Abstract
This study analyzed and assessed spatio-temporal dynamics of land-use change (LUC) and urban expansion (UE) within the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) of Ghana. This region serves as a case to illustrate how a major economic hub and political core area is experiencing massive spatial transformations, resulting in uneven geographies of urban land expansion. Quickbird/Worldview-2 images for the years 2008 and 2017 were segmented and classified to produce LUC maps. LUC and UE were analyzed by post-classification change detection and spatial metrics, respectively. The results revealed an intensive decrease in open-space by 83.46 km2, brushland/farmland (194.29 km2) and waterbody/wetland (3.32 km2). Conversely, forestland and urban built-up area increased by 3.45 km2 and 277.62 km2. Urban extent expanded from 411.45 km2 (27%) in 2008 to 689.07 km2 (46%) in 2017 at a rate of 5.9% and an intensity of 2.06% with an expansion coefficient of 1.5%, indicating low-density urban sprawl. The spatial pattern turned out to be an uneven and spatially differentiated outward expansion, which materialized mainly in districts located within the urban peripheries but intensely towards eastern and western directions, being the frontier and the hotspots of urbanization. Overall, the findings bear important implications for regional spatial planning and development.
Highlights
Urbanization1 -driven land-use change has emerged as a pervasive megatrend and component of environmental change, courting rigorous scientific enquiry both on local and global scales [1]
As urban populations continue to grow as projected to exceed 60% by 2030 [5], urban areas will remain in a dynamic state of expansion and, as such, relentless changes in land use will intensify in ways that require constant investigation [6]
The results obtained from the post-classification change assessment are presented in two sections
Summary
Urbanization1 -driven land-use change has emerged as a pervasive megatrend and component of environmental change, courting rigorous scientific enquiry both on local and global scales [1]. Current processes and spatial patterns of urban expansion strongly induce the conversion of natural landscape to urban/built-up area, thereby causing rapid changes in land use [2,3,4]. As urban populations continue to grow as projected to exceed 60% by 2030 [5], urban areas will remain in a dynamic state of expansion and, as such, relentless changes in land use will intensify in ways that require constant investigation [6]. The study of the land-use change is seen as pivotal to understanding its patterns, processes, and dynamics in order to provide clues for the actors involved in spatial development to ascertain where efforts. Throughout this paper, the descriptors “urbanization” and “urban expansion” are used interchangeably to refer to spatial transformation of land relative to rapid increase in the quantum of urban built-up area.
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