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Land use/land cover changes due to gold mining in the eastern Guji, Ethiopia: a time-series analysis based on Landsat satellite data

par Olga, Berhanu
Promoteur Shawkat Hossain, Mohammad;Satyanarayana, Behara
Co-Promoteur Giacomo, Santini
Publication Non publié, 2023-08-31

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Résumé :

The Odo Shakiso district, which is part of the eastern Guji Zone, is an important gold depositin Ethiopia, with both large-scale and small-scale mining. The district has experiencedsubstantial changes in LULC due to anthropogenic activities, leading to concerns aboutunsustainable practices. The objective of this research was to assess the LULC changes over10-year intervals from 1990 to 2020 in and around the largest gold mining site in OdoShakiso district, Ethiopia. In this study, Landsat-5 data for 1990, 2000, and 2010 andSentinel-2 imagery for 2020 were used to create LULC types. A machine-learning randomforest algorithm was employed to classify land cover classes. The findings indicate a gradualexpansion of the mining area over the study period. Moreover, notable increments inagricultural land and settlement areas were observed. The study also revealed a significantreduction in dense forest cover, decreasing from 46.53% in 1990 to 32.03% in 2020. Themain land cover conversions observed were from dense forest to sparse forest, sparseforest to dense forest, and both dense and sparse forest to agricultural land, mining areas,and settlements. The drivers of LULC change in Odo Shakiso district were found to be miningfor socio-economic purposes, population growth in the local area, and agriculturalexpansion. The results highlight the need for sustainable land use planning andmanagement in mining-affected region of the world to mitigate environmental and socialimpacts.