Seppe Deckers

• KU Leuven

Following two years of combat, blockade, and power outage, the Tigray war in northern Ethiopia has had a substantial negative impact on the environment (2020–2022). This photographic dataset, part of a rare study carried out by the same research team before and after a war, compares 26-year legacy data on land degradation, with post-war observation...

Wars have serious negative effects on the total environment. This study reviews 193 case studies worldwide in order to better understand these impacts and their potential management before, during and after war. The synthesis of the evidence shows that military actions damage landscape resources. Aerial bombings have great negative impacts by damag...

Dr. Mitiku Haile is Professor of Soil Science and Sustainable Land Management in the College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources (CoDANR) of Mekelle University and the Founding Father and First President of Mekelle University, Tigray, Ethiopia. He was the Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies from 1988 to 1991, and Academic Vice...

The damage to human and material resources of the Tigray universities (Ethiopia) inflicted by nine months of war against Tigray is presented in a qualitative way. We used interview methods, and only triangulated findings are represented. It is a story of large-scale destructions...

Un nuovo conflitto militare si sta purtroppo svolgendo nel Corno d’Africa. Il 4 novembre 2020 è scoppiato un conflitto militare tra le forze del governo federale dell’Etiopia e il governo regionale del Tigray, nel nord del Paese.Il conflitto si sta intensificando a una velocità allarmante. Ora è diventato un conflitto regionale con notizie secondo...

A new military conflict is sadly unfolding in the Horn of Africa. On November 4th, 2020, a military conflict erupted between the forces of the federal government of Ethiopia and the regional government of Tigray, in the country’s North. However, as scholars who have examined issues related to food security in the region since 1985, we are very conc...

As a response to low agricultural productivity, inorganic fertiliser sales have exponentially grown in Ethiopia, and evidence exists of a supply that is beyond the demand in the drier northern parts of the country. Hence, we have investigated the geographical determinants of the fertiliser black market in north Ethiopia. Quantitative data on fertil...

Late-Pleistocene and Holocene environmental changes in Dogu’a Tembien are evidenced by cyclic alternation of stable and active morphogenetic periods. Stable phases correspond to periods of longitudinal river profile stabilisation through the development of river tufa dams (see Chapter 8), by (1) development of forest vegetation, protecting soil aga...

Soil erosion is the detachment and transport of soil particles by a transporting agent, predominantly water flowing over the soil surface (runoff). In Dogu’a Tembien, millennia of plough-based agriculture, steep topography, population pressure and poverty have contributed to accelerated soil erosion processes. On agricultural fields (ca. 65% of the...

Mass movements comprise the sliding, tumbling or falling of rock fragments and fine earth masses, largely under the force of gravity. Mass movement bodies are conspicuous on escarpments and on foot slopes of the tabular ridges of Dogu’a Tembien. Two main types can be distinguished: (1) rockfall resulting in scree slopes and (2) landslides, mostly d...

Given the mountainous character of Dogu’a Tembien along with a strong variability in lithology, topography and climate, a wide range of soil types can be expected. Nevertheless, the occurrence of soil types and sequences (catenas) is all but random. The nature of the soil can be predicted from its setting in the overall landscape. In this paper, th...

In Dogu’a Tembien croplands occur on most level lands, but one may wonder about the sustainability of cropping and grazing on steep slopes. Obviously, in the framework of extensive agriculture, increasing population density has gradually led to land use beyond its capacity. As land is not plenty and infinite, it needs to be appropriately used in or...

All over Dogu’a Tembien, farmlands appear to be terraced, though there is no evidence of large-scale manual or mechanical levelling of the land, not now and not in the past. Like in many cultural landscapes, such so-called progressive terraces are due to the interaction between plot boundaries and tillage but in north Ethiopia, the process is enhan...

Over the decades, we have witnessed numerous changes in Dogu’a Tembien, not only concerning soil and water conservation, land management, or farmers’ livelihood, but also education or health. For instance, within one generation, female genital mutilation that was widespread has become extinct. Though living standards remain low, the interventions o...

Transhumance between the Afar lowlands and Tigray escarpments has been a common practice in northern Ethiopia. However, the impact of transhumance on landscape changes in the marginal grabens has not been significantly researched. Hence, this study aims to understand the process of transhumance and the linkages between social and biophysical aspect...

A full understanding of the concept of landscape plays a paramount role in sustainable management of natural resources and an increase of landscape studies. However, little is known about the concept of landscape, landscape research and its application in Ethiopia. Hence, the overall objective of this paper is to explore the concept of landscape an...

The global shift towards renewable energy is manifested in developing countries such as Ethiopia primarily because of continuous economic growth in the last two decades and secondly due to the vast untapped potential resources. In addition to other factors, the lack of accurate data of the resources has, however, hampered the development of solar e...

Agricultural implement draft requirements depend on forces necessary to compress, shear, displace, accelerate and sometimes pulverize soil. These forces depend on (a) implement operating parameters, (b) soil properties and (c) implement geometry. Experimental and theoretical analyses techniques are essential to develop efficient tillage or soil cut...

The goals of socially equitable mechanization technology are poverty reduction and to strengthen equality of access, while introducing appropriate technology. As experience of other countries exemplifies, socially equitable mechanization technology, via two-wheel tractor and other equipments and accessories, is affordable, applicable, and ideal for...

The term tillage embraces all operations of seedbed preparation that optimise soil and environmental conditions for seed germination, seedling establishment and crop growth. In order to avoid extreme soil disturbance which in turn results in deteriorative consequences, mechanical manipulation of soil should be done carefully and adequately. Thus, t...

Animal drawn tillage is still dominant in most agricultural systems in eastern and southern Africa. Moreover, farmers in north and east Africa, south-east Europe, the near and far east and Latin America are still using animal drawn ard ploughs of various types. Though there are improved tractor ploughs, animal drawn ploughs that differ very little...

Variations in Soil Properties Along Slope Position in Desa'a a Dry Afromontane Forest in Northern Ethiopia

AquaCrop, the FAO water productivity model, is used as a tool to predict crop production under water limiting conditions. In the first step AquaCrop was calibrated and validated for barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Data sets of field experiments at seven different locations in four countries (Ethiopia, Italy, Syria and Montana, USA) with different clim...

We studied associations between rodents and their arthropod ectoparasites in crop fields and household compounds in the highlands of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Ectoparasite infestation indices, such as percent infestation, mean abundance, prevalence and host preferences, were calculated for each taxon. In total, 172 rodents from crop fields and 97...

A farmers' knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) survey was conducted in the highlands of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, to better understand rodent damage and rodent management from the farmers' perspective. Farmers (n = 191) from Dogu'a Temben district, were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The large majority of the farmers stated...

Integrated watershed management (IWSM) was implemented to address issues of poverty and land resource degradation in the 14,500 ha upper Agula watershed, in semi-arid Eastern Tigray (Ethiopia), an area known for poverty and resource degradation caused by natural and man-made calamities. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of IWSM and...

The high altitude grasslands of the tropical Andes, known as páramo, are a very fragile and unique ecosystem. Despite increasing human activities, many of its geomorphological and hydrological processes are still very poorly understood. We therefore welcome the paper of Harden [Harden, C.P., 2006. Human impacts on headwater fluvial systems in the n...

Daily runoff depths from 28 plots (5 m × 2 m) recorded during a 2-year period in the semi-arid to subhumid highlands of Tigray were analyzed to study the effect of vegetation restoration in exclosures and to identify other factors influencing runoff production. Plots are distributed over three study sites and located in different land use types and...

In the Tigray highlands of Northern Ethiopia, the establishment of exclosures (i.e., areas closed for grazing and agriculture) has become an important measure to combat land degradation and restore vegetative cover. Exclosures are commonly found on steep slopes and downslope from a sediment source area. In this study their sediment trapping capacit...

In Tigray (Northern Ethiopia, significant achievements were made, mainly from 1994 to 2002), on the development of agriculture through irrigation by employing seasonally harvested runoff using earth dams. However, most of the implemented schemes are not serving the intended purpose well because of constraints associated with both pre‐ and post‐impl...

Invasive ventilation in status asthmaticus is associated with an increased mortality and morbidity. To avoid intubation associated complications, non-invasive bi-level ventilation is often used in adults and children. We report the clinical history of an 11-month old infant, which encountered intubation criteria but was treated successfully by full...

The drainage basin of the Deleg River (88 km2), located in the southern Ecuadorian Andes, was studied to assess the geomorphic and hydrologic response of a fluvial system to human-induced environmental change in its contributing area. Historical data on land use, channel morphology and sedimentology were collected, based on a spatial analysis of ae...

Sediment deposition in reservoirs is a serious off-site consequence of soil erosion in Tigray (Northern Ethiopia). So far insufficient and less reliable sediment yield data have been collected for Northern Ethiopia. Nor are there any adaptable methodologies for sediment yield assessment in the country as a whole, which could be used when designing...

In an area of Leuven (central Belgium), a buried sandy estuarine deposit of Oligocene age contains a dark colored organic layer of about 4 m thick. Our results suggests that the organic matter is an illuvial horizon, therefore warranting the hypothesis that the layer may qualify for a giant buried spodic horizon rather than a remainder of a Tertiar...

Soil grid data were gathered from 156 points in the 30-ha Muizen forest (Ranst, Belgium). At each grid point, soil profiles were examined morphologically by augering to 120-cm depth. In the laboratory, pH(KCl) was determined on samples from every horizon. To allow numerical analyses, all the morphological attributes were given ordinal scores. The a...

Since 1990 archaeological research by the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) has been carried out at the ancient site of Sagalassos (Aglasun, Burdur province, Southwestern Turkey). At first, research focused on the excavation of the city and the study of the immediate vicinity which provided it with raw materials. The main objective was to obt...