Data from: Three decades of pastoralist settlement dynamics in the Ethiopian Omo Delta based on remote sensing data

Data from the paper:

Amos, S., Mengistu, S., Kleinschroth, F. (2021): Three decades of pastoralist settlement dynamics in the Ethiopian Omo Delta based on remote sensing.

Based on Landsat 5, 7, 8, RapidEye Ortho, and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, we manually mapped the settlements of the Dasanech people in the most populated parts of the Omo River Delta in Ethiopia from 1992 to 2019 using QGIS. We used the data to answer the following questions: (1) How have pastoralist settlements in the delta changed in extent and persistence over the past three decades? And (2) how have the settlements changed structurally during the construction, filling, and operation of Gibe III Dam?

We conducted two independent remote sensing analyses. Firstly, we used Landsat data from 1992 to 2019 to track land that is inhabited by pastoralists people within the evergreen part of the Delta. Secondly, the higher spatial resolution of the RapidEye Ortho (5m) and Sentinel-2 (10m) images allowed the detailed identification of settlements as well as infrastructure (tin-roof houses and road) in the Delta during a shorter period from 2009 to 2019. For more information on the data, please refer to the README.txt or the paper.