Geospatial Techniques Based Analysis on the Impact of Resettlement on Land Use and Land Cover Change in Esira District, Dawuro Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Resettlement program is considered as a response to tackle the problems of food insecurity, unproductive agriculture, and the ill-being of resettled community. However, large implementation of the program gives rise to socio-economic and environmental related issues particularly natural resource degradation, which causes land use and land cover (LULC) change in the study area. This study was carried out to analyze implication of resettlement on LULC change in Esira district by applying geospatial techniques. Accordingly, to achieve the intended objectives, three sets of Landsat images with different study period were used. Thus, five major LULC classes were identified using maximum likelihood supervised classification techniques. Post classification change detection technique was also used to identify land transformation from one LULC class to other classes. The finding of the study shows that, from 1990 to 2019, there was increment in settlement and cropland with respective values of 11.9% to 32%, and 21.7% to 28%. In expense of this, grassland, forest and bare land were decreased from 29.2% to 14.7%, 26.2% to 16.6% and 12.8% to 8.33%, respectively. Fragmented and unplanned resettlement program would result in natural resource depletion particularly deforestation. So, based on the findings, well-planned resettlement program and sensible land use system is recommended.