FOREST COVER CHANGE ANALYSIS USING LANDSAT DATA IN DENDI DISTRICT, ETHIOPIA.

Abstract

Forest resources are very important for sustainable environment and natural resources development. Forest resources in Ethiopia are decreasing drastically due to anthropogenic activities and natural environmental changes. An attempt has been made to understand the dynamics and magnitude of forest cover change over a period of 17 years in Dendi district of Ethiopia, using multi-date Landsat data and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques. Remote sensing and GIS are the most modern technologies which have been widely used in the field of natural resource management and monitoring. Supervised classification technique was employed on Landsat TM and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) datasets and post-classification change detection comparison methods were used to analyze areal extent, pattern and rate of forest cover degradation. The relationship between the forest cover change and landscape attributes was also analyzed. Studies revealed that most of the forest land was converted into cultivated land in the area. The findings indicated that 18733.62 ha of forest land was converted into other land use and land cover over a period of 17 years and the annual conversion rate was estimated to be 1086.94 ha, which is 4.34% of the total forest area. The study revealed that the large portion of forest cover change process is observed along areas having a slope of less than 25o and elevation values of below 2,550 m. From the computed quantitative data it was observed that from the present remained total forest of 7,629.38 ha about 1,543.52 ha of forest land is susceptible to low degradation and 4,402.4 ha and 1,683.44 ha of forest cover lands are considered to be moderately and highly susceptible to degradation respectively.