Spatiotemporal Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) Dynamics and Its Drivers in the Melokoza District, South Ethiopia

Studies on land use and land cover changes are essential for predicting future trends and determining natural resource management decisions and the appropriate and precise detection of land use and land cover change is indispensable for obtaining detailed information. In this study, a purposive sampling technique was used for descriptive purposes. Geospatial approaches are powerful tools for analyzing these changes, offering precise, cost-effective, detailed, and advanced insights. This study focused on understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use, land cover, and its drivers in Melokoza, utilizing Landsat images from 1993, 2013, and 2023, with a resolution of 30 m. Through supervised classification using the maximum likelihood method, this study identified six distinct land uses and land covers: forest, settlement, agriculture, shrubland, bare land, and water bodies. The findings revealed significant transformations, with a dramatic shift from natural forests to agriculture and settlements, which are driven by increasing human demands. Over the past three decades, forest and shrubland cover dropped to 29.89% and 12%, respectively, while settlement and agriculture increased by 154.6% and 231.9%. This transformation underscores the pressing need to address the conversion of formerly forested and shrub-covered areas into vibrant farming and settlement areas. To safeguard the stability and sustainability of our natural resources and ecosystems, stakeholders must focus on the pace of land use and land cover changes, mainly the deforestation linked to agricultural expansion and settlement growth.