Daniel, Alemayehu (PhD)Tamerat, Sema2020-03-062023-11-282020-03-062023-11-282019-10http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/20942Soil erosion is a common land degradation problem and has causing great damage on natural ecosystems and human life. Therefore, this study aims to asses land use/land cover change and the associated impacts on soil erosion potential in Chercher watershed by using Landsat images and ancillary data. The Analyses result show that the watershed was dominantly covered by cultivated land (52.8%), bare land (20.6%) shrubs (18%), grazing land (5.3%), forests (2.7%), settlement (0.5%) and Water body (0.2%) Since 1987 57% of land use land cover has changed. Land covers change and a heavy rainfall event in the study area has resulted in increased soil loss from 32.91 t ha -1 -1 in the year 2018. The Spatial analysis revealed that the fragmentation of forest cover from Mountainous area and disappearance of shrubs from relatively flat and moderate slope areas, increased in bare land in High slope, and intensification of cultivation practice in relatively more erosion prone soil were the main factors contributing toward the increased soil erosion potential of the watershed. The result of land use dynamics indicated that Change of other land use land cover (LULC) categories to Cultivation and bare land was the most detrimental for increase the potential of soil erosion while any transition from bare and cultivation to grass, forest and shrub radiuses and retards soil loss of the watershed. The results generated from this study recommends that awareness of spatial and temporal patterns of high soil loss risk areas can help deploy site‐specific soil conservation measures and can serve as a spatial decision support tool, and as input for decision makers and conservation planners for future intervention measures in highly affected areas.en-USGISRemote sensingLULCCRUSLE modelSoil erosionChercher WatershedThesis