Land Use Land Cover Change Detection in Asabla Watershed, Northern Highlands of Ethiopia

Purpose Land use change is a fundamental variable that impacts and links many parts of the human and physical environments. The analysis and monitoring of changes in land use and resources using Landsat imagery is important to understand the extent and magnitude of the changes. Therefore, the study was conducted to analyze the land use land cover change in Asabla watershed Northwest Ethiopia during 2020/22. Methods This study examines land use/land cover changes from 1986 to 2020 using Landsat satellite images and field data from (DEM) from USGS using supervised methods in ERDAS Imagine 2010 and ArcGIS 10.3. LU/LC classes, including forestland, grazing land, cultivated land, and settlements, were analyzed. Accuracy assessments were performed using 150 ground control points, with measures like producer and user accuracy, overall accuracy, and Kappa coefficient to evaluate classification precision. The percent change and annual rate of change to assess the magnitude of LU/LC over time was calculated. Result The (LU/LC) changes in a watershed from 1986 to 2020, revealing significant transformations across four primary classes: cultivated land, settlements, grazing land, and forestland. Accuracy assessments for the classified images indicated high reliability in 2020 (88.65%) with Kappa values 0.80, signaling strong agreement with ground truth data. Cultivated land increased steadily from 1986 to 2020, primarily at the expense of grazing lands and forest cover. In contrast, forestland showed a consistent increase, largely due to the expansion of eucalyptus plantations. Conclusion The study highlights significant LU/LCC in the watershed from 1986 to 2020. These changes are primarily driven by population growth, agricultural expansion, and the establishment of eucalyptus plantations. Therefore, sustainable land management strategies and policy, balancing agricultural expansion with the preservation of grazing lands and agroforestry practices to mitigate the land use change on the environment and local communities could be implemented.