Spatio-Temporal Mapping of Land Use/Cover and Population Change in a Biosphere Reserve: The Case of Lake Bosomtwe Basin in Ashanti Region, Ghana

Abstract

This paper examined land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics over 34 years in the Bosomtwe biosphere vis-à-vis population trends within a buffer of 5km using an integrated remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) approach to assess the changes in the land use and land cover. Supervised classification and post-classification change detection technique in GIS was applied to three multi-temporal Landsat images (1986, 2007, and 2020). The date selection was informed by the availability of Landsat imagery with limited cloud cover. The analysis showed that the built-up category recorded the highest percentage change (260.2%) with an annual rate of 7.7%. Forest cover recorded a loss of 66.3% of area coverage with an increase in farmland from 50.8% in 1986 to 68.5% in 2020. Besides, Lake Bosomtwe was contracted by 0.76 km2 over the period under review. There was a strong positive correlation between population density and both cropland (r = 0.89) and built-up areas (r = 0.70). It is recommended that intensification of monitoring activities by the district assembly would help to reduce the anthropogenic activities being conducted in the area.