Anthropogenic induced land use land cover dynamics of the Black Volta River Corridor in north-western Ghana, 2011-2021

Abstract

This study employed remote sensing-based satellite imagery analysis to investigate the anthropogenic induced land use land cover (LULC) dynamics of the Black Volta River Corridor (BVR) in north-western Ghana. The mixed methods research approach was adopted. Satellite data were supplemented with questionnaires administered to 170 households and key informant interviews. Findings show that agriculture, charcoal burning, illegal mining, sand winning and logging are the predominant land use (livelihood) activities in the corridor. The confusion matrix of the classified images produced an overall accuracy of 88.8% with kappa coefficient of 0.9. From 2011-2021 closed savannah, bare land/agriculture areas and water resources decreased by 6.5%, 3% and 0.1% respectively. On the other hand, open savannah increased by 9.7% for the same time frame. This suggests that closed savannah areas continue to suffer degradation from the anthropogenic activities taking place in the corridor. The impact of anthropogenic activities cuts across all the sections (300m buffer zone) of the corridor. Anthropogenic activities within the corridor show a spatially clustered distributed pattern. Consequently, the article argues that the destructive human activities taking place within the corridor can easily be monitored and halted by the responsible stakeholders. The article therefore tasks the Government of Ghana to design and enforce laws on a permissible ecological-friendly buffer zone for riparian communities within the corridor and similar areas in the country. The article again recommends that some degraded sections of the BVR corridor should be reclaimed for posterity.