Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Change Analysis of the Akuapem-North Municipality, Eastern Region; Ghana

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue X, October 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Change Analysis of the Akuapem-North Municipality, Eastern Region; Ghana

Ezekiel Addison Otoo^1*, Emmanuel Addison Otoo¹, George Boateng^2
1Department of Geography Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana
² Berekum College of Education, Berekum – Ghana
*Corresponding Author

Abstract: Land-use changes are a significant determinant of land cover changes; this is on the grounds that it is human specialists; people, families, and private firms that make explicit moves that drive land-use change. An increment in family size, traveler populace, and abatement in the monetary prosperity of the indigenous area compels agricultural expansion. This paper aimed at analysing the Land-use Land-cover change pattern in the Akuapem-North Municipality and provide experimental record of land-cover changes in the municipality thereby broadening the insight of local authorities and land managers to better comprehend and address the complicated land-use system of the area and develop an improved land-use management strategies that could better balance urban expansion and environmental protection. Land cover change was observed through advanced processing and classification dependent on five multi-temporal medium resolution satellite symbolism (Landsat: 1986, 1990, 2002, 2017) into five classes. From this, precisely arranged pixel data were assigned to decide each land cover class size and the quantity of changed pixels into different classes through spatial change detection. It was discovered that land cover from 1986 to 2017 shows rapid changes in the landscape as there is high growth in built-up area. However, farmland and forest cover areas has reduced. Urban built-up area has extended outwards from the central-eastern part to the rest of the areas and has covered most of the northern, western, and southern parts. If the present growth trend continues, most of the vegetated areas will be converted into built-up areas in the near future, which may create ecological imbalance and affect the climate of the municipality.

Keywords: GIS, remote sensing, Landuse/landcover, Urban expansion, Change detection

I. INTRODUCTION

Land-cover basically implies the actual elements of the earth’s surface, caught in the distribution of vegetation, water, soil and other actual elements of the land, including those made exclusively by human activities, e.g., settlements (Ramachandra & Kumar, 2004). Subsequently, satisfactory information on ecological diversity and environment administrations can be considered as fundamental

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