361 
the general 
lan, 1962, 
ave and White, 
:ions into 
3u, 1963) 
3 which have 
arai oossibi- 
antlv, 
ducted into 
a of long 
was launched 
1984) has 
ransmission 
3nseouently 
ulpawn 
aich before 
3 (OCP, 1973) 
ns attracted 
e into the 
abilitate 
» (1985) are 
rated ago- 
e area, 
aina that 
rcunied areas, 
anqe ooten- 
The oresent 
:hin the limits 
2 imaaery 
nrovide the 
.ncludinq 
i its land- 
jLITE IMAGERY 
¡at scenes 
u From 1973 
r the study. 
: presented 
end dust-about 
The cover 
The contrast 
! recretation 
1 sharpness 
elds. 
ected for 
d 5 and the 
ndividually 
settlement 
Veaetation 
• could be 
healthy 
sediment- 
The near 
ation of the 
lv thereby 
the oreen 
d neighbour- 
he Earth 
e final 
ide print at 
the dominant 
es was false, 
on was falsely 
near natural 
he rivers 
rk blue; but 
blueish 
f large 
roads 
or reddish 
The study was indeed aware of not only the weakness 
of using a single-date imagery but also the problems 
associated with out-dated land use information of an 
imagery ten years old; however, within the constrain 
ts imposed by the lack of additional imacreries, colla 
teral information from both formal and non-formal 
sources were utilized to support FCC data-analysis. 
The collateral materials came frem the following 
sources: extracts iron the periodic economic survey 
reports convering the Northern Region (CBS 1979-1981); 
annual reports of agronomic and farm mechanization 
trials in agricultural stations and on-farm projects; 
technical reports on forestry, fisheries crop deve 
lopment, livestock and wildlife potentials of the 
Northern Region (NORRIP Tech. Reports, 1983). Frcm 
the daily newspapers and radio forum came those 
relevant nieces Q f news about land development and 
the environment. Also a special aerial surveillance 
flight was organized primarily to match the 1975 FCC 
information with the 1984 terrain details in order 
to estimate the general trend of the land use situa 
tion over the ten year period. The effectiveness 
of this last activity was however hampered by the 
lateness of the recce flight which came four weeks 
after the imagery date. This interval of time spelt 
so much changes in the landscape due to early on-set 
of the dry season and the'rapidspread of bush fires. 
There was also overcast of harmattan fog which redu 
ced visibility considerably. Notwithstanding the 
problemsencountered in the aerial recce flight,it 
was possible to have impressions of those broad 
changes that had occured, though these could not be 
mapped on the basis of the data at hand. Finally 
the 1970 and 1984 population census figures were 
integrated with landsat data. A supportive stere 
oscopic interpretation of the existing, though out 
dated aerial photographs, of the 1960's situation, 
was carried out to verify the landform characteris 
tics of the photcmorphic units which were delineated 
with the FCC. 
Table: 1 interpretative elements of the landscapes 
and their FCC characteristics 
Landscape Element 
FCC Characteristics 
Nucleated large settle - - 
ments and associated com 
pact land uses 
Light blue 
Dispersed traditional 
settlements and associa 
ted farm and grazing lands 
White to yellowish 
Disseminated patches 
Large Mechnized farm 
plots/eroded surfaces 
in the valleys and depre 
ssions 
Linear Shape, White 
in colour, valley 
site 
DepressionsSloughs 
seasonally Swamped 
Bluish/greenish blue, 
stipples of red/dots, 
associated with streams 
Riparian Woodland on 
terraces and leavees 
in the flood plain 
Linear shape; red/ 
orange red with course 
texture, located along 
stream bank. 
Upland range terrain 
Mainly woodland with 
hebaceous undergrowth 
Dominantly red to 
reddish orange and 
sandy texture 
Mainly covered with 
shurb savannah 
Balanced mixture of 
green and orange mott- 
lings on yellowish 
background 
PHOTCMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF LAND OCCUPATION ZONES 
In the FCC imagery, one could discern a number of 
descriptive landscape elements. These and their FCC 
characteristics of tone, colour ranae, texture and 
pattern were photo-keyed (Table 1) and applied to 
differentiate the landscapes into photographically 
hemogenious units. The interpretative elements, when 
they were taken simultaneously together, defined 
those fairly homogenous unit areas into photcmorphic 
unit (Leighly, 1965, MaccPhail, 1971) 
These units on the FCC imaaery were delineated into 
four broad intensity levels of land occupation. The 
Figure 2. The Mid - White Vplta Basin: Zones of 
varying intensitv o^ lanf occupation, 
associated soil tvnes assessed for 
agriculture* 
Land occupation zones: 
I The Trans White Volta Frontier II The White 
Volta Floodplain Frontier III The Nabogo - 
Nasia Frontier IV Transition into permanent 
occupation 
Soils broadly assessed for hand and mechanized 
cultivation 
A: Suitable ^or hand and mechanized cultivation 
B: ioderately suitable for mechanization but 
good for hand cultivation 
C: Marginally suitable for hand cultivation, 
unsuitable for mechanization 
D: Very shallow, gravelly soils unsuitable for 
farming 
E: Stonv, oravelly surfaces not to be cultivated. 
* Sources: 
(a) Photcmorphic delineation with M SS-FCC o f Land- 
sat 2 imagery, November 1975 
(b) S.V. Adu, Soils of the White Volta and Nasia 
Basins, Soil Research Institute (1968) Kumasi,