Abstract:
The LULC change over time has series of environmental problems over the entire world. LULCC
has been recognized as an important driver of climate change in Ethiopia. Particularly, an
incremental trend of LST and variation of rainfall over time has been observed in Kafta Humera
Woreda. The main objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of LULCC on LST and
Rainfall over the study region. More specifically, this study was intended to analyze land use
land cover dynamics, spatial-temporal distribution of land surfaces temperature, and the
relationship between LULCC with land surfaces temperature, and rainfall. The study has made
use of time-series satellite images (1987, 2003, and 2020) and the analysis was carried out using
supervised image classification in conjunction with ground verification. Multiple linear
regressions were applied to quantify the effects of LULCC on LST and rainfall. Accordingly, the
LULCC analysis showed that agricultural land is continuously increased during the three
comparison periods (1987, 2003, and 2020) with 11.95%, 20.86%, and 37.55% respectively. On
the other hand, woodland shows a declined trend with 56.03%, 48.66%, and 34.26% for the
years 1987, 2003, and 2020 respectively. The remaining land use land cover classes showed
fluctuations; thus, increased in one period and decreased in another period. Furthermore, the
results of regression revealed that rainfall distribution across the study region was determined
by vegetation cover with a very high coefficient of determination value of 0.6844, and 0.782 in
the year 2003 and 2020 respectively. This shows that the rainfall distribution over all of the
study regions has a strong relationship with vegetation cover. To this end, it can be said that the
distribution of rainfall patterns over Kafta Humera Woreda relatively follows the existence of
vegetation cover. According to the regression analysis, NDVI and LST have a negative
correlation across the entire study region. This means that high NDVI values correspond to low
LST values; thus, increasing vegetation cover will reduce the LST condition in the study region.
This study was focused on analyzing the current issues of land use land cover impact on LST and
rainfall in the study region. The forthcoming research may look at what will happen after certain
years in the future; predicting the future trends of LST based on the current land use land cover
dynamics.
