Land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics have been among the most important visible changes that have taken place everywhere in the Ethiopian landscape. Such changes are severely affecting ecosystem health including degradation of nature reserves and wild animal sanctuaries. One such nature reserve in Ethiopia is the Abijata-Shala National Park (ASNP). A digital LULC detection technique was applied by using multi-temporal satellite imagery interpretation in order to understand the landscape dynamics in the ASNP. In order to assess the state of the environment over time, four timelines associated with biodiversity loss were considered: 1973, 1994, 2000 and 2016. Supervised classifications in ERDAS imagine 2014 software and post-classification in Arc GIS software was performed. The image was classified into five major land use classes namely water bodies, grazing land, cultivated land,Acacia dominated wood land and bare land. It was observed that water bodies decreased in the first period (1973-1994) and increase in the second period (1994-2000) but fallen drastically afterwards in the third period (2000-2016). This is a pattern opposite to what we see in the cultivated land. The overall trend shows that grazing and cultivated land increase by 14% and 15% respectively while, the water bodies decreased by about 16%. The reduction of woodlands and water bodies means loss of habitat for large number of aquatic and terrestrial species of animals including endemic and migratory birds. Bare land trend shows that decrease by 1.02% in first period, increase by 0.56% in second period and decrease in third period by 4.17%. We conclude that in the park there is substantial change in LULC which could affect the biodiversity of the park.
My wife and I purchased a townhouse about a year ago, and our backyard has been beset by flooding problems ever since we moved in. The primary problem seems to be that we have a sort of "valley" in the middle of the yard, i.e., the lawn slopes away from our house, and it slopes away from a berm at the rear of our property, with both of these slopes converging in a depression in the middle of the yard. I've been trying to get some landscape designers to give me quotes on how to fix this, but it seems like everyone is pretty booked up in my area. Any ideas on how I should fix this? Note that I don't have much clearance between my house's siding and the lawn right now, so I don't think it would be feasible to build up the slope near the house and then slant it down to the rear of the property, thus filling the depression. The attached video shows what I'm dealing with. I was thinking about installing a French drain, but I'm not sure where I could run it to without flooding a neighbor's yard. Please see the video - any tips would be greatly appreciated.
In Kenya, rising water levels in lakes along the Great Rift Valley have forced thousands of people from their homes.
Video in link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-53776774/rising-water-levels-in-kenya-s-great-rift-valley-threaten-jobs-and-wildlife
