Groundwater is an important source of drinking water and irrigation in Ethiopia’s present study a... more Groundwater is an important source of drinking water and irrigation in Ethiopia’s present study area of the upper Omo River catchment. The present study area has an increasing demand for high-quality groundwater. Extensive irrigation and urban expansion are ongoing in the study area, seriously compromising groundwater quality. A study was conducted in Ethiopia’s upper Omo River catchment to assess groundwater’s suitability for drinking water and agricultural purposes. In total, 58 water samples were collected for this study. Based on the WHO and Ethiopian standards for assessing water quality, the study’s results have been analyzed and compared. The groundwater’s primary ion and physicochemical properties were plotted using GIS technology. Based on the results of the hydrochemical analysis, three water quality index (WQI) zones were identified: excellent (58.82%), good (35.29%), and poor (5.88%). From the Piper diagram plots, five different types of water were identified as Ca-HCO3,...
Slope instability on several sections of the Gerese-Belta route in Southern Ethiopia poses a majo... more Slope instability on several sections of the Gerese-Belta route in Southern Ethiopia poses a major risk to infrastructure and safety. This research was aimed at evaluating certain areas of the road susceptible to slope instability. Through intensive fieldwork including geological analysis, surveys, and testing, three crucial slope portions were determined. Both limit equilibrium and finite element calculations demonstrated that these sections are problematic under different circumstances. The slope modification analysis shows that the safety factor increases as bench widths and the number of benches increase. In the slope section D1S3, this factor reached 1.222 when two benches measuring 5 meters in width were used on slide 2D. This initially showed an unstable safety factor of 0.26. Three benches of the same width were used under slide 2D. This resulted in a safety factor of 1.219. At the slope section (D1S2), flattening of the slope angle from initial 45˚to 35˚, 28˚, 25˚and 18˚increases the factor of safety of the slope from initial 0.284 to 0.77, 0.89, 1.022, and 1.151 respectively under slide 2D analysis. At the slope section (D2S1), flattening the slope angle from initial 46˚to 35˚, 25˚, 23˚, and 20˚increases the safety factor from initial 0.412 to 0.684, 0.920, 1.02, and 1.315 respectively. Based on the analysis of the study results, it can be concluded that the identified slope sections are susceptible to failure under actual field scenarios, depending on the conditions under which they are predicted to occur. According to this study, the Benching method is an economical method for mitigating soil slopes, as a result of which it was recommended to be used.
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management, 2022
Quantification of soil is crucial for maximizing the advantages of land resources while minimizin... more Quantification of soil is crucial for maximizing the advantages of land resources while minimizing the negative consequences of land degradation in the long term. It will also make it possible to identify locations that need immediate soil erosion management. The present study was carried out in the Kulfo river catchment, Rift valley, Southern Ethiopia. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) method was utilized to estimate the mean yearly soil loss in the research region using remote sensing, other collateral data. The RUSLE model inputs were mapped and integrated into the ArcGIS software, and the results show that 0 and 1211 t ha−1year−1 are the minima and maximum soil loss in the present study area. Soil erosion-prone regions were divided into three categories: 0-42 t ha−1year−1 (low), 43-128 t ha−1 year−1 (medium), and > 128 t ha−1 year−1 (high). And the average rate of soil erosion is 68.47 t ha−1year−1. Low, medium, and high soil erosion areal extent and area perce...
The study of shear behaviors comprises of the analysis of shear deformation characteristics and s... more The study of shear behaviors comprises of the analysis of shear deformation characteristics and strength parameter determinations. Understanding the constitutive behaviour of shear zone soil samples is essential for evaluation of the critical shear behaviors of reactivated landslides, through considerate experimental tests. The experiment was carried out based on the multistage - multiphase shear technique via ring shear apparatus. The main advantage of this new method is to examine the same soil specimen for progressive loading and the continuous phases of shearing. The result shows that two major shear characteristics under the multiphase shear mode; the first is a post-peak shear weakening behavior of the soils on the last phase shear process, it indicated a decrease in friction resistance on fast rate effects, which enables to narrate with fastly moved coseismic landslide behaviors. The other one is a practical increase in friction coefficient values (hardening behavior) on the ...
Groundwater is an important source of drinking water and irrigation in Ethiopia’s present study a... more Groundwater is an important source of drinking water and irrigation in Ethiopia’s present study area of the upper Omo River catchment. The present study area has an increasing demand for high-quality groundwater. Extensive irrigation and urban expansion are ongoing in the study area, seriously compromising groundwater quality. A study was conducted in Ethiopia’s upper Omo River catchment to assess groundwater’s suitability for drinking water and agricultural purposes. In total, 58 water samples were collected for this study. Based on the WHO and Ethiopian standards for assessing water quality, the study’s results have been analyzed and compared. The groundwater’s primary ion and physicochemical properties were plotted using GIS technology. Based on the results of the hydrochemical analysis, three water quality index (WQI) zones were identified: excellent (58.82%), good (35.29%), and poor (5.88%). From the Piper diagram plots, five different types of water were identified as Ca-HCO3,...
Slope instability on several sections of the Gerese-Belta route in Southern Ethiopia poses a majo... more Slope instability on several sections of the Gerese-Belta route in Southern Ethiopia poses a major risk to infrastructure and safety. This research was aimed at evaluating certain areas of the road susceptible to slope instability. Through intensive fieldwork including geological analysis, surveys, and testing, three crucial slope portions were determined. Both limit equilibrium and finite element calculations demonstrated that these sections are problematic under different circumstances. The slope modification analysis shows that the safety factor increases as bench widths and the number of benches increase. In the slope section D1S3, this factor reached 1.222 when two benches measuring 5 meters in width were used on slide 2D. This initially showed an unstable safety factor of 0.26. Three benches of the same width were used under slide 2D. This resulted in a safety factor of 1.219. At the slope section (D1S2), flattening of the slope angle from initial 45˚to 35˚, 28˚, 25˚and 18˚increases the factor of safety of the slope from initial 0.284 to 0.77, 0.89, 1.022, and 1.151 respectively under slide 2D analysis. At the slope section (D2S1), flattening the slope angle from initial 46˚to 35˚, 25˚, 23˚, and 20˚increases the safety factor from initial 0.412 to 0.684, 0.920, 1.02, and 1.315 respectively. Based on the analysis of the study results, it can be concluded that the identified slope sections are susceptible to failure under actual field scenarios, depending on the conditions under which they are predicted to occur. According to this study, the Benching method is an economical method for mitigating soil slopes, as a result of which it was recommended to be used.
Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management, 2022
Quantification of soil is crucial for maximizing the advantages of land resources while minimizin... more Quantification of soil is crucial for maximizing the advantages of land resources while minimizing the negative consequences of land degradation in the long term. It will also make it possible to identify locations that need immediate soil erosion management. The present study was carried out in the Kulfo river catchment, Rift valley, Southern Ethiopia. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) method was utilized to estimate the mean yearly soil loss in the research region using remote sensing, other collateral data. The RUSLE model inputs were mapped and integrated into the ArcGIS software, and the results show that 0 and 1211 t ha−1year−1 are the minima and maximum soil loss in the present study area. Soil erosion-prone regions were divided into three categories: 0-42 t ha−1year−1 (low), 43-128 t ha−1 year−1 (medium), and > 128 t ha−1 year−1 (high). And the average rate of soil erosion is 68.47 t ha−1year−1. Low, medium, and high soil erosion areal extent and area perce...
The study of shear behaviors comprises of the analysis of shear deformation characteristics and s... more The study of shear behaviors comprises of the analysis of shear deformation characteristics and strength parameter determinations. Understanding the constitutive behaviour of shear zone soil samples is essential for evaluation of the critical shear behaviors of reactivated landslides, through considerate experimental tests. The experiment was carried out based on the multistage - multiphase shear technique via ring shear apparatus. The main advantage of this new method is to examine the same soil specimen for progressive loading and the continuous phases of shearing. The result shows that two major shear characteristics under the multiphase shear mode; the first is a post-peak shear weakening behavior of the soils on the last phase shear process, it indicated a decrease in friction resistance on fast rate effects, which enables to narrate with fastly moved coseismic landslide behaviors. The other one is a practical increase in friction coefficient values (hardening behavior) on the ...
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Papers by Ephrem Getahun