Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover Changes and Trends in Fantalle Range Land, East Shewa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted in Fantalle Range lands in East Shewa zone of, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, to assess land use land cover changes, trends, drivers and their socioeconomics. Household surveys were conducted through simple random sampling to collect qualitative data. Qualitative data are used to investigate the causes and effects of land use and land cover changes. SPSS software (version 20) was used for data analysis, and descriptive research methods were adopted. Additionally, map processing was done using ERDAS Imagine (version 9.1) and ArcGIS (version 10.1). The land use land cover classification activity was started by obtaining Landsat images of 1972, 1990, 2000 and 2020 at different intervals from the Earth Explorer (USGS) from the Landsat 4, Landsat 5, Landsat 7 and Landsat 8, respectively. Land use land cover change (LULCC) maps are generated based on year classification. Range land, agricultural land, woody vegetation, bare land and settlement are the five main LULCC categories generated from satellite data. The findings show that in the presence of LULCC, agricultural land, settlements and bare land expand significantly, while range land and woodland show a decreasing trend. The classification results of the 1972 image show that rangeland/grazing land accounts for the largest proportion of the land in this area, accounting for 31.6%. In addition, due to various factors, the number of livestock owned in pastoral areas is also decreasing. The main cause of changes in livestock types is drought, which can cause different impacts, such as feed and water shortages and health problems. Therefore, intervention in land use manipulation is needed to maintain ecosystems and natural resources. Furthermore, rangeland policies should be developed to maintain pastoral and pastoral systems.