk. Based on the prioritization of sub-watersheds' susceptibility to flood risk through morphometric analysis, sub-watershed 5 and 18 were identified as the most flood risk susceptible watersheds demanding urgent landscape-based conservation measures. To this end suitable sites and sustainable water conservation structures are identified across the watersheds. Conclusion: Check dams, terracing, nala bunds, percolation tanks and storage tanks were proposed for different locations across the watershed as effective landscape-based flood risk mitigation strategies. The overall results of the study shows that managing the root causes of flooding at the upper catchments and adopting recommended proposed water conservation structures at proposed site helps to sustainably curb flood induced risks of Dire ...