Land Degradation Assessment and Evaluation of Current Land-Uses and Soil Conservation Structures at Upper Chena Catchment, South Gondar, Ethiopia

Belayneh, Ayele Anteneh (2005) Land Degradation Assessment and Evaluation of Current Land-Uses and Soil Conservation Structures at Upper Chena Catchment, South Gondar, Ethiopia. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

A field study was conducted in Upper Chena catchment, South Gondar, Ethiopia to identify and describe major causes and extent of land degradation, to evaluate current landuse practices, and to check the quality of existing soil conservation structures, through household level socio – economic questionnaires, field surveys and soil laboratory analyses. Socio - economic data were collected from randomly selected households in the study catchment and data generated were used to identify the major causes and indicators of land degradation. Status of degradation of different landuse types, grazing land, cultivation land and forest (wood) land, was assessed using soil organic matter content, cation exchange capacity, bulk density and gully parameters. Degradation Indices were computed for grazing and cultivation lands through comparison with forest land. To evaluate the current landuse practices against the recommended one, Treatment – Oriented (TO) capability classification scheme was used taking soil depth, slope percentage and type of soil and water conservation structures as the main parameters. Quality of stone made terraces was evaluated using the WFP/MOA standard. Open nutrient cycle, poor agronomic practices, poor livestock management and inefficient utilization of soil and water conservation structures were the major identified causes of land degradation in the study catchment. The study revealed that an average of 2413 kg of biomass fuel, including dung and crop residue, was consumed per household per year. A total of 16 springs had dried in the catchment. Of the soil parameters investigated, organic matter and cation exchange capacity were higher in the forest land while bulk density was high in the grazing land. With respect to the forest land, cultivation and grazing landuse types had a degradation index of -302 % and -323 %, respectively.Based on the TO classification scheme current landuse in the catchment deviated from the recommended one by 30 %. Moreover, only 15 % of the required soil and water conservation structures were constructed, most of which were damaged, indicating that the current landuse practice is faced with land degradation. Vertical interval between successive terraces and terrace back height varied significantly from the recommended. The overall result of the research indicated that the catchment is under the threat of land degradation, necessitating appropriate technical and policy interventions before the problem is worsened.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Q Science > QE Geology
Divisions: Africana
Depositing User: Selom Ghislain
Date Deposited: 12 Sep 2018 07:42
Last Modified: 12 Sep 2018 07:42
URI: http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/5207

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