Buch, Englisch, 190 Seiten, KART, Format (B × H): 176 mm x 250 mm, Gewicht: 300 g
Buch, Englisch, 190 Seiten, KART, Format (B × H): 176 mm x 250 mm, Gewicht: 300 g
ISBN: 978-3-941216-23-5
Verlag: Rhombos-Verlag
Nowadays earth observation satellites continuously acquire huge amounts of data with the effect that the capacity of current technologies to extract and analyse spatial data can hardly cope up properly. This abundance of spatial data is especially in developing countries not adequately used because the setup of spatial data infrastructure is at its infancy.
This research work represents a valuable step towards the establishment of the relationship of spectral signatures of MODIS satellite imagery and biophysical characteristics of agricultural and semi-natural ecosystems along parts of the Ethiopian Rift Valley. Important issues regarding the assessment of multi-temporal dynamics of the encroachment of protected areas by livestock are systematically investigated by analyzing the monthly animal feed shortage or surplus as detected by MODIS imagery. Easy-to-handle empirical formulae and extended models of respective calculation are provided. The trend of degradation of ecologically important areas is accurately mapped and the annual net loss is calculated.
Experts and stakeholders in natural resources management, in remote sensing and GIS with special regard to assessment of land degradation and sustainable land management as well as policy makers dealing with environment governance and students aspiring to become experts in natural resources management and remote sensing and/or GIS for ecological regional development may find this book useful for enlarging their methodological as well as practical level of knowledge.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Chapter 1 15
1 Introduction 17
1.1 Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Management 17
1.2 Alteration of Ecosystems and its Consequences in the Ethiopian Rift Valley 18
1.3 Aim and scope of the study 20
1.3.1 Conceptual Framework of the Study 20
1.3.2 General Objective 20
1.3.3 Specific objectives 21
1.4 Organisation of the Dissertation 21
Chapter 2 23
2 The Evolution and Revolution of Remote Sensing
and GIS for Nature Conservation 25
2.1 Historical Development of Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in Conservation 25
2.1.1 History of Remote Sensing 25
2.1.2 History of GIS 27
2.2 Mapping for Monitoring and Conservation of Natural Ecosystems 28
2.2.1 The Emergence of Remote Sensing and GIS as a Major Tool for Ecosystems Monitoring 28
2.2.2 Mapping Habitat Ranges in GIS 32
2.2.3 Distribution of Migratory Species Rich Localities and their Conservation Status 34
2.3 Conservation Status of Migratory Species Rich Ecosystems 37
Chapter 3 39
3 Social and physical attributes of the study area 41
3.1 Location of the Study Area and Its Extent 41
3.2 Physical Attributes 42
3.2.1 Climate 42
3.2.2 Hydrology 43
3.2.3 Soils 44
3.2.4 Vegetation 44
3.3 Wildlife and Tourism 45
3.3.1 Protected Areas 45
3.3.2 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) 47
3.4 The Socio-cultural and Economic Situation of Abijjata Shala National Park and its Surroundings 47
3.4.1 Population 47
3.4.2 Farming Systems and Land Use 49
3.4.3 Relationship of the Inhabitants to the Protected Area System 49
3.4.4 Government Policies and the Natural Ecosystem 49
Chapter 4 51
4 Data Organization and Methodology 53
4.1 Materials Used 53
4.1.1 Satellite Imagery 53
4.1.2 Topographical Maps 57
4.1.3 Digital Elevation Models (DEM) 58
4.1.4 Metrological Station Data and Climate Map Formation 58
4.1.5 Field Surveying 62
4.1.6 Ecological Important Areas 65
4.1.7 Livestock Data 66
4.2 Pre-Classification of Digital Image Processing 66
4.2.1 Radiometric and Atmospheric Correction 66
4.2.2 Temporal Normalisation 70
4.2.3 Geocoding and Georeferencing 72
4.2.4 Topographic Normalisation 72
4.2.5 Tasselled Cap Transformation 75
4.2.6 Thermal Bands for Use in Land Cover Classification 75
4.3 Land Cover Classification Methods and Their Applicability to this Study 77
4.3.1 Deterministic Classification 77
4.3.2 Fuzzy/Soft Classification 81
Chapter 5 83
5 Multi-Temporal and Multi-Scale Land Cover Classification and Biophysical Information Extraction by Means of Low-Cost Remote Sensing 85
5.1 Results of Land Cover Classification 85
5.1.1 Derivation of Land Cover Classes from MODIS Datasets 85
5.1.2 Classification of Landsat Imagery 88
5.2 Accuracy Assessment 90
5.3 Procuring Biophysical Information through Low-Cost Remote Sensing 92
5.3.1 Spectral Characteristics of Plant Leaves 92
5.3.2 Estimating Leaf Area Index for Wide Area Coverage 94
5.3.3 Establishing Empirical Relation Ship Between
Remote Sensing Variables and LAI 95
5.3.4 MODIS-LAI Product 103
5.3.5 Standing Biomass and NPP Estimation through Low-Cost Remote Sensing Products 103
5.3.6 Assessing the Potential Productivity by Means of Remote Sensing Variables and Physical Attributes of the Area 108
5.4 Summary and Discussion 116
Chapter 6 119
6 Livestock Centred Land Use and
the Natural Ecosystem 121
6.1 Local and National Perspectives of Priorities of Land Use 121
6.2 The Land Cover Dynamics in and around the ASLNP 122
6.2.1 Land Cover Change Process 122
6.2.2 Major Land Use/ Land Cover Change Driving Forces 126
6.3 Identification of Critical Sites for Conservation around the
Semi-natural Ecosystems in the Zeway-Awassa basin 126
6.3.1 Geographic and Topographic Distribution of Important Changes in the Landscape 126
6.3.2 Multivariate Gradient Analysis 128
6.4 Remote Sensing of Livestock Based Farming System: The Issue of Land Suitability and Carrying Capacity of Semi-Natural Ecosystem 129
6.4.1 Distribution of Livestock in the Study Area 130
6.4.2 Daily Average Feed Requirement in the Rift Valley 134
6.4.3 Land Suitability Assessment 134
6.4.4 The State of Other Protected Area Networks 136
6.4.5 Carrying Capacity of Livestock in and around Protected Areas 137
6.4.6 Carrying Capacity of Land Cover Classes 138
6.5 Environmental Implications of Land Cover Changes
and Livestock Impact 139
6.6 Summary and Discussion 140
Chapter 7 143
7 Overall Conclusions, Discussion and Recommendations 145
7.1 Conclusions and Discussion 145
7.2 Limitation of the Study 149
7.3 Recommendations and Outlook for Future Studies 150
7.3.1 Remarks on Strategic Approaches to Save ASLNP 150
7.3.2 Suggestions to Preserve the IBAs 150
7.3.3 Institutional Coordination 151
7.3.4 Limits of Spatial Technology Adoption for Nature Conservation 151
7.4 Indications for Further Studies 152
8 References 153
9 Appendices 167
Technical complexities and the high cost of satellite images have hindered the adoption of remote sensing technology and tools for nature conservation works in Ethiopia as in many developing countries. The terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Abijjata Shala Lakes National Park (ASLNP) and the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) around the park are considered to be one of the most important home ranges for birds. However, little is known about the effect of land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics, due to lack of technical know how and logistical problems. However, it has been shown in this study that sophisticated image management works are not always relevant. Instead a simple method of utilizing the thermal band has been demonstrated. A new approach of long-term dynamics analysis method has also been suggested. A successful classification of images was achieved after such simple enhancement tests. It has been discovered that, there were more active LULC change processes in the area in the first study period (1973 to 1986) than during the second study period (1986-2000). In the first period nearly half of the landscape underwent land cover change processes with more than 26% of the entire landscape experiencing forest or land degradation. In the second period the extent of the change process was limited to only 1/3 of the total area with a smaller amount of degradation processes than before. During the entire study period, agriculture was responsible for the loss of more than 4/5 of the total terrestrial productive ecosystem. More than 37.6% of the total park area has been experiencing this loss for the past 3 decades. Only 1/5 of this area has a chance to revive, the remaining has undergone a permanent degradation. Lake Abijjata lost half of its size during the past 30 years. In the Zeway-Awassa basin 750 km², 2428km² and 3575km² of terrestrial lands and water bodies are within a distance of 10km, 20km and 30km from IBAs respectively. There are ecologically important areas where two or more IBAs overlap. In areas where more than two to five IBAs overlap, up to 85km² of areas have been recently degraded. High livestock density is one of the reasons for degradation. Using a monthly MODIS data from 2000-2005 and a series of interpolation techniques, the productivity of the area as well as the standing biomass were estimated. Moreover, a new method of spatially accurate livestock density assessment was developed in this study. Only 0.3% of the park area is found to be suitable for productive livestock development but nearly all inhabitants think the area is suitable. Feed availability in ASLNP is scarce even during rainy seasons. Especially the open woodlands are subject to overgrazing. Such shortage forces the inhabitants to cut trees for charcoal making to buy animal feed and non-food consumables. While more than 95% of the inhabitants in the park expanded their agriculture lands, only 13.3% of the farmers managed to produce cereals for market. The application of low cost remote sensing and GIS methods provided ample information that enables to conclude that low productivity and household food insecurity are the main driving forces behind land cover changes that are negatively affecting the natural and semi-natural ecosystems in the central and southern Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The restoration of natural ecosystems or conservation of biodiversity can be achieved only if those driving forces are tackled sustainably.
