Background:The spatiotemporal analysis of urban land use/land cover change (LULCC) helps to understand the dynamics of the changing environment of green infrastructure (GI) on the basis of sustainable city development. There are important links between spatiotemporal land use/land cover and GI change in urban areas. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine the spatiotemporal trends of urban land use/land cover and GI changes in Bahir Dar and Hawassa cities for the last four decades . Three different sets of Landsat satellite data were procured from EMA for Bahir Dar and Hawassa from 1973, 2000 and 2015 using Landsat 4 MSS, 7 TM and 8 OLI respectively. Based on this, using ERDAS Imagine (ver. 9.2) and Arc GIS (Ver.10.3) five LULCC classes were identified for analysis purpose. Result:The results show that vegetation decreased by 30 and 14% in Bahir Dar and Hawassa respectively for the period 1973-2015, while built-up areas expanded by 10 and 24% respectively in the two cities. These land use changes have significant impacts on spatiotemporal trends of GI in urban areas. GI has increased in Bahir Dar and Hawassa in association with built-up area expansion and deliberate activity of city administrations with effective implementation of spatial plans of corresponding cities. Conclusions:There is a growing concern about GI in cities. Policy makers and stakeholders should also decide on how to use the land at present and in the future. LULCC policymaking processes should aim to balance GI and other types of land use/land cover for sustainable urban development. Urban LULCC has important effects on the urban GI system.

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Background: Ethiopia is among the poorest countries where land degradation caused livelihood problem to its inhabitants. The livelihood of rural communities in Ethiopia is seriously threatened by land degradation. Land is the major natural resource that economic, social, infrastructure, and other human activities are undertaken on. Thus, land resources play an important role in shaping rural livelihoods, and lack of sustainable land management practices leads to land degradation. Thus, this study aimed to analyze interlink between land degradation and livelihood of rural communities in Chilga district, Northwest Ethiopia. It also addresses the factors which influence income diversification for livelihood of households in the study area. Result: The result depicts that the major causes of land degradation are both natural and anthropogenic. Land degradation and livelihood are negatively interlinked with each other. The livelihood of the majority of the population in the study area is dependent on subsistence agriculture both farming and animal husbandry with low diversification. The survey result showed that more than half (69%) of the sample households have farm size of less than 2 ha, nearly one third (31%) have 2.0-2.5 ha, and insignificant number of farmers have more than 2.5 ha. More than 80% of the respondents pointed out that land degradation has impacts both on crop yield and livestock production. Most of the explanatory variables such as gender, age, education level, farmland size, and family size have statistical significant influence (at P < .01 and P < .05 levels) for income diversification of households, while marital status on the other hand is not statistically significant though it has positive relation with income diversification in this study. Conclusions: Our results suggest awareness should be created in the community about the livelihood diversification mechanisms which enabled them to engage in different income-generating activities and comprehensive watershed management should be implemented.

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Background Currently, urban green infrastructure is increasingly gaining attention as a source of multiple benefits. Understanding how city residents perceive the benefits of green infrastructure is critical for urban policy and planning. This paper investigates public assessment of the benefits of green infrastructure and the associated influencing factors in Bahir Dar and Hawassa cities of Ethiopia. Result Data were collected from residents of the two cities and inferential and descriptive statistics were used to identify public assessment of benefits of green infrastructure and the factors that influence their assessment of benefits of green infrastructure. Findings revealed that people either agree or strongly agree to the triple benefits (environmental, economic and socio-cultural) of green infrastructure. The Pearson’s Chi-square test results depict that, except a few, most of the demographic, socio-economic and bio-physical factors have no significant influence on environmental, economic and socio-cultural benefits of green infrastructure. Conclusion This study implies that an understanding of the public assessment of the benefits of green infrastructure can provide important inputs to promote participatory green infrastructure planning.