| Abstract: | The highlands of Ethiopia suffer much from environmental degradation. Funded by the European Union, an interdisciplinary team carried out research using geographical information and remote sensing technology to analyse degradation and to provide support for rehabilitation planning. The degradation was analysed on a subregional scale, using 25×25 metre grids, which was an innovative and challenging aspect of the research and did justice to the high spatial variability of the area. The universal soil loss equation (USLE) was employed to assess the potential and actual erosion risk. The factors for the erosion models were derived from the basic data using expert rules. The research illustrates how a geographical information system (GIS) can play an important role in supporting rehabilitation planning at both the farm and the subregional levels. The results show the locations where rehabilitation is most urgently needed. From the results, it can be concluded that different processes are of importance at different scale levels. At the farm level, attention should be paid to the erosion protection measures used by the farmer. However, on a higher scale, factors such as the presence of towns, accessibility of the area and the presence of malaria play a role. Further research is required to study and model the influence of these factors on the environment. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
