Spatial assessment of land degradation using MEDALUS focusing on potential afforestation and reforestation areas in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia currently faces severe land degradation and desertification and has attracted increasing attention for international restoration projects. However, selecting appropriate potential afforestation and reforestation areas is challenging because of limited geospatial assessment tools on a national scale. Therefore, the globally used MEDALUS approach was applied to identify areas sensitive to land degradation and desertification, and indices were utilized to establish the main drivers from 2000 to 2019. The value of the environmentally sensitive area index (ESAI) ranged from 1 to 1.58. Addis Ababa, Afar, Somali, and Tigray had relatively high ESAI values, approaching the over 1.42 which regarded critical thresholds. However, the main driver of land degradation and desertification was identified as the management quality index (MQI) and the analysis of relationships indicated that the climate quality index, soil quality index, and MQI caused changes in the vegetation quality index. Increasing housing, agricultural transitions, and urbanization, were identified by on-site visual interpretation. Even though some land cover changes and fluctuations of the indices existed on a national scale, the deforestation areas in Amhara, Benshangul-Gumaz, and Oromia West have the highest priority for forest restoration projects. Thus, international attention to afforestation and reforestation clean development mechanism (A/R CDM) and reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is required to combat desertification and to secure land degradation neutrality in Ethiopia.

Assessment of Land Desertification in the Brazilian East Atlantic Region Using the Medalus Model and Google Earth Engine

“…The MEDALUS model, initially proposed for Mediterranean Europe [19], has been used in other regions of the world to assess land desertification due to the universal characteristics of the model's parameters [20]. The application of this model provided a better understanding of degradation processes in the Peruvian Amazon [16], revealed regions sensitive to land degradation, and pinpointed management quality as the main driver in Ethiopia [21]. It assessed the rapid increase in desertification sensitivity in Mongolia between 2003 and 2008 [22], was adapted to map desertification severity in Egypt [23], detected desertification risk trends in Greece over 45 years using enhanced ESAs MEDALUS methodology [24], and underwent a significant update to provide a global assessment and mapping of land degradation and desertification threats, further proving its versatility for both regional and global scales [25].…”

Assessment of land degradation risks in the Loess Plateau

“…Due to the flexibility and utility of the ESAI method, researchers can select appropriate indicators to assess the responsiveness of land degradation in accordance with the diverse scales, conditions, and characteristics of the study area. The ESAI method has been successfully adopted in several regions of Europe, Africa, and specific parts of Asia to understand land degradation(Rajbanshi & Das, 2021;Song et al, 2022). However, there is a limited body of research that has examined the potential for land degradation inChina resulting from the implementation of ESAI.…”