Understanding the extent of land use/land cover (LULC) change and predicting its trajectories is vital for policymakers designing sustainable natural resource management strategies. To measure, visualize, and forecast LULC transitions and spatiotemporal dynamics of highland bamboo in the southern highland of Ethiopia, this study used multispectral Landsat imagery from the Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM +), and Operational Land Imager (OLI) from three acquisition years: 1988, 2003, and 2019. Bamboo LULC was extracted using a combination of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Bamboo Index (BI). The images were classified using supervised classification with the maximum likelihood classifier. We have used the CA–Markov model to look at how the LULC will change in the future (2035) based on matrices of current states. The results revealed that cropland, grassland, and built-up area increased between 1988 and 2019, while bamboo cover, agroforestry, wetland, and forestland decreased. Throughout the study period, cropland has remained the most prevalent LULC class, while bamboo cover has been the most affected. The projected result also showed that cropland increased dramatically, mostly at the cost of bamboo covers, wetland, and agroforestry, all of which have important ecological and socioeconomic values. To protect the valuable LULC classes from further degradation, conservation measures that take into account the region’s economic, social, and ecological dynamics are urgently required. Furthermore, quantifying the impact of LULC changes on the region’s socioeconomic and ecological values is suggested in the future to strengthen the knowledge base.

了解土地利用/土地覆盖 (LULC) 变化的程度并预测其轨迹对于政策制定者设计可持续自然资源管理战略至关重要。为了测量、可视化和预测埃塞俄比亚南部高地的高原竹子的土地利用和覆盖变化转变以及时空动态，本研究使用了专题制图器 (TM)、增强型专题制图器 plus (ETM +) 和操作土地成像仪 (ETM+) 的多光谱 Landsat 图像。 OLI）来自三个采集年份：1988 年、2003 年和 2019 年。使用归一化植被指数 (NDVI)、归一化水分指数 (NDWI) 和竹子指数 (BI) 的组合提取竹子 LULC。使用最大似然分类器的监督分类对图像进行分类。我们使用 CA-Markov 模型根据当前状态矩阵来研究 LULC 在未来（2035 年）将如何变化。结果显示，1988年至2019年间，耕地、草地和建成区面积增加，而竹子覆盖率、农林业、湿地和林地面积减少。在整个研究期间，农田仍然是最普遍的土地利用和土地利用类型，而竹林受到的影响最大。预测结果还显示，耕地面积急剧增加，主要是以竹林覆盖、湿地和农林业为代价，而所有这些都具有重要的生态和社会经济价值。为了保护宝贵的土地利用和土地利用类别免遭进一步退化，迫切需要考虑到该地区经济、社会和生态动态的保护措施。此外，建议未来量化土地利用和土地利用变化对该地区社会经济和生态价值的影响，以加强知识基础。