_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: teshome.yirgu@amu.edu.et; Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International 24(2): 1-11, 2020; Article no.JGEESI.54985 ISSN: 2454-7352 Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics and its Environmental Impacts in Kulfo Watershed, Gamo Highlands, South Western Ethiopia Teshome Yirgu 1* , Yibeltal Yihunie 2 , Alemu Assele 1 and Teklu Wogayehu 3 1 Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia. 2 Department of Natural Resources Management, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia. 3 Department of Biology, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration among all authors. Authors TY and YY designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, wrote the protocol and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Authors AA and TW managed the analyses of the study and the literature searches. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/JGEESI/2020/v24i230197 Editor(s): (1) Dr. Pere Serra Ruiz, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Reviewers: (1) Mandadapu S. V. K. V. Prasad, Swarnandhra College of Engineering and Technology, India. (2) Wu Wei, Nanjing Agricultural University, China. (3) Cretan Remus, West University of Timisoara, Romania. Complete Peer review History: http://www.sdiarticle4.com/review-history/54985 Received 22 December 2019 Accepted 28 February 2020 Published 18 March 2020 ABSTRACT Gamo highland have experienced drastic cover dynamics of land resource resulted from historic settlement, heavy concentration of human and livestock population, and obsolete farming practices. The aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of the land use/land cover and its consequent environmental impacts in Kulfo watershed located in South Western Ethiopia. Historic spatial and socio-economic data were used in GIS and Remote Sensing environment to analyze and map the research data. The result of this study revealed that the Land use/ cover change analysis conducted in three periods (1986, 1999 and 2017) showed a remarkable dynamics and modification over varying cover types. In 1986 the dominant land use land covers were cultivated land (42%) followed by pasture land (23%) and forest land (18.3%). After 32 years (2017), cultivated land (71%), shrub land (7.5%) and bare lands (6.2%) were the three dominant land uses/cover types in the study area. During the study period, cultivation encroached to marginal steep slopes (with Original Research Article