Nedaw Dessie (PhD)Belay Mearg2020-11-032023-11-092020-11-032023-11-092015-06-06http://10.90.10.223:4000/handle/123456789/23004Land-Use and Land-cover changes are the major factors influencing catchment hydrology and ground water resource. Thus, understanding the potential impact of land‒use change on ground water resource particularly recharge is important for making carful management of water resources. The present study area is located in the central Ethiopian highlands at the western margin of the Main Ethiopian Rift .The main objective of this study was to determine the LU/LC change of Akaki catchment between the year1986−2015 G.C and to evaluate the impact of these land‒use and land‒cover changes on ground water recharge using a geospatial approach. To analyze the changes in area over the time, a set of satellite images was obtained for the years 1986 (TM), 2000 (ETM+) and 2015 (OLI-TIRS) and hydro meteorological data for 1986−2014 years was taken and used for the trend analysis of these factors. The methodology to evaluate land‒use and land‒cover and climate change effects on ground water recharge consists of three steps. In the first part land-cover maps of the year 1986, 2000 and 2015 were compiled by means of supervised classification method of Landsat images. Secondly, the relationship between hydro meteorological elements and ground water recharge have investigated by analyzing the temporal and spatial trend patterns of some of the hydro meteorological elements that have a great impact on groundwater recharge conditions. Trend analysis of these selected elements shows: the annual precipitation is slightly decreasing & however, it is insignificant to reduce ground water recharge. The trend of annual surface runoff and stream flow of the catchment is appreciably increasing and it causes recharge to decrease. Finally, a water balance modeling, WetSpass and GIS, was applied to estimate the past and present seasonal and annual ground water recharge. The model was run for the three different years land‒use and land‒cover maps keeping the other parameters constant hence; the result reflects impact of land‒use and land‒cover change on the ground water recharge. The simulated results of the model indicates that the mean annual ground water recharge was decreasing from 268.6 mm/y for land‒use map of 1986 to 264.9 mm/y and 260 mm/y for land−use maps of 2000 and 2015, respectively. Study outputs indicated that ground water recharge in the catchment did not change significantly. However, land‒use and land‒cover had remarkable variation in the period between1986 to 2015. This result provides a better understanding of the spreading situation of Akaki catchment which would support decision making process to control the ground water conditions.enGisRsAkaki CatchmentGround Water RechargeWetspassSurface RunoffThesis