Impact of mining on vegetation cover: A case study of Prestea Huni-Valley municipality

Abstract

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes are the direct and indirect consequences of human actions to secure essential resources for a successful livelihood. Therefore, it has become essential to analyze such changes for effective management of natural resources and protection of our environment. Anthropogenic factors such as urbanization, mining, and population increase in the Prestea Huni-Valley municipality are causing rapid changes to the land cover. These factors among others are putting a lot of pressure on the vegetation and this has dire consequences on the availability and protection of the vegetative cover. Given this, the study focused on assessing the impact of mining on vegetation cover with a particular focus on Prestea Huni-Valley municipality. Multi-spectral satellite images of the study area from 1986 to 2016 were spatially analyzed to identify the LULC change patterns. Modeling and analysis of these images were performed using IDRISI and R software. Six land cover classes were identified including forest, open vegetation, cultivated areas, bare lands, built-up, and mine sites. The result showed that the forest, open vegetation, and bare areas decreased by 14.59 %, 3.86 %, and 8.36 % respectively whereas cultivated, built up and mines increased by 6.31 %, 3.14 %, and 7.36 % respectively.