Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are a major concern in Ethiopia. It has a significant impact on the environment, food and feed availability, and other ecosystem services and products for present and future generations. The effects of LULC change are particularly more pronounced in the highlands of Ethiopia, where the majority of the country’s cultivated land and livestock grazing occur, and competition between different land use decisions is a major concern.

Monitoring land degradation (LD) to inform the sustainable development goal (SDG) 15.3.1 (\proportion of land that is degraded over total land area") is key to ensure a more sustainable future. At the moment, there are only default medium-resolution datasets available to assess LD in Tanzania. They do not reflect local characteristics and cannot help to target exposed areas spatially.

Evaluation of the hydrological impact of urbanization-induced land use land cover (LULC) changes for medium to large catchments is still an important research topic due to the lack of evidence to conclude about how local changes translate to impacts across scales. This study aims to provide evidence on the effects of LULC change on the streamflow of the Akaki catchment that hosts Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.

Background