Citation: Mathewos, M.; Aga, A.O. Evaluation of the Linkages between Ecosystem Services and Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Matenchose Watershed, Rift Valley Basin, Ethiopia. Quaternary 2023, 6, 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/ quat6010013 Academic Editor: James B. Innes Received: 20 December 2022 Revised: 5 January 2023 Accepted: 1 February 2023 Published: 3 February 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). quaternary Article Evaluation of the Linkages between Ecosystem Services and Land Use/Land Cover Changes in Matenchose Watershed, Rift Valley Basin, Ethiopia Markos Mathewos and Alemu O. Aga * Faculty of Biosystems and Water Resources Engineering, Institute of Technology, Hawassa University, Hawassa P.O. Box 05, Ethiopia * Correspondence: alemu.osore@hu.edu.et Abstract: The global ecosystem services that are essential to sustaining life on the planet have been disrupted by different anthropogenic activities. This study’s objective is to examine how ecosystem services vary with changes in land use and land cover (LULC) across 29 years at the Matenchose watershed. Landsat images for 1991 (TM), 2003 (ETM+), and 2020 (OLI-8) were used for the categorization of LULC. To evaluate the changes in ecosystems service valuations (ESVs) as a result of LULC changes in combination with ArcGIS, the value transfer valuation approach was utilized. Farmlands, towns, and bare land exhibited growing trends among the five major LULC classes, but forest and grassland showed declining trends. From 1991 to 2020, ESVs decreased by a total of US $157.24 million due to the LULC modifications. In terms of ESV functions, provisional services (US $89.23 million) and cultural services (US $69.36 million) made up the majority of the loss of ESV. Overall, the reduction of ESV showed the environment is degrading because of existing LULC changes, this calls for immediate sustainable land management intervention by responsible actors. To attain sustainable development goals regarding food and life on the land, it is imperative to reverse the loss of ecosystem services. Keywords: ecosystem service value; land use change; ecosystem function; Matenchose watershed; Rift Valley Basin 1. Introduction Ecosystem services (ES) are indispensable to maintaining life on earth, but anthro- pogenic activities are placing a strain on them [1]. Numerous essential direct and indirect services that are essential for human well-being are provided by the ecosystem [2]. The majority of ecosystem services in the world are crucial to keeping life on Earth alive. The discussion of ESs in the scientific and policy areas has grown quickly [3,4]. One of the key factors contributing to the ES’s decline is the change in land use/cover (LULC), which is mostly brought on by human activity and is characterized by deforestation, the rise of agriculture, urbanization, and built-up areas [2,5–7]. A few types of research on the relationship between LULC dynamics and ESs have been carried out in Ethiopia. For instance, Kindu et al. [6] studies in the Shashemen Munisa forest revealed that ecosystem service values (ESVs) reduced from US $164.6 million in 1973 to US $118.7 million in 2012. Similar finding was made by Tolessa et al. [2], who discovered that deforestation was the primary cause of the 68% reduction in the total ESVs in Ethiopia’s Toke Kutaye district. Following Gashaw et al. [8], the value of the upper Blue Nile of the Andessa watershed decreased from US $26.83 million in 1985 to US $15.25 million in 2045. Similarly, Godebo et al. [9] discovered that the ESV at the Bilate Alaba subwatershed decreased from US $35.23 million in 1972 to US $25.87 million in 2017. Mekurai et al. [10] investigated that ESVs reduced to US $62 million over 47 years in Central Rift Valley Basin. Another study conducted by Biratu et al. [11] in central Ethiopia has Quaternary 2023, 6, 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat6010013 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/quaternary