Introduction
Location Map
Base Map
Database Schema
Conventions
GIS Analyses
Flowchart
GIS Concepts
Results
Conclusion
References

Land Use Change Detection in Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan, a Secondary City in Republic of Ghana

Secondary cities are those places which are experiencing rapid urban growth in developing countries. They are not the primary or megacities – but those places that are often overlooked and understudied. These cities are hubs of commerce, services, migration networks, and politics. Their population may range from 500,000 to 5 million – for example, a secondary city in China will be very different from a secondary city in Ghana in terms of population. These places are regionally important in terms of the future of the country in which they are located and then may be vulnerable to disasters.

Population growth is one of the main drivers of changes in land use land cover (LULC). Increasing human population requires more place to live, more economic activities and ultimately changes in Earth’s surface. Therefore urban expansion is considered as main factor leading to modification of Earth and which makes it an important topic in world’s environmental studies. Studies on urban expansion patterns are important to understand its impact on environment and to determine the judicious use of natural resources.

Sekondi-Takoradi metropolitan is located in strategically important place in Western region of Ghana. It is experiencing a fast change in LULC for reasons chiefly related to converting non-urban areas to urban areas and for economic activities.

In this website you will find a change detection analysis performed on the Sekondi-Takoradi. The purpose of this study is to assess the extent of urban growth for the metropolis over a time period of past 29 year. For this purpose we utilized the Landsat Surface Reflectance data from 1986 and 2015. We plan to determine the areas where urban expansion has happened and to determine the percent change in LULC.  In addition, we plan to correlate the presence of health care facilities in the metropolis with the urban expansion and will determine the hot-spots which need the health care facilities to meet the needs of expanding metropolis.