Spatio-temporal dynamics of land use and land cover changes, and woodlot expansion in northwestern Ethiopian Highlands

Rapid land use land cover (LULC) change is one of the fundamental environmental problems in Ethiopia in general and, especially in the highlands of Ethiopia. This study was aimed to understand the trends, magnitudes, and drivers of LULC changes in three Districts of the northwestern Ethiopian Highlands, namely (Guna Begemidir, North Mecha, and Fagta Lekoma) with high expansion and management of woodlots during 1987 to 2020 periods. The study employed a hybrid classification technique to group the images into LULC classes. The results indicated that woodlots as plantation forests increased from 2.5% in 2009 to 19.4% in 2020 in Fagta Lekoma District. An increment of plantation forest from almost none to 33% was also observed in North Mecha District during 1987-2020. In the case of Guna Begemidir District, coverage of plantation forest increased from 0.32% in 2009 to 7.9% in 2020. Overall classification accuracy of 80.19, 84.49, 81.79%, and a Kapa coefficient of 0.75, 0.81, and 0.78 for Fagta Lekoma, North Mecha, and Guna Begemidir Districts, respectively, were attained. The landscapes of the study areas have shown remarkable changes across spatial and temporal differences. The main drivers of the changes in the LULC were associated with the shift of livelihood dependence and demand for various ecosystem services. The LULC changes in the study areas have implications for enhancing forest-based ecosystem services. A continuous study on the risks, trade-offs and synergies of ecosystem services in the LULC changes is needed to scrutinize the impact of the land use and land cover changes and design optimum land management strategies in the study areas. Keywords: Drivers, ecosystem service, Ethiopia, image classification, plantation forest