Spatiotemporal trends of urban land use/land cover and green infrastructure change in two Ethiopian cities: Bahir Dar and Hawassa

Abstract Background The spatiotemporal analysis of urban land use/land cover change (LULCC) helps to understand the dynamics of the changing environment of green infrastructure (GI) on the basis of sustainable city development. There are important links between spatiotemporal land use/land cover and GI change in urban areas. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine the spatiotemporal trends of urban land use/land cover and GI changes in Bahir Dar and Hawassa cities for the last four decades (1973–2015). Three different sets of Landsat satellite data were procured from EMA for Bahir Dar and Hawassa from 1973, 2000 and 2015 using Landsat 4 MSS, 7 TM and 8 OLI respectively. Based on this, using ERDAS Imagine (ver. 9.2) and Arc GIS (Ver.10.3) five LULCC classes were identified for analysis purpose. Result The results show that vegetation decreased by 30 and 14% in Bahir Dar and Hawassa respectively for the period 1973–2015, while built-up areas expanded by 10 and 24% respectively in the two cities. These land use changes have significant impacts on spatiotemporal trends of GI in urban areas. GI has increased in Bahir Dar and Hawassa in association with built-up area expansion and deliberate activity of city administrations with effective implementation of spatial plans of corresponding cities. Conclusions There is a growing concern about GI in cities. Policy makers and stakeholders should also decide on how to use the land at present and in the future. LULCC policymaking processes should aim to balance GI and other types of land use/land cover for sustainable urban development. Urban LULCC has important effects on the urban GI system