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AN APPRAISAL OF RURAL LAND USE CHANGE IN THE FOREST SAVANNA 
ZONE OF SOUTHERN GHANA USING REMOTELY SENSED DATA 
Sosthenes Kwadzo Kufogbe 
G.T. Agyepong, E.A. Gyasi 
L. Enu-Kwesi, T.S. Hansen 
University of Ghana 
Department of Geography and Resource Development 
P.O.Box 59, Legon Accra, Ghana 
ABSTRACT 
Preliminary field investigation of rural land use change in sample areas in the forest-savanna transition zone 
of southem Ghana has been conducted in October 1993 as part of the Population, Land Management and 
Environmental Change (PLEC) Project . The objective was to examine both the nature and causes of growing 
environmental endangerment which appear to threaten future capacity to offer life - support in this sensitive 
ecotone. In connection with this paper, the results of the PLEC study have been interpreted within the context 
of digital image analysis using 1985 Landsat TM sub-scene of Accra. Owing to the extremely small size of 
fields characteristic of agrarian systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, only broad groups of land use and cover 
classes comprising settlements, and areas under both current cultivation and fallow, were delineated through 
both the digital analysis and the aerial photo interpretation procedure. 
Field methods comprising mainly measurements along selected transects proved useful as alternative 
techniques for the detailed investigation of the land use patterns. The coarse resolution of satellite data posed 
serious limitations in the study. Until significant improvements are made in satellite sensor resolution aerial 
photograph interpretation, supported by field work, would remain the most practicable remote sensing 
technique for detailed rural land use appraisal in less developed countries. 
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