This assignment is part of the Research project “Improving water resource planning at the scale of micro-dam catchments in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: learning from success and failure (WAREP)”. This research project is funded by the “Commission Universitaire pour le Développement (CUD)” of the ‘Conseil Interuniversitaire de la communauté française de la Belgique’ (CIUF) with Université Catholique de Louvain and Mekelle University, Ethiopia. The overall goal of the project is to build the capacity of the local people in planning and management of water resources at scale of micro-catchment. To fight the degradation problems stone bunds and trenches were built to conserve soil and water in-situ and to reduce sheet and rill erosion in arable land on hill slopes.  Besides, the region is also exposed to recurrent drought affecting food security. With water harvesting schemes, they try to mitigate the effects of draughts and to ensure food security. The introduced soil and water conservation measures are effective in reducing soil erosion and siltation in reservoirs, but it has also a negative impact: it results in a reduced runoff inflow and less water storage in the reservoirs. A better understanding of the impact of soil and water conservation treatment on rainfall-runoff relationship at plot and sub catchment level is necessary. The latter is the goal of this research and this year is the last study year in the research.

 In my master thesis I will collect runoff data from the rain season of 2012. These data, I will compare with data from previous years to determine quantitatively the difference between soil and water conservation treatments in terms of their impact on catchment runoff responses. To collect the data 2012, I have to do a lot of fieldwork in May Leba. I have to determine runoff volumes from runoff plots with different soil and water conservation treatments, with different slope and land uses in the rainy season. This is the last year to collect data, so this master thesis gives me the opportunity to finish this research and to have access to all data. Also I have the opportunity to confront my academic knowledge with other working and living conditions.