Modeling the internal structure, dynamics and trends of urban sprawl in Ghanaian cities using remote sensing, spatial metrics and spatial analysis

ABSTRACT

In Ghana, studies on urban sprawl have focused on the use of conventional survey maps and qualitative descriptions that mask policy-relevant information for planning. We apply remote sensing data and spatial statistics to examine the Spatio-temporal dynamics in the internal structure of two cities. We find that the total area of the urban fabric in Wa increased from 11.365ha ± 0.413ha in 1986 to 1, 775.848ha ± 52.094ha in 2017, while Tamale’s increased from 715.425ha ± 5.969ha in 1984 to 6,890.177ha ± 208.105ha in 2017. The results also revealed contiguity in urban clusters. We discuss the implications of our findings within the context of spatial planning in Ghana.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatio-temporal dynamics
• urban sprawl
• spatial metrics
• spatial analysis
• Wa
• Tamale
• Ghana

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewer(s) for their constructive comments in the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel Kpienbaareh

Daniel Kpienbaareh is a PhD candidate at the Department of Geography, Western University. His research interests are: application of GIS and remote sensing in environment and health research, and land use/cover analysis.

Isaac Luginaah

Isaac Luginaah is a Professor at the Department of Geography, Western University and scholar of the Royal Society of Canada and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the geographies of environment and health, sustainable agriculture and food security.