Impact of land use land cover change onwoody species Diversity in gechi district of buno bedele zone, Southwest ethiopia

Abstract

Globally, the alarming rate of deforestation and land use land cover changes are among the most significant drivers of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. The study area has been influenced by rapid population growth, agricultural land expansion, deforestation, and poor management practices. This research aimed to assess the impact of land use and land cover changes on woody species diversity within the area. The study utilizing the cross-sectional research design. The study corporate both primary and secondary data including satellite imagery from 1983,1993,2003,2013 and 2023 sourced from USGS.A multi stage random sampling techniques was employed. The accuracy of LULC maps demonstrated a categorization accuracy between 85% and 93% with kappa coefficient exceeding 0.8, indicating strong agreement with the ground truth data.