John S' Latham,

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Land Cover Mapping Ethiopia A Multi-Purpose
Database on Environmental Resources An
Incremental Benefit for Management of Natural
Resources
John S. Latham, Head Environmental Assessment
and Monitoring Unit Environment , Climate and
Bioenergy Division Dept. of Natural
Resources UNFAO
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LC Contribution to the Area Frame Analysis and
Next Steps

• The Central Statistic Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia,
  in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and
  FAO, is carrying out an area frame survey study
  in the country to improve the quality and
  reliability and timeliness of agricultural
  statistics.
• Detailed and accurate land cover information
  contributes at improving analysis result.
• FAO methodology produces a land cover database
  capable not only to improve the area frame
  statistical analysis, but also to provide
  national institutions with a standardized,
  multi-purpose product useful for several
  environmental and agricultural purposes.

3
Present Task long awaited L/C product for
Ethiopia

• Built on original commitment from UNFPA/DFID
  for New Satellite High Resolution Coverage of
  Ethiopia at 5m res.
• Basis for the creation of what will become one of
  the largest and most detailed databases of
  Environmental Information in Africa through the
  initiation of a new land cover product initiated
  for pilot testing in Amhara and Oromia Regions
• 40 of the country by end project in Nov 2009
• 750 tiles circa

• Production chain dev. in January

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Why the need of dynamic land cover
information at the global level Changing
world, emerging issues and increasing
anthropogenic pressure onland ecosystems

• Between 1960 and 2005 in the world
• population almost x 2
• world economy x 3,5
• production of grains more than x 2
• production of fuelwood x 2.5, of sawnwood x 3
• In 2010
• population over 7 billion increase gt 20 in 10
  years( mainly in
• developing countries), as a consequence,
• need to increase world food production by 1,8
  / year
• intensification of agriculture /alternatives
• an additional 90 million ha may be brought into
  agriculture
• (deforestation 13 million ha / year)
• Poverty 1.2 billion
• Under nourished 800 million
• Ethiopia has more than its share of problems
  related to the above issues.

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Land Cover Information Relevance at the National
Level

• Increasing concerns about
• food security for growing population
• environmental degradation including the loss of
  biodiversity
• climate change accompanied by growing frequency
  of natural disasters
• Poverty, food insecurity and environment
  degradation are interlinked
• Baseline natural resource information
• an important component for addressing
• the issues and developing operational
• solutions

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Summary of relevance of Land Cover

• Land cover is the most important element for
  description and study of the environment
• The main resource controlling primary
  productivity for terrestrial ecosystems can be
  defined in terms of land (and its cover)
• Land cover is the easiest detectable indicator of
  human interventions on the land
• Land cover is a critical parameter for
  environmental databases
• Land cover changes quickly over time

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UNIQUE SOURCE OF BASIC ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
Standardization process - Comparability-
Increasing efficiency Cost reduction - Easy to
update - Conform international standards
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National Mapping of Ethiopia

• Example of national mapping by object-based
  methodology and using SPOT 5, 10 meter resolution
  
• Important contribution for the national map with
  an high level of detail
• Important contribution for statistical AF
  analysis.
• Important contribution for multipurpose further
  applications
• Important contribution to fill the regional gap
• Important national inter-Agencies/Institutions
  collaboration/interchanges (MoARD, EMA, INSA,
  CSA) together with the international community
  (FAO, EU, UNEP) UN donors

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Land Cover - multi-purpose info for multi-user

• Land cover information in support of
• Assessing progress made towards conventions and
  treaties UNFCCC, UNCCD, UNCBD, RAMSAR
• Quantifying and understanding how policy impacts
  the composition and configuration of the various
  land cover over time
• Measuring agricultural, urban, forestry expansion
  and the concomitant loss of natural ecosystems
  and related services- land cover
  change/degradation - LADA
• Prioritizing activities (e.g. reforestation) to
  address multi- objectives (e.g. biodiversity,
  P.E.S.)
• Assessing the magnitudes and distributions of
  global carbon sources and sinks and the processes
  controlling their dynamics e.g. updating
  biomass assessment inc R.E.D.D
• Holistic and integrated approach to the
  conservation and sustainable use of land
  resources taking into account their multiple
  roles and functions.

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Why do we need standards...?
Area estimates 11 cover types, different global
datasets
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Land Cover and LC Change applications

• Planning (Land Use and Planning, Development
  Activities Planning, Land Degradation Assessment)
• Education
• Research (Activities within Research Institutions
  and Universities)
• Water (Watershed Management, Conservation,)
• Agriculture (Soil and Land Conservation, Crop
  Statistics Monitoring, Fire Monitoring/
  impacts)
• Environment (Forestry Biomass REDD MRV
  Biodiversity, Wildlife, Sensitive Areas, etc.)
• Monitoring (Food Security, Early Warning)
• Health (Habit of vector borne diseases etc.)
• Other Application

• Change analysis for
• Agricultural (expansion/reduction)
• Natural Vegetation (expansion/reduction)
• Urban (expansion/reduction)
• Land degradation
• Updating Biomass assessment
• Support to REDD - MRV
• Soil Carbon Gap

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Change Assessment (LADA) Agric, Forestry and
Urban Change
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Change Assessment Senegal (LADA) and potential
emulation in Ethiopia

• Within the Land Degradation Assessment (LADA)
  framework, an analysis of land cover changes in
  Senegal was carried out. The analysis covered 60
  land cover classes present in the Senegal 2005
  Land Cover legend.
• Particular attention was given to the most
  sensitive areas such as forest, agricultural land
  and urban areas, using images taken in two dates
  1990 and 2005.
• The 1990's Landsat TM images have been compared
  with the 2005 Landsat ETM set, and whenever a
  change was detected, a polygon to delimitate the
  change was drown and labelled.

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Change Assessment Senegal (LADA)
Proportional symbols map of Senegal representing
Agricultural area increase and loss.
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Change Assessment Senegal (LADA)
Proportional symbols map of Senegal representing
Natural Vegetation area increase and loss.
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Change Assessment Senegal (LADA)
Proportional symbols map of Senegal representing
Urban areas increase.
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Change Assessment Senegal (LADA)
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Land use Planning - LRIMS
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Land use Planning - LRIMS

• to support the planning and development of the
  agricultural sector and strengthen the
  conservation efforts, and sound-use of the land.
• potential establishment of a Land Resources
  Information Management System (LRIMS) aimed at
  deriving agricultural-specific indicators through
  the analysis of the multi-disciplinary database
  information.
• LRIMS could assist in conducting the assessment
  of land suitability and for modeling land
  responses to agricultural policies

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LRIMS Modules

• LUT module

• Climate module

• Water module

• Soil module

• Topography module

• Vegetation/LC module

• Crop module

• Socio-Economic module

• LES module

• Reporting module

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LRIMS Land Evaluation Suitability Module

• Generates the Final Yield grid for a certain crop
  (Maximum Potential Yield - Total Yield
  Reduction). Hence suitability ratings are
  assigned for Final Yield classes, thus LES maps
  can be created for different crops.

The factors governing Land Evaluation Suitability
(soil, water quality, topography, LUT,
vegetation/LC, and socio-economic) are presented
in the form of constraints which affect a crop
yield through yield-reduction percentages, where
each factor (constraint) is studied individually
as a classified layer (grid) and its
yield-reduction percentage is determined for each
of its classes.
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Fire Disturbance and its relevance to Land Cover
Change and Environmental Degradation
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Carbon emissions by sector
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Ethiopia Active Fire Data
Monthly statistics for period 2000-2009
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Ethiopia Active Fire Data
Statistics by 1st Administrative level for period
2000-2009
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Ethiopia Active Fire Data
Statistics by Land Cover (Globcover) for period
2000-2009
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Ethiopia Active Fire Data
2008
51550 fires detected
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Time frame

• Completion of two provinces by Nov 2009
  improved methodology for acreage estimation
• Additional Donor Support Requirements
• Completion of the rest of the country 60
  essential - additional 14 mths (additional 1200
  tiles circa total 2000).
• Importantly a single data assessment can form the
  basis of a critical land cover change programme
  to assess inter alia land degradation et. al
  detail.- plus 14mths.
• Once completed multiple additional benefits to
  support P,E.S. requirements e.g. REDD Carbon seq
  potential est. et al... plus 12mths approx
• Very important at this stage to have the donor
  community support for the products completion and
  its specific application development

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• Thank-you

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Forest Fire Detection and Impact by Land Cover
type
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Ethiopia Active Fire Data

• Information on vegetation fires is important for
  many different applications
• policy formulation
• strategic land management
• detection and early warning
• restoration planning
• preparedness and prevention
• ecological monitoring
• modelling fire emissions
• validating fire risk maps

FAO-NRCE is actively contributing to the
monitoring and detection of wildfire through the
Fire Information for Resource Management System
(FIRMS). source MODIS active fire data
provided by the MODIS Rapid Response System.
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Potential for Sequestration- Estimating Soil
Carbon Gap Methodology
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Potential for Sequestration- Estimating Soil
Carbon Gap Methodology
Input variables
C A L C U L A T I O N
M O D E L L I N G
Model based on the methodology for Global
Conditions for Soil Carbon Sequestration from
FAO
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Estimating Soil Carbon Gap Sofa 2007