Social and Ecological System Dynamics Characteristics, Trends, and Integration in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

About this book

Social and Ecological System Dynamics is a social-ecological system description and feedback analysis of the Lake Tana Basin, the headwater catchment of the Upper Blue Nile River. This basin is an important local, national, and international resource, and concern about its sustainable development is growing at many levels. Lake Tana Basin outflows of water, sediments, nutrients, and contaminants affect water that flows downstream in the Blue Nile across international boundaries into the Nile River; the lake and surrounding land have recently been proposed as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve; the basin has been designated as a key national economic growth corridor in the Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan. In spite of the Lake Tana Basin's importance, there is no comprehensive, integrated, system-wide description of its characteristics and dynamics that can serve as a basis for its sustainable development. Social and Ecological System Dynamics presents both the social and ecological characteristics of the region and an integrated, system-wide perspective of the feedback links that shape social and ecological change in the basin. Finally, it summarizes key research needs for sustainable development.

Contents

SECTION I: Overview
1. Introduction: Regional Challenges and Policy Questions
2. Problem Overview of the Lake Tana Basin
3. System Dynamics as a Framework for Understanding Human-Environment Dynamics
4. Bahir Dar and the Lake Tana Basin: Historical Phases of Growth and Ecology

SECTION II: Ecosystem Characteristics
5. Climate of Lake Tana Basin
6. Temporal and spatial climate variability and trends over Abay (Blue Nile) river basin
7. Overview of the hydrogeology and groundwater occurrence in the Lake Tana basin, Upper Blue Nile river basin
8. Characterization, Classification and Mapping of Soils of Agricultural landscape in Tana basin, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia
9. Hydrology of Lake Tana Basin
10. Water quality of Lake Tana basin, Upper blue Nile, Ethiopia: A review of available data
11. Plankton of Lake Tana
12. The Fish and the Fisheries of Lake Tana
13. Birds of Lake Tana Sub-Basin
14. Herpetofauna and Mammals
15. Forest Resources in Amhara: Brief Description, Distribution and Status
16. Wetlands of the Lake Tana watershed
17. Exotic and Invasive plants: Water hyacinth

SECTION III: Socioeconomic System Characteristics and Land Use
18.Demographic Characteristics of the Lake Tana Basin
19. Gender and Rural Livelihood in the Lake Tana Basin
20. Examining the characteristics of stakeholders in Lake Tana Sub-basin resource use, management and Governance
21. Lake Tana Subbasin's Economy and The Role of Natural Resources
22.Land Use Distribution and Change in Lake Tana Sub Basin
23. Agriculture in the Lake Tana Sub-Basin of Ethiopia
24. Challenges and opportunities for increasing farm animal productivity in the Lake Tana Basin
25. Urban Areas in the Lake Tana Region

SECTION IV: Management
26. Environmental Protection in the Lake Tana Basin
27. Institutional Analysis of Environmental Resource Management in Lake Tana Sub- Basin
28. Land use and watershed management practices in Lake Tana basin
29. Establishment of the Lake Tana Biosphere Reserve within the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves
30. Water-Induced Shift of Farming Systems and Value Addition in Lake Tana Sub-Basin: The Case of Rice Production and Marketing in Fogera District, Northwestern Ethiopia
31. Trends and driving forces of eucalyptus plantation by smallholders in the Lake Tana Watershed of Ethiopia
32. Waste management in Lake Tana basin - Case of rapidly urbanizing Bahir Dar city

SECTION V: Synthesis
33. Problems, Efforts and Future Directions of Natural Resources Management in Western Amhara Region of the Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia: Review
34. Participatory System Dynamics Mapping for Collaboration and Socioecological Integration in the Lake Tana Region

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