Land use/land cover change (LULCC) studies are gaining prominence among environmentalist and land use planners. This is due to the effects of LULCCs on natural ecosystems and livelihoods. In the coastal landscape of south-western Ghana, there exist knowledge gaps in the variations in size and intensities in LULCCs and the degree of change among land cover types in LULCC studies. Such studies are important for identifying periods of rapid land cover transitions and their implications on the landscape. Using change detection, intensity analysis and informal stakeholder conversations, the land use system dynamics of the study landscape was analyzed over a 34-year period to assess the variations in size and intensities in LULC transitions and its implications. The results showed a dynamic landscape driven primarily by rubber and settlement expansions. Rubber and settlement increased threefold (172.65%) and fourfold (449.93%) in the 34-year period mainly due to rubber outgrower scheme and onshore infrastructural developments, respectively. Gains in rubber and settlement targeted arable lands. The LULCC implies local food insecurity issues, declines in ecosystem services and compromised livelihoods, hence, the enforcement of the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act (2016) is recommended in land use planning in the coastal landscapes of south-western Ghana.

Land-use changes such as settlement and commercial agricultural land expansion heavily influence the sustainability of landscapes and ecosystem service (ES) provisioning. Land managers and decision-makers are becoming increasingly concerned about the consequences of land-use change and advocate for integrated approaches to landscape sustainability. Integrated landscape approaches, which incorporate stakeholder views and opinions, are less explored. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where most of the population relies on natural resources and agricultural land-use products, integrating stakeholder knowledge in evaluating ES and landscape sustainability remain less studied. This study applied a participatory scenario-building approach combined with a spatially explicit simulation to unravel the impact of potential future scenarios based on a business-as-usual (BAU) trajectory of the coastal landscapes in southwestern Ghana. Through workshops, the perceptions of the land-use actors on locally relevant ES, ES indicator values, and the specific simulation conditions of the major land-use change, which is the expansions in rubber plantations (out-grower scheme) and settlements, were identified. The collected local knowledge was integrated into a spatially explicit modeling platform, allowing the visualization and comparison of different scenario impacts, such as synergies or trade-offs between ES. The results presented how land-use actors' perceptions could influence the landscape capacity of ES provisioning. The results indicated risk in ES delivery and landscape sustainability challenges, hence calling for effective land-use policies to control socio-economic activities and increase diversity in land-use under sustainable landscape development.