Abstract

Land Use Land Cover change is the phenomenon that driven by human activities as the result of socio-economic factors over the years. The intensive agricultural activities and settlement expansion were the major causes of land cover change that to satisfy the projected population number of the country in general and local area in particular. This study aims to assess the land use changes of Lower Jemma Sub-Basin using the remote sensing data downloaded from Landsat 4-5 TM C1 Level-1 and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS C1 Level-1 from USGS. Image processing, classification accuracy assessment has undertaken using Global Mapper 15 and ArcMap 10.8 by using 251 Ground Control Points. The major Land Use Land Cover change identified was bush and shrubs, forest land, agricultural land and residential area. The main factors that responsible for this finding is urban and rural residential/settlement expansion which results from arise of population number. Consequently, forest was 33.7% in 1985 and it declined to 28.8% in 2010 while agricultural land also increased from 32.6% in 1985 to 35% in 2021. The residential/settlement land was increased from 15.6% in 1985 to 17.8% in 2021 and bush and shrubs also increased from 18.1% in 1985 to 18.5 in 2021.

Key Words:  Jemma Sub-Basin, Land Use Land Cover, Remote Sensing, Satellite Image, Landsat satellite, Change Detection