Managing watersheds in Ghana through land use planning: a case of Offin watershed

ABSTRACT

Unregulated land use development within watersheds immensely degrades water bodies in developing countries. This study uses sociallymixed methods and spatial analysis approaches to identify and explicate the land use activities within the Offin watershed in Ghana. The study, which used Landsat images obtained from the US Geological Survey, found that the watershed of Offin has undergone extensive land use/cover change. The impact of land use/cover change on the Offin watershed is aggravated by the varied rainfall pattern in the area. The study recommends the adoption and enforcement of land use planning strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Land use planning
• watershed
• Offin River
• land use changes
• land cover
• vegetation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabriel Appiah

Gabriel Appiah is a Regional Planner at Siouxland Metropolitan Planning Council, USA. He has research interest in environmental sustainability; transportation planning; economic development and governance. Gabriel Appiah holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Studies from Minnesota State University and a Bachelor of Science in Planning from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana).

Raymond Asomani-Boateng

Raymond Asomani-Boateng is a Professor in the Urban and Regional Studies at Minnesota State. He has research interest in urban sustainability, land-use planning, food systems planning and municipal solid waste management planning. His research has been published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER). Case Studies in Transport, Journal of Environmental Systems, Habitat International, Third World Planning Review, and Journal of Urbanism. Raymond serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), Habitat International, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) Public Transport, Wetlands, Sustainability, Geo-journal, and African Geographical Review. He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development.