Ethiopia is conducting a government-sponsored population resettlement but the site selection exercise lacks the objectivity that GIS can provide.
A GIS-based site selection is performed in this study to identify settlement sites using national data at the Wereda (sub-district) levels. The results show that the application of GIS can yield satisfactory results even under conditions of data scarcity. Seven Weredas are deemed highly suitable while another twelve are classified as suitable. The list of selected sites includes many Weredas known to have received settlers in the past. The selected Weredas also include those being targeted by the government for land-leases to foreign agribusinesses companies. The lack of resources necessary to mitigate all of the environmental dangers including accelerated deforestation, wetland destruction, malaria, and flash-floods, point to serious challenges ahead in making the Weredas selected in this study suitable for largescale resettlement. It is argued, therefore, that population control measures with a focus on fertility reduction would produce better long-term results.
largescale
Planned Resettlement 87
• That a GIS data clearinghouse be set-up to house and improve the quality
of all of the available GIS data in the country. The data can then be
published online to facilitate its global access by interested individuals
and researchers. While the Ethiopian Mapping Authority is the most
qualified agency to take on this role, its lack of openness points to an
urgent need for its change of attitude and work-practices. This paper
would have benefited greatly from such openness, and from the availability
of freely accessible data on the Internet.