Birhanu Girma (PhD)Kalkidan Gedefaw Arega2024-04-042024-04-042023-11-01https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/2716The most visible kind of global environmental change happening at spatial and temporal scales is land use/cover (LULC). Land use is an indication of complex human activities that modify land surface processes, whereas land cover is the physical and biological cover of the land surface. Human effect on the environment is shown by the change of natural land to artificial landscapes. Therefore, the main objective of current study was identifying predictors affecting land use conversion through urbanization in Bahir Dar city, North-West Ethiopia. The study was conducted in Bair Dar City, North-West Amhara region between 2000 up to 2020. The study was carried out based on both qualitative and quantitative approaches employing spatial analysis of remote sensing and GIS techniques and survey methods. In this study both primary and secondary data sources were used via questionnaires, focus group discussions, interviews, and inspections. Satellite images, secondary documents, and standards are used to gather the secondary data sources. The results in this study indicate that urban expansion, population growth, city topography, and the increase in residential preference, political, economic and cultural centrality, activity of land brokers, informal land access, rural people migration and intended plan of the municipality significantly affected the degree of rapid land use conversion. The extent of change was 9% between the years 2000-2010. The highest rate of change occurred between the years 2010-2020 which was 25% change in land use conversions. In addition, using this study as a reference for improving the quality of life, the study recommended there should be ensured balanced horizontal expansion of the city with the integration of vertical developments, multi modal development such as resources and junction improvements at a higher density than the surrounding area, while imprinting the built-up structures; a productive green belt should be employed as a guiding structure such as considering slum areas for further development, can be considered as a solution for reduction of urban expansion and this further leads to reduce the rapid land use conversion. Key words: (GIS) Geographic information system, change assessment, urban expansion, (LULC) land use land cover, actors and predictors/factors.enThesis