Land Degradation Neutrality Assessment Using Geospatial Techniques in North Wello Zone, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract Background: Land degradation is increasingly recognized as a serious, nationwide environmental concern in Ethiopia. The key concern is the iterative relationship between land degradation, climate change and agriculture, exacerbating one another via negative and positive feedback loops. Due to the need for an efficient response to land degradation in the country, different sustainable land management practices have been implemented since the late 1980s. In Ethiopia, most of the previous researches were conducted on analyzing the determinants of decisions to implement land management practices. The objective of this study was to analyze land degradation neutrality status using remote sensing data in the study area. Results: We have studied the land degradation neutrality conditions of North Wello Zone by using indicators data, namely land cover change, land productivity dynamics and soil organic carbon stock. The areas of settlement consistently expanded at the fifth speed (2010-2018) from 1995 to 2010. Between 1995 and 2010, forestland declined by 18 percent, while it indicated an increasing trend of 26.8 percent from 2010 to 2018. The wetlands declined by 21.98 percent from 1995 to 2010; whereas zero net degradation was observed from 2010 to 2020. In addition, between 1995 and 2010, cropland and grassland showed an increasing trend but decreasing trends were detected between 2010 and 2018. Land productivity potential assessment results indicate that 52.8 percent of the total area is stable and characterized by a less stressed land productivity status. Approximately 22.7 percent of the land showed an increase in land productivity status from 2001 to 2018. The results also indicated that 19.64 percent of the land shows an early sign of decline or actual land productivity decline. 3.5 percent of land also shows a decline in productivity. The soil organic carbon is comparatively abundant in the high and midland vegetation areas but very thin in lowland areas. Conclusion: Most of the highland and midland parts of the study areas are stable and increasing land productivity condition with high biomass and soil organic content. However, most lowland areas showed a decline land productivity condition.