Colloquium: Dr. Tekle Kahsay

To understand how urban ecosystem services are provided one must understand the “ecological” and “cultural” driving forces that explain how the green spaces in a particular urban morphology are structured or created. The aims of this study is to characterize the urban environment of Addis Ababa through UMTs mapping and application of UMT based land surface cover assessment. UMTs maps of 2006 and 2011 were produced by digitizing ortho-rectified aerial photographs and verified with field assessment and used as a base for surface cover analysis. Changes in UMTs and land surface cover between 2006 and 2011 have been detected, mapped and analyzed using GIS techniques. A total of 11 higher level and 35 detailed urban morphology types (UMTs) have been identified and mapped. At the higher levels UMTs in 2006, the most dominant one was agriculture covering 38%; of the total area while in 2011 residential UMTs stand out with the highest land coverage (33.3%) indicating rapid conversion of other land uses to residential category. Results of land surface cover analysis showed 12 surface cover categories. The change analysis between 2006 and 2011 revealed that the surface cover types of built structure type I, non-eucalyptus trees, dark bare-ground, light bare ground and vegetable farm have shown a positive change whereas, built structure type II, eucalyptus trees, shrub/bush vegetation, grassland and field crop cover have shown a negative change.. Therefore, characterizing the urban environment through UMTs and land surface cover analysis would provide essential information for an effective planning of green space.

Zoom link:

https://unc.zoom.us/j/99152653540?pwd=ZFp5QnQ4bFAvcnkyN1NMYmpSTGRTdz09