Dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) change and its consequential impact on soil health in the Fincaha’a Watershed, Northwest Nile Basin, Western Ethiopia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20372/star.V14.i3.13Keywords:
Land Use, Soil Health, Fincaha’a Watershed, Nile Basin, Soil Management, Land DegradationAbstract
Land use and land cover (LULC) changes affect soil health, particularly in ecologically sensitive highlands. This study explores LULC dynamics and their influence on selected soil parameters in the Fincaha’a Valley watershed, Upper Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Landsat images from 1990, 2000, and 2020 were subjected to supervised classification in ArcGIS. Soil texture, water-holding capacity, soil organic carbon (SOC), bulk density (BD), total nitrogen (TN), pH, and available phosphorus (AvP) were measured in soil samples (0–20 cm depth) from forest, farmed, grazing, and fallow fields. Forest cover dropped from 41.3% to 21.7%, while cultivated land rose from 32.5% to 56.8%. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed among land use types. SOC was highest in forest soils (3.74%) and lowest in cultivated soils (1.08%). BD rose from 1.12 g cm⁻³ (forest) to 1.42 g (cultivated). AvP and TN decreased significantly in intensively used fields. These findings indicate that LULC conversion adversely affects soil health, affecting long-term land productivity and ecological services. To improve soil quality and resilience in the Fincaha'a watersheds, agroforestry and conservation farming are recommended.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Abebe, H., Kebede, A., Alamirew, T., & Desta, G. (2023). Spatiotemporal Dynamic of Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Their Drivers in the Fincha' a-Neshe Sub-Basin, Southeastern Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Environment and Natural Resources Research, 13(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.5539/enrr.v13n1p1.
Alemu, H. (2021). Fertility Status of Soils under Different Land uses at Wujiraba Watershed, North-Western Highlands of Ethiopia. Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries, 3(5), 410. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aff.20140305.24
Asmare, T. K., Abayneh, B., Yigzaw, M., & Birhan, T. A. (2023). The effect of land use type on selected soil physicochemical properties in Shihatig watershed, Dabat district, Northwest Ethiopia. Heliyon, 9(5), e16038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16038
Ayilara, M., Olanrewaju, O., Babalola, O., & Odeyemi, O. (2020). Waste Management through Composting: Challenges and Potentials. Sustainability, 12(11), 4456. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114456
Bremner, J. M. (1960). Determination of nitrogen in soil by the Kjeldahl method. The Journal of Agricultural Science, 55(1), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021859600021572
Brevik, E. C., Krzic, M., Muggler, C., Field, D., Hannam, J., & Uchida, Y. (2022). Soil science education: A multinational look at current perspectives. Natural Sciences Education, 51(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20077
Buraka, T., Elias, E., & Lelago, A. (2023). Effects of land-use-cover-changes on selected soil physicochemical properties along slope position, Coka watershed, Southern Ethiopia. Heliyon, 9(5), e16142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16142
Chapman, H. D. (1965). Cation‐exchange capacity. Methods of soil analysis: Part 2 Chemical and microbiological properties, 9, 891-901. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronmonogr 9.2.c6
Dai, K. H., & Richter, D. D. (2000). A reexamination of exchangeable acidity as extracted by potassium chloride and potassium fluoride. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 31(2), 115–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/00103620009370424
Demelash, M., & Stahr, K. (2010). Assessment of integrated soil and water conservation measures on key soil properties in South Gonder, North-Western Highlands of Ethiopia. Journal of Soil Science and Environmental Management, 1(7), 164–176. https://doi.org/10.5897/jssem.9000008
Dinnis, E. R. (1994). Soil science: Methods & applications D. L. Rowell, Longman Scientific & Technical, Longman Group UK Ltd, Harlow, Essex, UK (co‐published in the USA with John Wiley & Sons Inc. New York), 1994, x + 350 pp £19.99 ISBN 0‐592‐087848. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 66(4), 573–574. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.2740660423
Golchin, A., Baldock, J. A., & Oades, J. M. (2018). Soil processes and the carbon cycle. In CRC Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1201 /978 020 3739273
Kebebew, S., Bedadi, B., Erkossa, T., Yimer, F., & Wogi, L. (2022). Effect of different Land-Use types on soil properties in Cheha district, South-Central Ethiopia. Sustainability, 14(3), 1323. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031323
Kitila, G., Gebrekidan, H., & Alamrew, T. (2018). Soil quality attributes induced by land use changes in the Fincha’a watershed, Nile Basin of western Ethiopia. Science Technology and Arts Research Journal, 5(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.4314/star.v5i1.3
Kourouma, J. M., Eze, E., Negash, E., Phiri, D., Vinya, R., Girma, A., & Zenebe, A. (2021). Assessing the spatio-temporal variability of NDVI and VCI as indices of crops productivity in Ethiopia: a remote sensing approach. Geomatics Natural Hazards and Risk, 12(1), 2880–2903. https://doi.org/10.1080/194757 05.2021.1976849
Liu, L., & Ma, X. (2024). Prediction of Soil Field Capacity and Permanent Wilting Point Using Accessible Parameters by Machine Learning. Agri Engineering, 6(3), 2592-2611. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering6030151
Melero, S., López-Garrido, R., Murillo, J. M., & Moreno, F. (2009). Conservation tillage: Short- and long-term effects on soil carbon fractions and enzymatic activities under Mediterranean conditions. Soil and Tillage Research, 104(2), 292–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.still.200 9.0 4.001
SAS, Institute Inc V World Programming Ltd. (2012). Reports of Patent Design and Trade Mark Cases, 129(12), 933–970. https://doi.org/10.1093/rpc/rcs048.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Science, Technology and Arts Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
STAR © 2023 Copyright; All rights reserved
