Relationship between Topographic Variables and Land Cover in the Simen Mountains National Park, a World Heritage Site in Northern Ethiopia

Altitude, aspect, and slope influence the distribution of land cover types. This paper shows the relationship of land cover distribution with these topographic variables. Geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) technologies were used. Information on land cover was obtained by digital classification of a landsat satellite image of 2003. A digital elevation model (DEM) was used to generate elevation, slopes, and aspect information. The land cover map was overlaid with altitude, slope and aspect maps. The result gives quantitative data on the occurrence of the land cover classes of Erica- dominated forest, mixed forest, shrubland, agriculture and grassland as a function of altitude, slope and aspect. Forests were found mainly on north- and northwest-facing slopes of medium and high inclination. Agriculture prevailed at altitudes of 3,000- 3,500 m at gentle slopes of different aspects, while grassland dominated at 3,500-4,000 m on gentle, mainly south-facing slopes. Further study is suggested to investigate the significance of these findings for wildlife habitat distribution and, subsequently, for park management.