Impacts of land use and land cover change on ecosystem service values in the Afroalpine area of Guna Mountain, Northwest Ethiopia

Tatek Belay; Tadele Melese; Abebe Senamaw

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12246

Impacts of land use and land cover change on ecosystem service values in the Afroalpine area of Guna Mountain, Northwest Ethiopia

Heliyon. 2022 Dec 9;8(12):e12246. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12246. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Authors

Tatek Belay¹, Tadele Melese², Abebe Senamaw²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, College of Social Science and Humanities, Debre Tabor University, P. O. Box 272, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
² Department of Natural Resource Management, College of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Bahir Dar University, P. O. Box 5501, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Ecosystem service changes caused by land use and land cover change (LULCC) is an important indictor and early warning of ecological changes. However, few attempts have been made to evaluate the effects of LULCC on ecosystem services in the Afroalpine highlands of Northwestern Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the impacts of LULCC on ecosystem services values in the afro-alpine area of Guna Mountain, Northwestern Ethiopia. Image classification was carried out using Landsat imageries of 1995, 2008, and 2020 following Random Forest algorithm with Google Earth Engine(GEE) based on ﬁltered sample points. A modified benefit transfer method was used to evaluate ecosystem service value (ESV) changes in response to LULCC. The results revealed that the most notable feature of LULCC in the afro-alpine area of Guna Mountain was the expansion of cropland and built-up areas at the expense of grassland, forest, and shrubland. The overall ESV of the study site was estimated at USD 46.97 × 10⁶ in 1995, USD 36.77 × 10⁶ in 2008, and USD 37.19 × 10⁶ in 2020. The net ESVs of the study site declined by USD 9.78 × 10⁶ between 1995 and 2020. The regulating service values accounted for the greatest share, accounting for over 42% in all periods, followed by provisioning and supporting service values, which accounted for over 29% and 13%, respectively, while cultural services accounted for the smallest amount of the total ESV. The ecosystem service value of food production experienced the highest increase. However, the values of the remaining 16 types of ecosystem services declined with varying degrees of reduction over the study periods. The results of this study is necessary for land-use planners and decision-makers who require site-specific information on impacts of LULCC on ecosystem service.

Keywords: Ecosystem service value; Google earth engine; Guna mountain; Land use land cover.