Environmental development and protection measures such as feasibility studies, land-use planning and soil and water conservation are some of the issues that need to be considered in watersheds management. Apparently, integrated watershed management is emerging as an approach for the sustained development and management of natural resources. The integral enactment of different environmental frameworks, strategies and policies could positively impact watershed- based developmental approaches. Sediment which is brought through water erosion can hamper the proper functioning of waterways as well as the quality of water in dams. Knowhow on soil erosion and the sedimentation process is among the requisites that need to be considered for the control of sedimentation. Other elements like climate, edaphic factors, land management, topography, and land cover, etc. will also determine the sedimentation process. Integrated Watershed Management approach is a worthy approach to manage the ecological, social and economic watershed development challenges in countries like Ethiopia. Thus, this article is intended to assess watershed characteristics that will help to explore the possibilities of reducing sedimentation and its related effects.

In one way or another, one out of three people are being affected by land degradation. It is estimated that, about every year, 75 billion tonnes of soil material are being lost worldwide as a result of land degradation. Recent findings also showed that about 2 billion hectares of land were severely degraded, in some cases in an irreversible way, all these caused a severe damage to local ecologies as well as contributed a lot for climate change and its associated effects on the wellbeing of humanity. Apart from this, the major portion of most developing countries population are still dependent on the un-mechanized and primitive forms agriculture, livestock production, forestry and fishery, and their livelihood and options for economic development are directly linked to the quality of the land and its resources. The objective of this article is to reaffirm the role of Sustainable Land Management in the process of agricultural development, the main source of livelihood in the developing countries. The paper initially explored the basic concept and principles of sustainable management. Causes of land degradation, the prime challenge of sustainable land management and development are also dealt in detail.