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Spatiotemporal development of land use systems, influences and climate variability in Southwestern Ghana (1970–2020)

Abstract

This study assesses the spatiotemporal development of land use systems and climate variability in Southwestern Ghana over the past five decades using integrated remote sensing techniques and existing literature. We demonstrated the relationship between Normalized Difference Vegetative Index, Normalized Difference Water Index, Normalized Difference Built-up Index, surface temperature and precipitation using geoinformatics and Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r). We found change in land use systems in Southwestern Ghana to be immensely driven by economic and socio-political factors. Interestingly, some biophysical factors have somewhat contributed to this change. Findings revealed a drastic decline in forested areas (−334.8 km2 yr−1) and waterbodies (−4.79 km2 yr−1), along with a dramatic increase in built-up (+137.93 km2 yr−1) and farmlands/shrubs (+131.97 km2 yr−1). Change in prevailing microclimatic conditions can be associated with land cover change, considering the impact of major drivers observed over the given period. Results showed a very weak positive correlation between vegetation and temperature (r = 0.214). Similarly, built-up correlated positively with vegetation (r = 0.165), water-index (r = 0.818; strong correlation or evidence of association) and temperature (r = 0.266). In contrast, other used variables correlated negatively with precipitation. The study serves a seminal guide to land use developers and institutors for effective and sustainable use of natural resources.

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Fig. 1

Source Adopted from Mather (1998)

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Source Adapted and modified from deGraft-Johnson et al. (2010)

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Data availability

The data that support findings of this study are available and would be shared upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to God Almighty for the knowledge bestowed on us, and secondly, the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) for making available relevant materials and creating an enabling environment, needed to complete this research. Special thanks go to the Research Institute for History of Science & Technology, School of Law and Public Affairs for making available the datasets used for this study. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41971340, No.2017YFC1502401, No.41271410 and No.41972193). The authors would like to thank the handling editor and anonymous reviewers for their careful reviews and helpful remarks.

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The main author conceptualized, conducted literature search, designed, critically analysed data and wrote the final piece. The second (corresponding author) and third authors critically revised the work and provided the needed resources for this academic research, supervised and approved the final draft for submission. The remaining authors assisted in the acquisition of data, analysis, review, editing and interpretation of results.

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Correspondence to Bi Shuoben.

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Sarfo, I., Shuoben, B., Beibei, L. et al. Spatiotemporal development of land use systems, influences and climate variability in Southwestern Ghana (1970–2020). Environ Dev Sustain (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01848-5

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Keywords

  • Land use
  • Driving forces
  • Surface temperature
  • Forest transition theory
  • Sustainable development
  • Ghana