
Abeyou Wale WorqlulInternational Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
Abeyou Wale Worqlul
Doctor of Philosophy
About
98
Publications
115,632
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Introduction
Currently, I am working on water and fertilizer use efficiency of vegetables and groundwater irrigation potential.
Additional affiliations
July 2015 - July 2015
August 2011 - July 2015
August 2011 - present
Education
August 2006 - May 2008
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
Field of study
- Integrated Watershed Modelling and Management
Publications
Publications (98)
Lake Tana's flow system is governed by four main components: the inflow from surrounding river catchments into the lake, the outflow at Bahir Dar through the Blue Nile, the direct rainfall on the lake and the direct evaporation from the lake. While recent studies applied simple pragmatic approaches to estimate runoff from ungauged catchments, here...
Accurate predictions of hydrological models require accurate spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall. In developing countries, the network of observation stations for rainfall is sparse and unevenly distributed. Satellite-based products have the potential to overcome this shortcoming. The objective of this study is to compare the advantages a...
This study investigates multi-dimensional impacts of adopting new technology in agriculture at the farm/village and watershed scale in sub-Saharan Africa using the Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS). Application of IDSS as an integrated modeling tool helps solve complex issues in agricultural systems by simultaneously assessing production, e...
hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/11/8013/2014/ doi:10.5194/hessd-11-8013-2014 © Author(s) 2014. CC Attribution 3.0 License. This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in HESS if available. Abstract Abstract Planning of drought relief and f...
Abstract
Study region: The Upper Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia, characterized by its complex hydrological system, is the focus of this study. The basin includes 76 gauged watersheds, which were analyzed to estimate parameters for ungauged locations using regionalization techniques.
Study focus: Regression-Based Approach (RBA), Physical Similarity App...
This study aimed to investigate the impacts of the conservation agriculture production system, CAPS, and conventional tillage production system, CTPS, on agricultural water management and soil nutrient improvement in Ethiopia. A total of 15 field experimental plots, each consisting of 100 m2; were established for the two farming systems, CAPS and C...
The present study aimed to evaluate the temporal dynamics of water stored in a reservoir using satellite remote sensing data integrated with a GIS application. The study is carried out in three reservoirs, which include Koga, Shina, and Selamko reservoirs located in the upper Blue Nile Basin. The techniques used to carry out this study have been pr...
ABSTRACT
In arid and semi-arid areas, a shortage of soil moisture limits rainfed crop growth and consequently reduces crop yield. By adding a small amount of water, supplemental irrigation can boost
crop yields dramatically. The objective of this study was to identify suitable land for supplemental irrigation in a moisture deficit area in the semi-...
In developing countries, hydrological data is one of the limiting factors for evidence-based water resources planning and management. Thus, evaluating the performance of hydrological models that require relatively simple inputs is imperative for using them in the decision-making process. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the Integrated...
Despite Ethiopia’s significant livestock population, the largest in Africa, productivity is constrained by the seasonality of feed quality and quantity. Developing improved fodder production systems can contribute to poverty reduction goals and thereby enhance social-ecological resilience through building risk buffering assets. Therefore, this stud...
Ethiopia, a densely populated country with abundant natural resources, is often hit by climate extreme disasters that cause severe damage to life and property every year in one or the other corner. The frequency and intensity of extreme events have increased in the recent decades due to climate change and variability. This study aimed to analyze th...
Understanding the hydrology of runoff source areas is crucial for predicting floods and evaluating chemical transport. Numerically modeling water fluxes in the source areas is quite complex. However, the self-organization of complex hydrological systems makes it possible to simplify watershed models by considering the landscape functions. The limit...
Soil erosion is one of the pressing environmental problem in Ethiopia Thus, identifying soil erosion hot-spot areas of a watershed/basin and isolating best management practices (BMPs) for soil erosion-prone sub-watersheds is imperative for effective soil loss reduction and lessening its on-site and off-site effects. The present study aimed to ident...
Nutrient enrichment from increased anthropogenic activities causes algal blooms and the proliferation of water hyacinth and other aquatic weeds. It is a recent phenomenon in developing nations where the link between water quality and water hyacinth infestation is not well studied. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship betwe...
Agriculture in Africa is adversely affected by the loss of soil fertility. Conservation agriculture (CA) was introduced to curb the loss of soil fertility and water shortages and improve crop productivity. However, information on how CA practices enhance soil quality and nutrients is scarce in the sub-Saharan Africa context. The objective of this s...
The hydrology of mountainous watersheds in the western United States is significantly influenced by snow year‐round. It is widely known that topography affects precipitation; however, the knowledge of how watershed rainfall designation methods affect streamflow is not well understood for high‐relief areas. The objectives of this study were to asses...
This study was aimed to evaluate the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) model for estimating soil loss and sediment export in data scarce regions of the Abbay (Upper Blue Nile) Basin, Ethiopia with a case study in the Andassa and Koga watersheds. Inputs maps required for InVEST SDR such a...
Livestock is an integral part of the agricultural system in sub-Saharan Africa, serving as a food source, income, fertilizer, and power for farming and transportation. However, the productivity of the livestock system has been hampered due to a lack of sufficient quantity and quality feed. This study evaluates the gaps and constraints of fodder and...
This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of best management practices (BMPs) to reduce soil erosion in Gumara watershed of the Abbay (Upper Blue Nile) Basin using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The model was calibrated (1995–2002) and validated (2003–2007) using the SWAT-CUP based on observed streamflow and sediment...
APEX (Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender) is an oft-used agroecosystem model but has limited use in groundwater-driven watersheds due to a simplistic representation of groundwater processes. This paper presents the linkage of APEX and the groundwater flow model MODFLOW into a single modeling code. The mapping of recharge, groundwater head,...
Drought is one of the least understood and complex natural hazards often characterized by a significant decrease in water availability for a prolonged period. It can be manifested in one or more forms as meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and/or socio-economic drought. The overarching objective of this study is to demonstrate and character...
Sub-Saharan Africa has long been beset with food insecurity. Investment in small-scale irrigation may provide a solution to address the challenge by extending crop production into the dry season. We present an agent-based modeling system to assess the potential of dry-season small-irrigation development in Sub-Saharan Africa with an application to...
The livestock sector is one of the main pillars of Ethiopia's economy for its contribution to agriculture and national gross domestic product (GDP). In smallholder mixed farming systems, livestock products provide nutritious food, additional emergency and cash income. Despite its importance, several constraints related to livestock production such...
Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa with 35 million tropical livestock units. The livestock system relies on natural open grazing which is affected by frequent droughts. However, little research exists that studies the suitability of the biophysical environment for fodder production and the risks due to climate change. The main...
Lakes hold most of the freshwater resources in the world. Safeguarding these in a changing environment is a major challenge. The 3000 km 2 Lake Tana in the headwaters of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia is one of these lakes. It is situated in a zone destined for rapid development including hydropower and irrigation. Future lake management requires detail...
The largest freshwater lake in Ethiopia, Lake Tana, has faced ecological disaster due to water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) infestation. The water hyacinth is a threat not only to the ecology but also to the socioeconomic development of the region and cultural value of the lake, which is registered as a UNESCO reserve. This study aims to map the...
Lake Tana is located in northwest Ethiopian highlands where intensive and traditional agricultural practice is dominant. The lake receives point and non-point sources pollutants from the surrounding cities and agricultural fields and its Trophic Status Index is shifting from mesotrophic to eutrophic condition. This condition of the lake favours the...
Assessing the potential impacts of different land management practices helps to identify and implement sustainable watershed management measures. This study aims to assess a change in soil erosion rate under different land management practices in the Gilgel Abay watershed of the upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equat...
Smallholder agriculture constitutes the main source of livelihood for the Ethiopian rural community. However, soil degradation and uneven distribution of rainfall have threatened agriculture at present. This study is aimed at investigating the impacts of conservation agriculture on irrigation water use, nutrient availability in the root zone, and c...
The frequency and intensity of flood quantiles and its attendant damage in agricultural establishments have generated a lot of issues in Ethiopia. Moreover, precise estimates of flood quantiles are needed for efficient design of hydraulic structures; however, quantification of these quantiles in data-scarce regions has been a continuing challenge i...
Water resource development opens up opportunities for improving smallholder farmer livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa; however, implementation of water resource interventions to ensure sustainability hinges on the availability of sufficient quantity and quality data for monitoring, analysis and planning. Such data is often acquired through instrumen...
Vetivergrass [Chrysopogon zizanioides (L.) Roberty] is a multi‐purpose crop that has an untapped potential for biofuel production. We conducted a field study at Temple, TX, to determine plant growth characteristics that make vetivergrass an ideal candidate bioenergy feedstock crop. Overall, the high biomass yield (avg. 18.4 ± 0.7 Mg ha⁻¹) can be at...
Water hyacinth originated from the Amazon Basin and has expanded to other parts of the world since the 1800s. In Ethiopia, the weed is affecting the socio-economic activities of the people whose livelihood is directly or indirectly dependent on Lake Tana. Still, the area covered by water hyacinth and the impact of water level fluctuation on the exp...
The increasing population has put an immense pressure on our natural resources leading to water pollution and land degradation. The need for new agricultural areas, urbanization and industrial development have been responsible for resources degradation and pollution. Eutrophication can be resulted due to substantial driven enrichment of seasonal cy...
Comprehensive spatially referenced soil data are a crucial input in predicting biophysical and hydrological landscape processes. In most developing countries, these detailed soil data are not yet available. The objective of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the detail needed in soil resource inventories to predict the hydrologic response of wa...
Understanding the impacts of land use–land cover (LULC) changes on soil erosion and sediment yield is necessary for watershed management planning purposes. This study was aimed at examining the impacts of LULC changes on soil erosion and sediment yield in the Andassa watershed during the past three decades and predicts the anticipated changes in th...
The vast majority of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa depend on rainfed agriculture for food production and livelihood. Various factors including but not limited to rainfall variability, land degradation, and low soil fertility constrain agricultural productivity in the region. The objectives of this study were to 1) estimate the water resources poten...
The severity and frequency of climate extremes will change in the future owing to global warming. This can severely
impact the natural environment. Therefore, it is common practice to project climate extremes with a global
climate model (GCM) in order to quantify and manage the associated risks. Several studies have demonstrated
that a multi-model...
Water resources in sub-Saharan Africa are more overstressed than in many other regions of the world. Experiments on commercial farms have shown that conservation agriculture (CA) can save water and improve the soil. Nevertheless, its benefits on smallholder irrigated farms have not been adequately investigated, particularly in dry monsoon phase in...
The conservation agriculture production system (CAPS) approach with drip irrigation has proven to have the potential to improve water management and food production in Ethiopia. A method of scaling-up crop yield under CAPS with drip irrigation is developed by integrating a biophysical model: APEX (agricultural policy environmental eXtender), and a...
Water hyacinth is a well-known invasive weed in lakes across the world and harms the aquatic environment. Since 2011, the weed has invaded Lake Tana substantially posing a challenge to the ecosystem services of the lake. The major factors which affect the growth of the weed are phosphorus, nitrogen, temperature, pH, salinity, and lake depth. Unders...
The increasing population has put an immense pressure on our natural resources leading to water pollution and land degradation. The need for new agricultural areas, urbanization and industrial development have been responsible for re-sources degradation and hence increase pollution. Eutrophication can be due due to substantial enrichment of seasona...
The poster was displayed at 2019 ASABE Annual International Meeting on Jul 8, 2019, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
A field-scale experimental study was conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia and Ghana) to examine the effects of conservation agriculture (CA) with drip irrigation system on water productivity in vegetable home gardens. CA here refers to minimum soil disturbance (no-till), year-round organic mulch cover, and diverse cropping in the rotation. A t...
Estimating the potential land resources suitable for irrigation and evaluating the possible impact of climate change on land suitability is essential for planning a sustainable agricultural system. This study applied a GIS-based Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) technique to evaluate the suitability of land for irrigation in Ghana for a baseline peri...
The agricultural system in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is dominated by traditional farming practices with poor soil and water management, which contributes to soil degradation and low crop productivity. This study integrated field experiments and a field-scale biophysical model (Agricultural Policy Environmental Extender, APEX) to investigate the impa...
The study clearly indicated the importance and role of conservation agriculture for a sustainable intensification of the agro-ecosystem maintaining and restoring soil health, minimum negative consequences on water quality and soil erosion, and increasing farmer’s profitability. Furthermore, the increased farmer’s profit when used to purchase supple...
The authors wish to make the following correction to their paper [1]: The second author’s name should be changed from “Yihun Dile Taddele” to “Yihun Taddele Dile”[...]
This study was carried out to undertake Land Capability Classification (LCC) for planning land uses in the Geleda watershed of the Blue Nile basin in Ethiopia. Such type of study benefit the environment, increase agricultural productivity and improve the livelihoods of the people. Slope, soil texture, soil depth, drainage, stoniness and extent of e...
Estimating the impacts of land use/land cover (LULC) changes in Ecosystem Service Values (ESV) is indispensable to provide public awareness about the status of ESV, and to help in policy-making processes. This study was intended to estimate the impacts of LULC changes on ESV in the Andassa watershed of the Upper Blue Nile basin over the last three...
Abstract: This paper studied the impacts of small-scale irrigation (SSI) interventions on environmental sustainability, agricultural production, and socio-economics using an Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS). The IDSS is comprised of a suite of models, namely the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXten...
Background: Land use/cover and climate changes have a great influence on the hydrological processes in the watershed. The impacts of land use/cover and climate change are set to increase in the future due to the increased clearance of virgin forest lands for agriculture and the rise of global warming. The way in which the future climate will intera...
This study was carried out to undertake Land Capability Classification (LCC) for planning land uses in the Geleda watershed of the Blue Nile basin in Ethiopia. Such type of study benefit the environment, increase agricultural productivity and improve the livelihoods of the people. Slope, soil texture, soil depth, drainage, stoniness and extent of e...
The study was conducted in Lake Tana Basin of Ethiopia to assess potentially irrigable areas for home gardens, water availability, and feasibility of water-lifting technologies. A GIS-based Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) technique was applied to access the potential of surface and groundwater sources for irrigation. The factors affecting irrigatio...
Hydrologic simulations of different models have direct impact on the accuracy of discharge prediction because of the diverse model structure. This study is an attempt to comprehend the uncertainty in discharge prediction of two models in the Ghatshila catchment, Subarnarekha Basin in India. A lumped Probability Distribution Model (PDM) and semi-dis...
The Upper Blue Nile basin is considered as the lifeline for ∼250 million people and contributes ∼50 Gm³/year of water to the Nile River. Poor land management practices in the Ethiopian highlands have caused a significant amount of soil erosion, thereby threatening the productivity of the Ethiopian agricultural system, degrading the health of the aq...
This study assessed the impact of climate change on water availability and variability in two subbasins in the upper Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia. Downscaled future climate data from HadCM3 of A2 (medium-high) and B2 (medium-low) emission scenarios were compared to the observed climate data for a baseline period (1961–1990). The emission scenario re...