Spatio-temporal Impacts of Eucalyptus Tree Plantation on Agricultural Land in the Highland areas of Dega Damot District, Ethiopia
Goal and objectives: The expansion of eucalyptus plantations in Ethiopian highlands impacts agricultural land use. This study in Dega Damot District integrates remote sensing and socio-economic data to analyze spatio-temporal changes. Methodology: The study utilized both spatial and socioecon...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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EL-AYACHI
2025-05-01
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| Series: | African Journal on Land Policy and Geospatial Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://revues.imist.ma/index.php/AJLP-GS/article/view/53431 |
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| Summary: | Goal and objectives:
The expansion of eucalyptus plantations in Ethiopian highlands impacts agricultural land use. This study in Dega Damot District integrates remote sensing and socio-economic data to analyze spatio-temporal changes.
Methodology:
The study utilized both spatial and socioeconomic data. Spatial data including Landsat images, high-resolution Google Earth images, and GPS points were used. Different years' satellite imageries were used to analyze land use/land cover changes and to compute the trend of eucalyptus expansion. The satellite imageries were downloaded from freely available sources by the USGS Earth Explorer (http://glovis.usgs.gov/) for the years 1990 (TM), 2001 (ETM), 2014 (OLI), and 2021 (OLI) to analyze the spatio-temporal change of eucalyptus expansion on agricultural land. Landsat images with a spatial resolution of 30m, acquired in December and January, were used to minimize the effect of green crops on eucalyptus. For each Landsat scene, the cloud coverage was set to below 10% throughout the downloading process, to ensure quality image for higher accuracy data analysis
Results:
Results show a significant increase in eucalyptus coverage from 1.11% in 1990 to 5.33% in 2021, with a 352.47% change, while grazing land decreased by 62.39%. Community preferences lean towards eucalyptus due to its socio-economic benefits, with 84.5% intending to cultivate it further. This change attitudes challenges to agricultural land sustainability, emphasizing the need for intervention and policy alignment to ensure effective land use planning and management regarding eucalyptus plantations.
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| ISSN: | 2657-2664 |