ASSESSING THE LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGES DUE TO URBAN GROWTH IN ACCRA, GHANA

Information on urban growth, land use and land cover change study is very important to local government and urban planners for the betterment of future planning for sustainable development of cities and urban centres. Land use and land cover (LULC) change has become one of the main focus for assessing environmental changes and its impact on natural resources. Conversion of most of Land use/Land cover (woodland, grassland, savannah and forest) into cropland and pasture has been on ascendency during the last decade. Urbanization has brought serious losses of agricultural land, vegetation land and water bodies. This study assessed the Changes in land use/land cover in Accra, the capital city of Ghana over 25-year period using Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper from 1985 and 2010 respectively. Accuracy assessment of the post classification comparison was done using 1985 and 2010 aerial photographs of the study area as the ground truth data. From-to change analysis was used to quantify the change in the land use/land cover. The results show that the forests, agricultural lands and water bodies decreased by 38%, 48% and 3% respectively in the 25 years period. The rate of infrastructure development (urban) was very high and Built-Up went up by 59% within the same period. The presence of clouds and shadows in the 1985 image limit the total quantification of the various land cover.