Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Water Hyacinth Using Geospatial Technology: A Case Study Of Lake Abaya, Ethiopia.

Abstract

The water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is often regarded as the world's most notorious invasive species. Although its threats and consequences are widely documented, its dispersion is not yet understood. In Southern Ethiopia, Lake Abaya has serious problems related to the alien water hyacinth invasive weed. The water hyacinth develops in and swims over water, rapidly spreading. Using Sentinel-2 MSI data from 2016, 2018, and 2020, this study aimed to map and analyze the Spatio-temporal distribution of invasive water hyacinth in Lake Abaya. The rate of expansion of water hyacinth was measured using Sentinel-2 MSI satellite pictures obtained in December. For the supervised classification of satellite pictures and accuracy assessment, training samples were obtained. Prior to classification, picture preprocessing and enhancement were performed. Maximum likelihood classification algorithms were used to study the spread and distribution of the water hyacinth. The classification accuracy assessment result was 90%, 91.55%, 87%, overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of 87.82%, 89.44%, 86%, for the year 2016, 2018 and 2020 respectively. The results showed that in 2016, water hyacinth coverage was small, with an estimated 2303.49 ha (1%) of the research area covered. In 2018, the coverage of the weed was 5227.27 ha (3%) and after two years, the coverage of water hyacinth in 2020 was 5942.62 ha (4%) of the study area was covered. The results indicated there was a rapid expansion of water hyacinth from 2016 to 2020. Because the weed is rapidly spreading and endangering the water's existence, an adequate intervention mechanism should be implemented as soon as possible.