Implications of Spatio-Temporal Land Use/Cover Changes for Ecosystem Services Supply in the Coastal Landscapes of Southwestern Ghana, West Africa

Abstract

Land use/land cover change (LULCC) is an important driver of ecosystem changes in coastal areas. Despite being pervasive in coastal Ghana, LULCC has not been investigated to understand its effects on the potential for coastal landscapes to supply ecosystem services (ES). In this study, the impacts of LULCC on the potential supply of ES by coastal landscapes in Southwestern Ghana was assessed for the years 2008 and 2018 by using remote sensing and benefit transfer approaches. Based on available data, relevant provisioning and regulating ES were selected for the assessment while indicators to aid the quantification of the ES were obtained from literature. Supervised classification methods and maximum likelihood algorithms were used to prepare land use/land cover (LULC) maps and the derived LULC categories were assigned according to the descriptions of the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS). Potential supply of provisioning (food, fuelwood) and regulating (carbon storage) services was quantified and the spatial and temporal distributions of these ES illustrated using maps. The results show variations in food and fuelwood supply and carbon storage potentials over the study period and across different locations on the landscape. Potentials for fuelwood supply and carbon storage in mangrove forests indicated declining trends between 2008 and 2018. On the other hand, food-crop supply and carbon storage potential in rubber plantations depicted increasing patterns over the same period. Population, slope and elevation exhibited strong effects on LULC conversions to food crop and rubber plantations whereas these factors were less important determinants of mangrove forest conversions. The findings of the study have implications for identifying and addressing tradeoffs between land uses for agriculture, industrial development and conservation of critical coastal ES within the context of rapid land system transformations in the study region.

Modeling the Impacts of Coastal Land Use Scenarios on Ecosystem Services Restoration in Southwest Ghana, West Africa

“…Coastal and interconnected marine ecosystems supply an array of ES for the wellbeing of the dependent coastal population in Ghana 61 . Based on the results of prior studies on ES supply in the study region, locally relevant ES were identi ed and selected for impact assessment of land use scenarios on ES restoration 27,41 . Cultural ES are generally created through human perception of ecosystems and the biophysical environment 62 .…”

“…Considering data availability, indicators that quantitatively depict ES supply were derived in relation with the characteristics of LULC (Table 2 and Table S2). Speci cally, food and fuelwood supply were respectively measured in Tonnes/ha and Kg/ha while carbon sequestration was quanti ed in MgC/ha 41,63 . Finally, all the ES indicator values derived through bene ts transfer, remote sensing and experts' consultation were standardized to a relative scale (0-100 value points) 64…”

“…Restoration of the region's critical biodiversity habitats such as mangroves, peatlands, lagoons, estuaries, rocky reefs and benthic ecosystems can mitigate marine biodiversity loss and recover such ecosystems and the functions and services they provide. Particularly, in the coastal landscapes of Southwest Ghana, different restoration initiatives are underway and aim to advance the protection of pristine coastal habitats and restore degraded ecosystems to enhance ES supply 27,41 . However, research on land use scenario planning in West Africa has focused attention on ES provision potentials due to land use changes in agricultural and production landscapes 26,28,42 .…”

Analysis of Trends in Land Utilization and Land Cover Dynamics in the Kwahu West Municipality, Ghana

“…Changes in land use an d land cover (LULC) caused by human activity have altered the Earth's surface. Due to increased mining, urbanisation, deforestation, and agricultural activity, Ghana's LULC fluctuations have risen significantly (Forkuo et al, 2021;Kankam et al, 2022). Numerous studies have been con ducted to examine and evaluate the pace of change in LULC in different regions of the country due to the severe nature of this trend.…”

“…Numerous studies have been con ducted to examine and evaluate the pace of change in LULC in different regions of the country due to the severe nature of this trend. Among these ar e the influence of land cover variability indicators on land surface temperature in Greater Accra, Ghana, and spatiotemporal land cover analyses (Devendran & Banon,2022), Consequences of changes in spatial and temporal land use/cover on the provision of ecosystem services in the coastal regions of southwestern Ghana, West Africa (Kankam et al, 2022), The influence of alterations in land use and land cover on the socioeconomic aspects and means of living within the Atwima Nwabiagya District, located in the Ashanti region of Ghana (Forkuo et al, 2021) and examining the interplay of land-use systems and surface temperature in South-Eastern Ghana's class dynamics (Sarfo et al, 2023).…”