Examining the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) status of Rib watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

ABSTRACTLand degradation because of the overutilization of natural resources is a suitable strategy for many countries of the world. This crucial strategy hasn’t been introduced or implemented widely enough. The present study intended to examine the status of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) for the study Rib Watershed, which covers an area of 1585 km2 and is situated in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. For the past two periods between 2000 and 2020, three indicators, such as Land Cover/Use Changes (LUC), Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), and Net Primary Productivity (NPP) metrics were primarily used to assess the LDN status of the study site. A total of 80 soil samples were then collected from the top 15 cm for six different types of LULC, including cultivated land, forest land, shrub lands, grassland, settlement, and water body. Consequently, land uses land cover matrices, NPP metric, and SOC metrics were also obtained using Land sat images, soil samples, and MODIS satellite images, respectively, for three periods of 2000, 2010, and 2020. Lastly, by integrating the three indicators and using one out all out framework, the status of LDN in the study area was evaluated. The combined findings of the study measurements showed that there was a net loss in cultivated land (123,977 ha), forest land (5623 ha), shrub lands (13984 ha), grassland (11,999 ha), water body (1056 ha) and settlement (1993 ha) for the past two decades (2000 to 2020). For the past two decades, LDN status of the Rib Watershed was generally in a net loss condition. The information delivered by the three sub-indicators is important for experts for the good recognition of their spatial distribution and types of land degradation to attain the LDN targets.