Assessing Land Degradation in Amansie West District: A Surface Mined Area in Ghana

Abstract

AbstractThe Amansie West District is characterized by extensive land degrading activities. The district has become a nexus for vast illegal small-scale mining activities, thus affecting the sustainability of other land uses. It is thus imperative, that the land use land cover (LULC) trends over the years be monitored. This would aid assessment of changes over time and their future impacts on resources in the district. The study examined the LULC changes in the district with surface mining as a driver of change. Landsat images of 30m resolution for 1986, 2004, and 2015 were taken for Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The images were classified using the Maximum Likelihood Classification. Verification was done using 200 ground truth points collected on-site and from Google Earth. The results showed changes in the Spatio-temporal distribution of LULC in the District over 30 years (1986–2015). The dominant LULC changes are from forest to farmland and farmland to mines for 30 years. In addition, there were losses from farmland to mines from 2004–2015. Farmland and forest were the dominant LULC types of the study area which made up 54.6% and 43.6% respectively for 1986, and likewise 54.4% and 22.3% for 2015. However, the forest cover was reduced drastically by 21.3% in 2015. The main drivers of land degradation were farmland from 1986–2004 and mines from 2004–2015. The study emphasizes the need for local-level studies by exposing the extent of the damage for effective future land use management.