Geospatial assessment of land use and land cover dynamics in the mid-zone of Ghana

Abstract

Land use and land cover (LULC) terrain in Ghana has undergone profound changes over the past years emanating mainly from anthropogenic activities, which have impacted countrywide and sub-regional environment. This study is a comprehensive analysis via integrated approach of geospatial procedures such as Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) of past, present and future LULC from satellite imagery covering Ghana’s Ashanti regional capital (Kumasi) and surrounding districts. Multi-temporal satellite imagery data sets of four different years, 1990 (Landsat TM), 2000 (Landsat ETM+), 2010 (Alos and Disaster Monitoring Constellation-DMC) and 2020 (SENTINEL), spanning over a 30-year period were mapped. Five major LULC categories – Closed Forest, Open Forest, Agriculture, Built-up and Water – were delineated premised on the prevailing geographical settings, field study and remote sensing data. Markov Cellular Automata modelling was applied to predict the probable LULC change consequence for the next 20 years (2040). The study revealed that both Open Forest and Agriculture class categories decreased 51.98 to 38.82 and 27.48 to 20.11, respectively. Meanwhile, Built-up class increased from 4.8% to 24.8% (over 500% increment from 1990 to 2020). Rapid urbanization caused the depletion of forest cover and conversion of farmlands into human settlements. The 2040 forecast map showed an upward increment in the Built-up area up to 35.2% at the expense of other LULC class categories. This trend from the past to the forecasted future would demand that judicious LULC resolutions have to be made to keep Ghana’s forest cover, provide arable land for farming activities and alleviate the effects of climate change.

Assessment of Past and Future Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics of the Old Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal Area, Ghana

“…Five LULC categories-Close_forest, Open_forest, Agriculture, Built_up and Water (Table 2) were chosen and used in the image classification (supervised classification) based on the authors' local knowledge of the study area and literature (Koranteng et al, 2020;Frimpong & Molkenthin, 2021). Random Forest Algorithm was employed to allocate pixels to their classes since the random forests are not limited by statistical assumptions.…”

“…Experimental analyses posit that human caused actions are the principal sources of environmental transformation because of increasing human population and developmental needs (Ahmed et al, 2019;Ahmad et al, 2020). Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is reckoned to be the key driver in the worsening destruction of the natural environment worldwide (Muhati et al, 2018;Koranteng et al, 2020). The changing aspects of anthropogenic land use and land cover (LULC) variations have consequences for land use, management of the environment and development in peri-urban areas which are characterized by increasing human population (Alipbeki et al, 2020;Clerici et al, 2019).…”

Methodology for Using Multi-Temporal Landsat Images to Monitor Urban Growth of Kirkuk Governorate

“…Remote sensing data, specifically moderate resolution Landsat images, offer a suitable option for monitoring land use and land cover changes in developing countries where geospatial technologies are not well established. [35,36], Due to their capacity to offer consistent coverage, a holistic view, instant data collection, precise and economical details on transformations in land use and land cover [37,38], The use of Landsat images and GIS technology is a common method for monitoring urban growth and its impact on ecosystems. GIS is a computer system that captures, stores, analyzes, and presents geographic data and has become an important tool for determining the direction of urban development [39,40].…”

Rapid Urbanization and Environment Management in Nkafu Municipality, Eastern DR Congo

“…In fact, local perception of the spatio-temporal urban environment is one of the land policies playing a key role in urban development, especially in developing countries characterized by rapid population growth (Collier et al, 2015;Koranteng et al, 2023). In addition, uncontrolled urban growth is one of the major land planning constraints in most of Africa's major cities, such as Bukavu in eastern DR Congo, where rural migration is accelerating poor land policy associated with high occurrence of environmental hazards (Ntamusimwa et al, 2022).…”