Diccionario de Datos

The project road section, Yirgachefe - Hageremariam, is located in the southern Ethiopia, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR) and its last section is connected to the Oromia Region, Bule Hora woreda of Guji Zone.

Yirgachefe is a town in central southern Ethiopia in Yirgachefe District. Located in the Gedeo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, this town has an elevation between minimum 1,880 and maximum 1,919 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Yirgachefe woreda. Bule Hora Town (formerly Hagere Mariam) is a town is located in Oromia Region, Bule Hora woreda of Guji Zone. Located on the paved Addis Ababa-Moyale highway, in the West Guji Zone of the Oromia Region. It is the largest town in this zone mainly inhabited by the Guji Oromo. It has a latitude and longitude of 5°35′N 38°15′E and an averagely altitude of 1716 meters above sea level.

Accordingly, the geographical location as per UTM (projected) Coordinate system: Start point of road: 37 N: E = 442752, N = 0783675

End point of the road: 37 N: E = 415841, N = 0621734

The road is 72 kilometers long and it has a width of 14 town section and 7m rural section and on average 3meters wide earthen side ditches on both sides of the road.

21 3.1.1 Demography of Yirgachefe and Hageremariam

Yirgachefe is one of the woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples'

Region of Ethiopia, named after its major town Yirgachefe. Part of the Gedo zone, Yirgachefe is bordered on the south by Kochere, on the west by the Oromia Zone, on the north by Wonago, on the

Figure 3 locational map of study road

SNNPR

22 east by Bule woreda, and on the southeast by Gedeb. Coffee is an important cash crop of woredas. Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the National Census Agency (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 195,256, of whom 97,385 are men and 97,871 women; 15,118 or 7.74% of its population are urban dwellers (CSA, 2007).

HagereMariam (Bule Hora) is one of the woreda in the oromia region of Ethiopia. Hagere Mariam was bordered on the south by the Dawa river which separates it from Arero, on the southwest by Yabelo, on the west by the southern nation nationality and peoples region and Gelana Abaya, on the northeast by Uraga and on the east by Odashakiso. The largest town of Bule Hora is Bulehora town, formerly called Hagere Mariam. The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 264,489, of whom 133,730 were men and 130,759 were women; 35,245 or 13.33% of its population were urban dwellers. Based on figures published by the CSA in 2005, the not yet divided woreda (including today`s woredas of Bule Hora, Dugda Dawa and Kercha) had an estimated total population of 546,456, of whom 269,727 were men and 276,729 were women; 22,784 or 4.17% of its population were urban dwellers, which was less than the Zone average of 11.6%. With an estimated area of 6,021.88 square kilometers, Hagere Mariam Woreda had an estimated population density of 90.7 people per square kilometer (CSA, 2007).

3.1.1 Climate

The climate in Yirgacheffe is warm and temperate. In winter, there is much less rainfall in Yirgacheffe than in summer. The average temperature in Yirgacheffe is 18.4 °C. Precipitation here averages 1525 mm. March is the warmest month of the year. The temperature in March averages 19.7 °C. December has the lowest average temperature of the year. It is 17.3 °C.

23

HagereMariam, Ethiopia - Monthly weather averages including average high and

low Temperature, Precipitation, Pressure, and Wind Charts to assist you in planning your travel, holiday or an outdoor activity at Hagere Mariam, Ethiopia.

3.1.2 Hydrology soil group

Soils are classified, in to four hydraulic groups: A, B, C, and D based on their runoff potential. Soil A has a low runoff potential, it has a high infiltration rate and high rate of water transmission. This group covers soils such deep sand, deep loess,, and aggregated silt. Soil B has moderate infiltration and water transmission rates. This group includes shallows loess and sandy loam. Soil C has slow infiltration and water transmission rates even if throughout wetted. This group includes layered soils with high fine texture such as clay loam, shallow sandy loam

The study area is found on the Southern part of Ethiopia. The type of soil on the study area is Nitisols (FAO, 1998) that covers almost 100% of the total soil coverage. In Nitisols about 70% of the soil is silt loam of hydrologic soil group B and the remaining 30% is clay (FAO, 1998) of hydrologic soil group C.

Figure 5 Hydrological soil group of Ethiopia (source: FAO soil classification) 3.2 Materials

 Hand GPS (geographical positioning system): used to locate measuring points.  Measuring tape: to measure length, width and depth of drainage structures

 Soil laboratory materials like weighing balance, Oven dry and volumetric flask used for soil sample test.

24  Metal box: to take sample from the field to the laboratory

 Digital camera: To take sequential pictures to show study progress and any variation  Soil auger: also used to dug soil sample

 The materials that are used for the study of the research are digital camera, GPS device, and measuring tape. All these materials are used during field visit of the study area.

 Different softwares were used for analysis of collected data like ArcGIS, WMS, HEC-RAS and Global mapper.