Land Use/Cover change detection of the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia using remote sensing and geographic information system technology

Information about changes in land use/cover provides valuable insights while devising future natural resource management strategies. Remotely sensed data, serve as an effective tool for deriving this kind of information. Landsat Thematic Mapper images of 1987 and 1999 were used to extract land use/cover change of the city of Addis Ababa and the surrounding area. Analysis of the multitemporal Landsat images has clearly revealed the loss of forest to urban and residential sprawl within the city limit and the surrounding area.