Integrated assessment of geomorphologic process dynamics in the Ethiopian Highlands using remote sensing and advanced modelling approaches

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The overall objective of the project is the assessment of the present day geomorphic processes and the analysis of the complex system of the Ethiopian highlands in terms of its erosion sensitivity and its landscape evolution. The proposed project provides a comprehensive method assessing erosion and mass wasting features by new multisensoral high resolution remote sensing systems applicable in remote and data sparse regions. Moreover, advanced physically based modelling methods will be applied to analyze the systems dynamics and to assess the landscape evolution. The test site at the contact zone of the Ethiopian Plateau with the African Rift Valley has various symptoms of land degradation due to rapid land cover changes connected to growing population pressure in the last decades but also due to high geomorphologic dynamics. Therefore geomorphological field methods will be combined with the evaluation of advanced high resolution remote sensing data and new generations of digital elevation models forming an integrated mass wasting and soil erosion assessment approach. The time series data dates back to the mid 1960’s (CORONA) and will be extended by actual information on process relevant characteristics such as surface roughness, soil exposure, slope movement, vegetation disturbance and soil specific components like mineral composition and organic content. All these information will act as area wide input into distributed models. Finally the project will focus on the development of an integrated soil erosion and mass wasting assessment method with innovative physically based models and a non linear “graph theory” approach in order to understand the systems sensitivities and the landscape evolution processes. The latter ones are a prerequisite to understand human impacts already in prehistory.