The population of Ghana is increasing rapidly, and at the same time a
greater percentage of the population is moving into cities. The result is
that population centers and the agricultural lands that support them
are expanding over space and reducing the amount of natural land
cover. Analysis of LCLUC between 2000 and 2010 identified several
changes of interest. Most notable, 69% of the LCLU changes within the
study area were associated with conversion to Agriculture. At the
same time, approximately 25% of 2000 Agriculturalwas found to be fallow
(or possibly abandoned in some cases) by 2010. Change to Built
represented 7% of the LCLUC, which includes 6% from Agriculture and
1% from Natural Vegetation. Further analysis of urbanization patterns
derived using the LCLU maps described here, as well as examination of
Built change in relation to populations change, may be found in Stow
et al. (2016). Results from this study indicate that population expansion
in southern Ghana is substantially affecting the natural environment,
continuing patterns of environmental degradation preceding the 2000
period. Freely available Landsat imagery and classification methods utilized
here many be used to further monitor LCLUC in the region as the
population continues to expand at ever increasing rates.