Examining the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) status of Rib watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Land degradation because of the overutilization of natural resources is a suitable strategy for many countries of the world. This crucial strategy hasn’t been introduced or implemented widely enough. The present study intended to examine the status of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) for the study Rib Watershed, which covers an area of 1585 km² and is situated in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. For the past two periods between 2000 and 2020, three indicators, such as Land Cover/Use Changes (LUC), Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), and Net Primary Productivity (NPP) metrics were primarily used to assess the LDN status of the study site. A total of 80 soil samples were then collected from the top 15 cm for six different types of LULC, including cultivated land, forest land, shrub lands, grassland, settlement, and water body. Consequently, land uses land cover matrices, NPP metric, and SOC metrics were also obtained using Land sat images, soil samples, and MODIS satellite images, respectively, for three periods of 2000, 2010, and 2020. Lastly, by integrating the three indicators and using one out all out framework, the status of LDN in the study area was evaluated. The combined findings of the study measurements showed that there was a net loss in cultivated land (123,977 ha), forest land (5623 ha), shrub lands (13984 ha), grassland (11,999 ha), water body (1056 ha) and settlement (1993 ha) for the past two decades (2000 to 2020). For the past two decades, LDN status of the Rib Watershed was generally in a net loss condition. The information delivered by the three sub-indicators is important for experts for the good recognition of their spatial distribution and types of land degradation to attain the LDN targets.

KEYWORDS:

• Land Degradation Neutrality
• Land use/cover
• Net primary product
• Soil organic carbon

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the development of agricultural experts of Yefag, Guna begemeder, Ebnat, and Addis zemen woreda for their genuine contribution during ground control point data collection.

Disclosure statement

The writers attest that they have no known financial conflicts of interest that could have seemed to influence the work reported in this paper.

Authorship contribution

MA carried out, data collection in the field, data analysis, and writing of the manuscript. AS contributed to the overall supervision of the work and commented and edited the manuscript. All writers read and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

No specific grant was given to this research by funding organizations in the government, private, or other sectors.

Notes on contributors

Melkamu Alebachew Anley

Melkamu Alebachew Anley is a lecturer at Debre Tabor University in the Faculty of Social Science and the Department of Geography and Environment. He have published an article entiled on ”Assessing the impacts of land use/cover changes on ecosystem service values in Rib watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia” at journal of Trees, Forests and People, Elsevier. His research area focuses on Ecosystem service value, soil loss, sediment export and Land degradation related issues. This manuscript is the result of one of the objectives of his dissertation.

Amare Sewnet Minale

Amare Sewnet (Proffessor) is my principal advisor; he is the first professor in the history of geography department at Bahir Dar University. He is a senior lecturer, researcher, and advisor at Bahir Dar University, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. He published many articles related with soil loss, Ecosystem service,urban and climate related issues.