Karuturi Venkata Suryabhagavan

Addis Ababa University | AAU · School of Earth Sciences

Groundwater is one of the most valuable natural resources gifted to mankind, especially in surface water scarce locations. Most parts of the Ethiopia is dependent on the aminity for common needs, irrigation, etc. Lack of scientific approach in its exploitation and management makes the resource underutilized. Therefore, Remote sensing (RS) and Geogr...

Soil erosion is one of the major environmental issues in Ethiopia. In highlands, though the topography is rugged; settlements have increased in recent years even if cultivation is generally practiced on steep landforms. Deforestation and anthropogenic activities have resulted in excessive soil erosion. In this study, a webGIS-based decision support...

The concerns over landuse and landcover (LULC) change have emerged on the global stage due to realization that changes occurring on the land surface also influence climate, ecosystem, and its services. This study aimed to map the temporal dynamic of LULC patterns and LST in the Jarmet wetland in Ethiopia. The dynamics and pattern of changes for a p...

Iron plays an important role in industrial and engineering fields development of a country and as such there is an enormous demand for iron in Ethiopia. However, a search for this valuable primary mineral resource exploration remains challenging and costly. Therefore, this study aims to map iron oxide minerals using Landsat-8/operational land image...

Landslides necessitate comprehensive prediction of susceptible zones for timely intervention to mitigate any disaster. Present study at Beshilo-watershed in Amhara Regional State of Ethiopia was attempted to prepare landslide susceptibility zonation (LSZ) map and to carry out risk assessment. GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis was adopted b...

Soil erosion is a serious problem arising from agricultural intensification and other anthropogenic activities which can cause deterioration of soil fertility and productivity. This study aims to estimate total amounts of soil loss using the RUSLE and NDVI models and identify major areas of concern for management interventions through site specific...

Globally, forest habitats are threatened by human-induced deforestation and degradation. This study was aimed to assessing changes in land-use patterns in Awi Zone, Ethiopia, during the last 34 years and its relationship with land surface temperature (LST) and rainfall using digital change detection approaches. Multi-temporal Landsat imagery (1985,...

All human activities and overall development of this world center on the life substance water. Water supply at places is augmented through rainwater harvesting (RWH). Modjo needs lot of water for agriculture, livestock and human needs especially during the yearly dry season. Although several techniques are in vogue to detect apt RWH sites, their im...

Impervious surface extraction with high accuracy is important for monitoring urban expansion to sustainably manage the land resources and save the environment. In this context, use of spectral built-up indices has been extensively explored. This study examines the performance of Built-up Area Extraction Index (BAEI), Band Ratio for Built-up Area (B...

Drastic changes in the urban landscape can lead to irreversible changes in the spatiotemporal pattern of the land surface temperature (LST). The present study was aimed to map the effects of blue-green urban landscapes on LST using geospatial techniques in Addis Ababa during 2006−2021. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) was used to produce land-use...

Flood-vulnerable area identification as a measure of comprehensive flood risk management was investigated in Itang District, Ethiopia using Probability Distribution and Analytical Hierarchy Process. The former provided a best fit to the extreme value analyses. According to water discharge levels, the region was mapped at 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 year...

Several, countries are struggling to establish proper waste management systems in the context of increasing population and urbanization. Urban solid waste management system needs solid waste management technique, where presence of a sanitary landfill is vital. One of the most important issues of sanitary landfill is to identify suitable locations....

Peer Review Certificate- from Geocarto International,Taylor & Francis Group

Wetlands are one of the world's most important ecosystems threatened by man. This investigation explores the use of Landsat TM and OLI imageries with SRTM DEM for mapping them. Mapping and monitoring of wetlands is done with 86.66% accuracy. As a result, a loss of 21400 ha.yr-1 could be noted. Due to this, differences were also found in the water q...

Background Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing play an important role for near real time monitoring of drought condition over large areas. The aim of this study was to assess spatial and temporal variation of agricultural and meteorological drought using temporal image of eMODIS NDVI based vegetation condition index (VCI) and sta...

The African Civet (Civettictis Civetta Shreber, 1778) is one of the important natural animal resources of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the major producer of the Civet perineal gland secretion (known as “civet”) used extensively as a base in perfume industry. However, there is no improvement in civet farming processes in rural Ethiopia, and the farmers sti...

Background Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing play an important role for near real time monitoring of drought condition over large areas. The objective of this study was to assess spatial and temporal variation of agricultural and metrological drought using temporal image of eMODIS NDVI based vegetation condition index (VCI) and...

Deforestation is the replacement of forest by other land-use. Land-use patterns are changing fast in worldwide in relation to the human population growth and agricultural land expansion. The study deals with the status and trends of land-use and land-cover (LULC) dynamics and identification of deforestation risk zones Ankasha Guagusa, northwestern,...

Rapid exhaustion of fossil fuels followed by inherent climatic effects arising out of their use has forced the world to search for alternative energy sources. So, almost all nations including developing countries tend to harness renewable energies for the benefit of mankind. One such source is the sun offering clean and environment-friendly energy....

Global climate change, judging from the debate on the research, is one of the major concerns worldwide. Climate change causes and effects are difficult to monitor because it takes place over a long time and on global scales. Some measurements can be taken on site, but by far the climate change monitoring is done remotely. Human-induced effects on g...

Ultra low head technology developed in recent times is convenient to tap the hydro-power potential at low cost. The Ultra low head turbines can tap potential at natural streams and manmade channels/ canals for hydro-power generation. These turbines require low head (upto 5m) and can be installed on canal falls and on natural streams in series of ca...

Soil erosion is the loss of soil by physical movement of particles from a given site leading to land degradation. The present study was carried out in Huluka watershed of the Oromia regional state of Ethiopia. Land-use/land-cover (LULC) changes and their potential impacts on soil erosion during 1998–2018 were studied. Landsat 5 thematic mapper (TM)...

Land-Use and Land-cover (LU/LC) changes are the major factors influencing catchment hydrology. Thus, understanding the impact of LU/LC on recharge is important for management of water resources. The present study area is located in the central Ethiopian highlands of the Main Ethiopian Rift. The main objective of this study was to determine the LU/L...

Land surface temperature (LST) has been increasing year after year globally. The present investigation was aimed to study the impact of land-use/land-cover changes on LST in the Adama Zuria District in Ethiopia. Land-use/land-cover, LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index were extracted from Landsat TM (1989), Landsat ETM + (1999) and Landsa...

Forest is one of the major natural resources, which play vital role in maintaining the ecological balance of nature. Detection of forest degradation with remote sensing remains a challenging field of study. Over exploitation of forest resources has resulted in the depletion of the extent and quality forests resources. The present study was undertak...

Water plays a crucial role in fulfilling basic human needs, for socio-economic developments and for ecosystem services. Ethiopia is experiencing pressure on water shortage for agricultural and domestic uses. Arsi Zone frequently faces drought and crop failure due to lack of water sources. Eleven physical characteristics of the study area layers wer...

The present study was carried out in and around Gidole Town in Southern Ethiopia which is about 580 km from Addis Ababa. The main objective of the study was to prepare a landslide hazard zonation (LHZ) map by using Bivariat statistical Information Value model and to assess the slope instability in the area by using InSAR approach. For LHZ six causa...

Land surface temperature (LST) changes have been studied using different parameters and data sets to assess the heat effects in urban areas. Depending on landsat data, single window algorithm and split window algorithm are applied to generate LST output to assess the influence of urban green areas. During the present study, both these methods were...

Floods are one of the leading causes of destruction from natural disasters. Flooding causes major stresses on the economic, social and environmental regimes. Structural and nonstructural measures are applied to prevent flood hazard destruction. Meanwhile, the flooding of August 5, 2006 in Dire Dawa town demonstrated that structural measures underta...

Soil salinization is one of the most common land degradation processes, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, where precipitation exceeds evaporation. Under such climatic conditions, soluble salts are accumulated in the soil, influencing soil properties with ultimate decline in productivity. An integrated approach using remote sensing in additi...

Drought is a water related climatic natural disaster affecting wide range of environmental, biological and social factors. Short, poor and delayed rainfall in 2015 caused critical water shortage, livestock causality and decline in milk production in the pastoral areas of Ethiopia. The relationship between rainfall and vegetation indices was analyze...

The main purpose of the present study was to carry out landslide evaluation and zonation in and around Gimbi town in western Ethiopia, located about 440 km from Addis Ababa. This study was conducted following GIS-based statistical method. For hazard evaluation and zonation, nine causative factors viz., slope material, elevation, slope, aspect, curv...

Soil erosion affects land qualities and water resources. This problem is severe in Ethiopia due to its topographic features. The present research was aimed to estimate spatiotemporal changes in land-use/land-cover pattern changes and soil erosion in the Yezat watershed in Ethiopia. This study was carried out using landsat imageries of 2001, 2010 an...

Depending on the rapid growth in infrastructural developments along with the increasing of human population, quality of cities is being deteriorated globally. Assurance of environmental quality is essential for urban planning and developments. This paper presents the potential application of urban green areas as an indicator of urban environmental...

Groundwater is not uniformly distributed all over, and is limited in hard rock terrains. A case study was made to find out the groundwater potential zones in Bata River Basin, in Himachal Pradesh, India. Thematic maps of geology, geomorphology, soil, land-use/land-cover and drainage were prepared for 288 km2 study area. Digital Elevation Model (DEM...

Rising saline shallow groundwater and associated soil salinization problems are widespread especially in arid and semiarid areas. There are numerous studies on groundwater-associated salinity, but more information is required on the effects of groundwater dynamics on soil salinization. Frequent irrigation with small quantities of water is effective...

The climate variability and drought frequency over potential crop growing regions of Ethiopia during 1983−2012 were analysed. Data from 87 weather stations across the country were used for this analysis. Ethiopian agricultural activities are highly dependent on the long rainy season (June−September) rainfall, which accounts for 70% of the total ann...

Soil salinization is a major problem affecting productivity of irrigated lands in arid and semi-arid areas. Managing salinity to minimize environmental impact is a prerequisite for sustainable irrigated agriculture. The objective of this study was to assess the level of salinity in Sego irrigated farm and to map temporal and spatial distribution of...

In most of the developed countries, tourism is one of the important revenue generating sectors. However, in developing countries like Ethiopia, the tourism sector has not been developing at desired rate. One of the major means of tourism development is to promote it through multi-spectral marketing to attract people. Although Ethiopia is rich in po...

Remote sensing data and models for drought monitoring and early warnings must be validated and calibrated before they become operational to specific region and hydro-climatic conditions. The main objective of this research was to evaluate vegetation indices for agricultural drought monitoring. In order to achieve the objective of the study, a relat...

Malaria is a major global health problem, affecting 3.5–5.0 billion people worldwide with environmental factors contributing for about 70–90% of the disease-risk. Over one million cases of malaria are reported each year, out of which more than 80% is from the sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia is a predominantly malaria-prone country as about 75% of the...

Remote-sensing data acquired by satellite imageries have a wide scope in agricultural applications owing to their synoptic and repetitive coverage. This study reports the development of an operational spectro-agrometereological yield model for maize crop derived from time series data of SPOT VEGETATION, actual and potential evapotranspiration and r...

Salinization is one of the major problems of irrigated agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas, affecting productivity of agricultural lands. Managing salinity to minimize its environmental impact is a pre-requisite for the long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture. Major objectives of this study were to assess the level of salinity in Sego...

Land suitability analysis is the process of evaluation of a specific area of land in terms of suitability for a defined use. Land suitability analysis for agricultural crops is an important modern step to identify suitable and sustainable land use practices in order to get optimum benefits out of the land. In the present study, physical land suitab...

Land-use patterns are changing fast in most of the tropical nations in relation to the human population growth and related impacts. Majority of the rural population in Ethiopia depends on agriculture, and hence the land-use changes during the couple of decades in rural Ethiopia are mostly linked to agricultural developments. The present study deals...

Forest fire is influenced by ecological, human and climatic factors. Forest fire directly causes biodiversity losses, forest degradation and has effect on global climate change. It has direct ecological, economic and social impacts. The present study deals with identification of fire-prone areas in Harena forest using remote sensing and GIS techniq...

Hawassa town and its surroundings have high ecotourism potential due to the presence of abundant natural and cultural resources including landscape, of the lake. The main objectives of the present study were to evaluate and identify ecotourism potential of the area using multi-criteria techniques for optimal exploitation of the area for tourism. In...

Management of complex ecosystems such as rangelands needs adequate knowledge to consider its capability for sustainable utilization. Remote Sensing and GIS techniques have developed as modern tools to integrate spatially complex and different land attributes for performing land suitability analysis. The present study was intended to analyze and map...

Abstract Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is a severe vector‐borne parasitic disease. In Ethiopia, the estimated incidence of VL ranges from 2,000 to 4,500 cases per year. Based on this, the main objective of this research was to develop an area risk map of VL and to estimate the total population at risk in Kafta Humera District, Northwestern Ethiopia....

Remote sensing and GIS have enormous applications in ecological studies, particularly in habitat analysis of wild animals. The present study was aimed to evaluate habitats of the African civet in Andracha, Ethiopia to generate geo-referenced ecological data on habitats of this species. Habitat evaluation and habitat changes during 1986–2012 were an...

Abstract: Improper land-use results in land degradation and decline in agricultural productivity. In order to get maximum benefits out of land, proper utilization of its resources is inevitable. The present study was aimed to identify land-cover changes in the study area during a period of 25 years (1986-2011) and to determine the extent and direct...

In dryland semiarid areas of Ethiopia, including large part of East Shewa zone, agricultural drought is common, and farmers inhabiting the area experiences extreme temporal and spatial variability of rainfall in cropping seasons with frequent and longer dry spells. Therefore, spatiotemporal variation of agricultural drought patterns and severity wa...

Land-use and land-cover changes have become a central component in current strategies in managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes. This paper summarizes land-cover and land-use changes at Holeta Watershed, Central Oromiya, Ethiopia for a period of 22 years. Landsat images ETM+ of the year 1984, and spot 2006 were used to iden...

The most essential issue in a resettlement process is the selection of a most appropriate site that offers best of the features required for people to lead a reasonably satisfactory life. A relocation site, therefore, must be very carefully selected considering a plethora of environmental parameters, both of bio-physical and socio-economic nature a...

This study used satellite sensor data which are consistently available, cost effective and can be used to detect the onset of drought, its duration and magnitude. Moreover, an effort has been made to derive drought risk areas facing agricultural as well as meteorological drought using eight-year time series rainfall data and dekadal satellite SPOT...

Remote sensing based study of the depositional landforms of Modern Penner Delta in Andhra Pradesh, India revealed that deltaic plain extends to about 1425 km2 of area comprising of river channel (61 km2), levee (29 km2), estuary (10.1 km2), tidal creek (13 km2), lagoon (9 km2), dune (26 km2), spit (2 km2), palaeo sand ridges (167 km2), marsh (3.2 k...

Solid waste management is the most difficult task that many countries, both developing and developed, are facing now-a-days. Landfill is one of the easy and cost-effective management systems used in many parts of the world to dispose off solid wastes. However, inappropriate location and mismanagement will result in environmental pollution and publi...

In Ethiopia, the majority of the rural population livelihood depends on agriculture. However, land degradation caused by soil erosion, overgrazing, deforestation and poor agricultural practices are undermining the very resources. Now more than ever, knowledge of the trends of landuse/landcover change and dynamics and the process of soil erosion, th...