2009 Ethiopia Projects

Ethiopian Wolf Habitat Suitability

Project Website - Phil Bissel and Chad Young

The goal of this GIS project is to, using the remote sensing derived land cover vector file covering Ethiopia and the Ethiopian wolf literature, spatially show potentially suitable habitat for the wolf that could be subsequently used for conservation planning.

Human Population to Climate Change in Ethiopia

Project Website - Kelly Hopping and Greg Wann

Climate Climate-induced human population displacement is likely to be a major source of future conflict. Therefore, it is important to begin quantifying indices of climate parameters that are favorable to human settlement so that we may begin to make projections about how human populations may shift spatially in response to predicted climate changes. We used a multiple linear regression approach to determine the relationships between climatic and topographic factors and current human population density distributions. We used multiple regression model using current population density data from 2000 as a dependent variable and a suite of current climate condition variables (average of BIOCLIM climate variables from 1950-2000) as the explanatory variables. The model we developed was then applied to future climate scenarios in 2020 and 2050 to estimate the likely distribution of humans under those projected conditions. This allowed us to identify the environmental (climate) factors that best predicted areas of population density when the model was fitted to modeled climate scenarios.

Assessing climate change variables for Ethiopian crop selection

Project Website - Brent Barker and Zan Rubin

Our project seeks to use 2050 predictions from a global climate model (GCM), specifically the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma) model, to benefit Ethiopian agriculturalists in crop selection based on predictions of precipitation and temperature. The objective is to analyze data from the CCCma model under two different future greenhouse gas emission scenarios (A2 and B2) and produce a map that displays regions of Ethiopia that are predicted to have appreciable changes in precipitation and temperature from current conditions. The goal is to quantify future precipitation and temperature ranges in order to assist Ethiopian farmers in selecting crops that will be best suited for potentially different conditions due to climate change.

Apiculture in Ethiopia

Project Website - Hannah Wilbur and Ben Wudtke

Apis mellifera woyi-gambella is a newly identified subspecies of honeybee that is thought to be endemic to the southeastern region of Ethiopia (Amssalu et al. 2004). This area, like many others in Ethiopia, has been cleared of much of the natural habitat necessary for honeybee foraging. Restoring this habitat will not only benefit the honeybees, but will increase production of honey from hives, in turn creating profit for families that would otherwise not have an income source. By integrating information about range limits and climatic restrictions of the honeybees with landscape cover using geographic information systems, we were able to define areas in the Gambella and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s regions of Ethiopia that would be suitable for restoration of A. mellifera woyi-gambella habitat.

People versus elephants

Project Website - Michelle Kinseth and Megan Lowery

The current management status of the national parks in Ethiopia is weak at best. The land is protected, however a lack of funding, personnel, and values for protection of wildlife by the locals all contribute to the blatant poaching that has continued to occur. The management of Mago and Omo National Parks, as well as the surrounding controlled hunting grounds, falls to the SNNP government. Mago National Park is an area large enough and with enough forage and water to support up to an estimated 4,400 elephants (Demeke and Bekele 2003). With current estimates below 300 individuals there is potentially more then enough room for improvement in management of the park, the elephants, and most importantly, the people in the area. We propose, through GIS Analyses, to provide the SNNP government with optional areas that can be incorporated into the current national park system to increase available elephant habitat and potentially increase ecotourism as it relates to elephant and other wildlife viewing activities.

Fire and Erosion in Ethiopia's Afroalpine

Project Website - Kate Cueno and Brock Bowles

Our analyses are based on the premise that human-caused burning is now a part of the ecological disturbance process of the alfroalpine shrub community. However, with increased population and grazing pressures, it is judicious to identify those areas of greatest concern for negative consequences as a result of fire. We found that the timing of burn is an important consideration. Burning too late in the dry season likely creates the opportunity for more damaging fires and more damage following fires. Monsoonal rains on recently burned areas could create great amounts of soil loss and greater opportunity for soil and vegetation damage by grazing cattle.

Changes in Ethiopian Vegetation

Project Website - Alan McKisson and Carl Reeder

A survey for the presence and change in vegetation cover can be accomplished with the combination of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems. Remote sensing is a favorable survey tool due to the efficiency intrinsic to this kind of sampling and the variability associated with vegetation cover from year to year (Schott 1997). Identifying vegetation in remote sensing images may be achieved through a number of calculations in combination with multiple formats of remotely sensed images (Bolstad 2005). For this baseline analysis we used satellite imagery from landsat5 and landsat7 from the years 1987 and 2000. In order to compare these images we used the normalized difference vegetation index. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index or NDVI is a method of image analysis, which identifies the presence of vegetation based on the normalized difference between different reflectance values in the image (NASA 2009). Two NDVI maps were produced as a result of this study; one for the 01/01/1987 dataset and one for the 02/14/2000 dataset.

Error and Resampling in GIS

Project Website - Jia Ling and Samantha Stiffler

We illustrated the concept of error in geographic data. Specifically, we focused on resampling, georeference, temporal, and human errors. In the realm of GIS, we feel that too often users adopt datasets without questioning the accuracy of their data. Consequently, decisions made based on uninformed errors may lead to poor decision making and is just bad science. Therefore, we decided to study two frequently used datasets produced by the USGS: National Elevation and National Hydrography Datasets. We investigated how well the two datasets corroborated with each other. Needless to say, the two datasets did not match well and hence our discussion on error propagation found in GIS data. Identifying how error and uncertainty may have occurred can be beneficial so that error may be managed and possibly reduced, ensuring that projects produce accurate results that are reliable for effective decision making.

Soil Erosion Potential in the Bale National Park and Resulting Recommendations for Vegetation Protection

Project Website - Molly Thomas and Greg Holman

We were interested in creating a project in GIS for the Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia that could be useful on many scales and across landscapes. Soil degredation is a global problem and is particularly problematic in countries that are highly dependent on agriculture. GIS is a great tool for looking at this type of problem due to its ability to handle large datasets and expedite what could, in other venues be very lengthy calculations of slopes and related parameters having to do with hillslope stability. For this project we modeled slope stability as a factor of slope, soil type, hydrology and vegetation to determine some priority areas for protection to reduce erosion in the area of the Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia.

Morphometric Analysis of Ethiopia Water Drainage Basins

Project Website - Khaled Amrouni and Warren Newby

We were interested in creating a project in GIS for the Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia that could be useful on many scales and across landscapes. Soil degredation is a global problem and is particularly problematic in countries that are highly dependent on agriculture. GIS is a great tool for looking at this type of problem due to its ability to handle large datasets and expedite what could, in other venues be very lengthy calculations of slopes and related parameters having to do with hillslope stability. For this project we modeled slope stability as a factor of slope, soil type, hydrology and vegetation to determine some priority areas for protection to reduce erosion in the area of the Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia.

Updated: August 29, 2009 © 2009 All Rights Reserved.
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80522 USA