Extraction of Information from Multispectral and PAN of Landsat Image for Land Use Classification in the Case of Sodozuria Woreda, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia

High-resolution and multispectral remote sensing images are an important data source for acquiring geospatial information for a variety of applications. The satellite images at different spectral and spatial resolutions with the aid of image processing techniques can improve the quality of information. More specifically, image fusion is very helpful to extract the spatial information from two images of different spatial and spectral images of same area. The Image fusion techniques are also helpful in providing classification accurately. In order to improve the information contents of the remote sensing satellite images at a specific spatial resolution, the different resolution image fusion techniques like Wavelet, PC and IHS have been used to combine panchromatic and multispectral datasets of Landsat ETM+ for the purpose of information extraction. The image under study has been used to identify existing Land use types and perform supervised classification. It has then been identified that forest land, farm land, bare land and built-up area are the most dominant land uses in the study area. Based on the supervised classification, classification accuracy assessment has indicated that Original image (MS) produced 83.33% overall accuracy and 0.7500 Kappa coefficient, PC fused image produced 91.67% overall accuracy and 0.875 Kappa coefficient, IHS fused image produced 86.67% overall accuracy and 0.800 Kappa coefficient, Wavelet-PC based transformation produced 91.67% overall accuracy  and   0.875 Kappa coefficient and Wavelet-HIS based  transformation produced 98.33% overall accuracy and 0.975 Kappa coefficient. Moreover, Wavelet-HIS based transformation method has produced relatively higher accuracy. Generally, based on the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient, fused images in terms of classification accuracy at the expense of information content perform by far better than the original image.

Export Barriers and Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise in Developing Countries: Case study in Ethiopian Leather Footwear Manufacturing Firms

Export is one of the most important business activities that play a significant role for economic development of nations. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the export barriers and export competitiveness of the Ethiopian Leather Footwear manufacturing firms in particular and the industry in general. Purposively, 100 respondents were selected from 15 exporting firms in the leather industry. In addition, interview was held with some top managers and owners to collect more detail information. The survey data is analyzed using factor analysis and MDS techniques. Using factor analysis, 10 conceptually linked components were empirically identified. Both factor loadings and factor score coefficient results were used to interpretation the factor analysis result. With different perceived intensity, all the export barriers such as government policy, human resource, financial, product quality, marketing knowledge and information, competition barriers are important in impeding the export competitiveness of the industry. Going by the MDS, due to different perceived intensity of the barriers, four clusters of firms were constructed. Hence, based on the topmost barriers, the management of each exporting firms need to give focus to boost the competitiveness level. This implies that policy makers of the exporting firms, the industry and the government in general need to apply differentiated approaches

Rate of Gully Expansion on Major Land Uses, the Case of Huluka Watershed, Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia

Gully erosion is among the many phenomenon which has been interweaving the socio economic and environmental issues of Ethiopians. Actions have been taken to address the problem inadequately. This study was thus aimed at determining the distribution and expansion rates of gullies on the major land cover – land uses in Huluka watershed. This was achieved through collecting historic land cover – land use data using  Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) and gully expansions  using gully assessment method called ‘Assessment of Gully Erosion Rate Through Interview and Measurements (AGERTIM)’. Field observations, discussion with elders were also employed to validate results from remotely sensed data. Accordingly, about 58km length of active (unstable) gullies with 4.7m width and 2.6m depth was registered in the study watershed. Out of this majority of the active gullies were found on lands commonly used for grazing purpose followed by on the land used for crop cultivation purpose.  Unlike the frequency, the dimensions of the gullies on crop land were found larger than the gullies on the lands used for grazing purpose. All active gullies in the watershed have showed continuous and progressive expansion in the last 30 years though the tremendous expansions were seen with in latest period 2005 – 2009 indicating exacerbating rate of gully expansion in the study area. Despite the rapid gully expansions, no any protection and treating measure was registered in the watershed.  This study has thus recommended an intervention of concerned bodies to reverse the rapid gully expansions in the study watershed. Keywords: Major Land use, land cover, critical period, AGERTIM, Gully developmen

Opportunities of Bench Terracing in Tigray, Ethiopia: Taking Land to Water Perspective

Tigray is a province with undulating topographic arrangement (with high and rugged mountains; flat topped plateau, deep gorges, river valleys and plains). This land features has been a challenge for irrigation expansion using the water resource potential in the region and it has been also a reason for keeping many rural youths landless and unemployed. The overall aim of this review is therefore to see whether bench terrace could contribute in solving the underutilization of the existed water potential and problem of rural youths. Experiences from the region and abroad has shown that bench terrace is a multipurpose structure in enhancing sloppy agricultural land technology. On top of retaining soil and water loss, bench terrace is effective in creating new cultivable land for landless and unemployed youths in areas which are suitable for irrigation by diversion of perennial rivers, spate irrigation and earthen dam farming. It can be approach of taking cultivable land in to water instead of water to the cultivable land. But, it should be clear that all sloppy land would not mean suitable for bench terracing. It needs systematic selection of suitable sloppy land in reference to the alternative irrigation water availability and also unless compensated by cultivating perennial and cash crops, the costs for intensive labor input, continuous maintenance and loss of previous vegetations are the other negative dimensions of bench terracing. Keywords: landless, irrigation, youth, bench terrace, Tigra

Review on the Roles of NTFPs for Rural Livelihood

Since the potential value and role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) was first mooted in the 1980s, there has been a tremendous escalation in research, practice, and policy interest across numerous disciplines including conservation, livelihood studies, economics, forestry, and anthropology Millions of rural and urban dwellers across the world make use of a wide diversity of forest products to fulfill several livelihood requirements, from direct household provisioning to cash income through selling no timber forest products, cultural and spiritual needs, food like fruits, leaves, roots, medicine, and construction material and as a fall back in times of emergency or a means to income diversification. All these roles are significant, and often NTFPs perform multiple functions simultaneously. Valuing NTFPs therefore requires a holistic perspective that considers these products in relation to multiple livelihood strategies, and within particular contextual settings. The context within which people operate has major implications for the seeming significance and value of NTFPs. Keywords: Harvest, Livelihood, NTFPs, Review, Rural, and Sustainabl

Water Banking for Resources Productivity and Food Security in Tigray, Ethiopia

This study was aimed to investigate the impact of water banking on resources productivity and improving food security of the rural farm households in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. It was conducted in four tabias[1] and data   was collect from 132 sample respondents, out of this 36% of them are female headed households.  The study revealed that more 75% of the respondents are still living in subsistence rain fed agricultural production though there were abundant idle resources in the dry season. This indicated that an intervention is required to increase agricultural productivity by creating market for water and expansion of irrigation during the dry season. The study also identified that participation on water bank and irrigation has a positive and significant impact on food security by increasing the income and asset holding of the farm households during the dry season. The average annual income of the water bank participants was 1703.85 birr higher than non-participants and there was also a significant difference in the mean annual expenditure of water bank participants, 8862 birr, which was significantly higher than the non-participants, 1899 birr.  The estimated result further indicated that water banking participation reduced seasonal migrations during the dry season and used as climate change adaptations.  Hence, improvement and expansions of water banking can serve as a powerful agricultural intervention to increase income, diversify livelihoods and reduce vulnerability since irrigation water creates options for extended production across the year, increases agricultural productivity, and creates employment opportunities. Keywords: water banking, food security, productivity, migration and farm households [1] tabia is the smallest administrative hierarchy in Tigray (Region-Zone-Woreda/District-tabia

Experimental evaluation of the wake characteristics of cross flow turbine arrays

One key factor in the exploitation of tidal energy is the study of interactions of turbines when working in tidal turbine farms. The Momentum Reversal and Lift (MRL) turbine is a novel cross flow turbine. The three blades rotate around a common central horizontal axis which is parallel to their own axis and perpendicular to the flow. The novelty of the MRL turbine is that it relies on the combination of both lift and momentum reversal (drag) for energy extraction. Scaled MRL turbine models of 0.164 m in diameter were used to characterise the flow in three different tidal array settings. Detailed maps of axial velocity profiles and velocity deficits downstream of the turbine are presented, enabling the visualisation of characteristic flow patterns. The results show that the MRL generates lower velocity deficits and turbulence intensities in the near wake than those associated with horizontal axis turbines. The downstream wake was not completely symmetrical which was related to the geometry of the device but also due to the flow developed in the flume. Amongst the three array configurations studied, a fence of turbines with the lowest separation provided the highest power output

Assessing Households’ Fuel Wood Tree Species Preference, The Case of Desa’a Afro Alpine Forest, Tigray

Desa’a forest is a remnant forest of northern Ethiopia, Tigray, which is currently heavily exploited for fuel wood and charcoal processing. Although the forest is gazeted to be protected area, it is not immune from illegal cutting and grazing, resulting reduction of forest cover and biodiversity loss. Hence, the study was intended to assess the species type and parts of the species mostly preferred by fuel wood collectors from the forest area. Purposive stratified random sampling technique was employed to select respondents for interviewing and questionnaire distribution. Field observations and discussion with key informants were also employed to validate the data generated.  As the result revealed,  woody vegetation species like O. europaea, J. procera and A. etibyca were the most extracted species from the forest with 62.34 % (22.85 tone/day), 13.95 % (5.11 tone/day) and 10.12 % (3.71 tone/day) coverage, respectively. More than 93% of fuel wood extraction from the forest area was only stem/ split wood part leading to whole cutting of the tree species. Hence, the species degradation on the forest area was expected to be more intensive on O. europaea, J. procera and A. etibyca than other species which invite purposive intervention by concerned body. Keywords: Desa’a , remnant forest , fuel woo