Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Biodiversity Habitat Loss and Fragmentation at Gugu Mountain Ranges, South East Ethiopia.

Year 2020, , 54 - 63, 26.04.2020

Demissie Mallie , Kefelegn Getahun Chernet Tesfaye Debela Duguma

https://doi.org/10.30897/ijegeo.624488

Cited By: 1

Abstract

This study was aimed at assessing afro-alpine
and sub-afro-alpine biodiversity habitat loss and fragmentation of Gugu
Mountain Ranges using geospatial techniques. Satellite imageries, key
informants and field observation were the major sources of data. The land sat
images of 1989, 2001 and 2019 were used to compute change and fragmentation
level. ERDAS IMAGINE 2014, ArcGIS 10.4 and FRAGSTAT version 4.2 was used to
process data. Image differencing (extent and rate of change), normalized
difference vegetation index (NDVI), and area, shape, and aggregation metrics
were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that a decline in greenness
value and shrinking of afro-alpine and sub-afro-alpine habitat by 1.49% between
1989 and 2001, and 2.62% between 2001 and 2019. Due to this, the total area
covered declined from 3540.65 to 1846.98 hectares over the last 30 years.
Moreover, the result further revealed that not only decline in size but also
there were habitat fragmentations in the study area.

Keywords

Biodiversity, Geospatial Techniques

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