"Spatial and Temporal Land Cover Changes in the Simen Mountains Nationa" by Menale Wondie, Werner Schneider et al.

Department of Earth and Environment

Title

Spatial and Temporal Land Cover Changes in the Simen Mountains National Park, a World Heritage Site in Northwestern Ethiopia

Authors

Menale Wondie, Adet Agricultural Research Center
Werner Schneider, University of Natural Resources and Applied Sciences
Assefa M. Melesse, Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International UniversityFollow
Demel Teketay, University of Botswana

Date of this Version

4-8-2011

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The trend of land cover (LC) and land cover change (LCC), both in time and space, was investigated at the Simen Mountains National Park (SMNP), a World Heritage Site located in northern Ethiopia, between 1984 and 2003 using Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing (RS). The objective of the study was to generate spatially and temporally quantified information on land cover dynamics, providing the basis for policy/decision makers and resource managers to facilitate biodiversity conservation, including wild animals. Two satellite images (Landsat TM of 1984 and Landsat ETM+ of 2003) were acquired and supervised classification was used to categorize LC types. Ground Control Points were obtained in field condition for georeferencing and accuracy assessment. The results showed an increase in the areas of pure forest (Erica species dominated) and shrubland but a decrease in the area of agricultural land over the 20 years. The overall accuracy and the Kappa value of classification results were 88 and 85%, respectively. The spatial setting of the LC classes was heterogeneous and resulted from the biophysical nature of SMNP and anthropogenic activities. Further studies are suggested to evaluate the existing LC and LCC in connection with wildlife habitat, conservation and management of SMNP.

Comments

Originally published in Remote Sensing; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Wondie, Menale; Schneider, Werner; Melesse, Assefa M.; and Teketay, Demel, "Spatial and Temporal Land Cover Changes in the Simen Mountains National Park, a World Heritage Site in Northwestern Ethiopia" (2011). Department of Earth and Environment. 13.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/earth_environment_fac/13

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DOI

10.3390/rs3040752

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