Spatiotemporal wetland changes and their threats in North Central Ethiopian Highlands

Abstract

Wetlands are important environmental resources for rural livelihoods in Ethiopia. The study investigated spatiotemporal change of wetlands, drivers and effects in North Central Ethiopian Highlands. Landsat satellite imageries of 1984, 1993, 2000, and 2013 were used to analyse wetland changes over the last three decades. Practical observations, interviews and discussions with local communities and officers were also conducted to address the main objective. Furthermore, secondary data on crop yields were collected to supplement the primary data. The study shows that wetlands have been converted into built‐up areas and farmlands. Wetlands in the study area experienced annual loss across the entire study period. Consequently, the area size of wetlands decreased from 7.4 per cent in 1984 to 2.6 per cent in 2013. About 66 per cent of the total wetlands was lost within 30 years mainly due to farmland encroachment and urban expansions. The highest rate of wetland change was recorded between 2000 and 2013. Such wetland changes increased conflicts among land users. However, the converted wetlands increased short‐term benefits due to wetland recession agriculture. To conclude, wetland resources are under enormous threats, and challenge the sustainability of livelihoods. Thus, integrated and adaptive wetland restoration policies could improve the degraded wetlands.

The impacts of land-use and land-cover change on wetland ecosystem service values in peri-urban and urban area of Bahir Dar City, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Northwestern Ethiopia

“…In other words, the city's population has increased by 761% which is equivalent to 11,591 people/year in the past 36 years. Similar trends were reported in other studies (Hurni et al 2005;Gebrelibanos and Assen 2015;Gashaw et al 2017;Hussien et al 2018;Berihun et al 2019;Degife et al 2019;Desta and Fetene 2020;Hailu et al 2020).…”

Analyzing Wetland Dynamics Using Geospatial Techniques: A Case of Abay Choman and Jimma Geneti Watershed, Horo Guduru Wollega Zone, Western Ethiopia

“…The area has large upstream water potential sites, intensive irrigable downstream lands, and high hydropower potential (Dibaba et al, 2020). Previous studies in southwestern Ethiopia have documented a decline in wetland resources due to environmental pressure and human stresses (Berhanu et al, 2021; Dibaba et al, 2020; Dixon et al, 2021; Hussien et al, 2018). The study area has different LULC classes: cultivated land, forest, grassland, shrubs land, and settlements.…”

Wetland Changes and Their Relation to Climate Change in the Pumqu Basin, Tibetan Plateau

“…Due to different geographical locations, regional natural and socio-economic conditions are different, the impact on wetland changes varies greatly. Studies have shown that in areas with high population pressure, such as Ethiopia in Africa and Hangzhou Bay in China, reclaiming wetlands is a response to the rapid population growth [ 55 , 56 ]. In the agriculturally developed areas such as Northeast China, reclaiming wetlands is an inevitable choice for agricultural production [ 17 ].…”