Impact of mining on land use land cover change and water quality in the Asutifi North District of Ghana, West Africa

Gbedzi, Divine Dodzi; Ofosu, Eric Antwi; Mortey, Eric Mensah; Obiri-Yeboah, Abena; Nyantakyi, Emmanuel Kwesi; Siabi, Ebenezer K.; Abdallah, Faisal; Domfeh, Martin Kyereh; Amankwah-Minkah, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.envc.2022.100441

Cited by 46 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Elsewhere, a recent study using Landsat derived land cover maps estimated there had been 47,000 ha of deforestation across Ghana between 2005 and 2019 that can be attributed to the expansion of mining developments 28 . This follows previous, methodologically similar, studies which identified mining as the main driver of deforestation in the Asutifi North District 29 and the Ankobrah River 30 , 31 . The methodology these studies use gives a measure of the direct forest loss in the vicinity of new mining developments.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Quasi-experimental analysis of new mining developments as a driver of deforestation in Zambia

Morley

Buchanan

Mitchard

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Mining is a vital part of the global, and many national, economies. Mining also has the potential to drive extensive land cover change, including deforestation, with impacts reaching far from the mine itself. Understanding the amount of deforestation associated with mining is important for conservationists, governments, mining companies, and consumers, yet accurate quantification is rare. We applied statistical matching, a quasi-experimental methodology, along with Bayesian hierarchical generalized linear models to assess the impact on deforestation of new mining developments in Zambia from 2000 to present. Zambia is a globally significant producer of minerals and mining contributes ~ 10% of its gross domestic product and ~ 77% of its exports. Despite extensive deforestation in mining impacted land, we found no evidence that any of the 22 mines we analysed increased deforestation compared with matched control sites. The extent forest lost was therefore no different than would likely have happened without the mines being present due to other drivers of deforestation in Zambia. This suggests previous assessments based on correlative methodologies may overestimate the deforestation impact of mining. However, mining can have a range of impacts on society, biodiversity, and the local environment that are not captured by our analysis.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Quasi-experimental analysis of new mining developments as a driver of deforestation in Zambia

Morley

Buchanan

Mitchard

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…A better assessment of land-use changes in a protected area is more important than ever, given the growing fast changes in LULC in response to human population expansion in the emerging city mainly due to human factors and impacts [41,42]. Although there are numerous LULC assessment methods available, none of them provides a complete picture of changes and their underlying causes [43][44][45]. Precipitation, underground water, and other drainage basin components in Africa's floodplain are largely altered by natural pursuits and processes.…”

Section: Avoided Runoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity Conservation of National Parks and Nature-protected Areas in West Africa: The Case of Kainji National Park, Nigeria

Tang¹,

Adesina²

2022

Preprint

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Due to rising global warming and climate change, biodiversity protection has become a critical ecological concern. The rich biodiversity zones are under threat and are deteriorating, necessitating national, regional, and provincial efforts to safeguard these natural areas. The effective conservation of National Parks and Nature-protected Areas helps to improve biodiversity conservation, forest, and urban air quality. The continuous encroachment and abuse of these protected areas have degraded the ecosystem over time. While exploring the geophysical ecology and biodiversity conservation of these areas in West Africa, Kainji National Park was selected for this study because of its notable location, naturalness, rich habitat diversity, topographic uniqueness, and landmass. The conservation of national parks and nature-protected areas is a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation globally. This study is aimed at the target of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, 2030- Climate Action, targeted at taking urgent action towards combating climate change and its impacts. The study captures both flora and fauna that are dominant in the study area. The 15 identified tree species were selected from over 30 species with 563,500,000 (an average of 3,700,000 in each sample frame) trees for every tree species/type with a total of 63% tree green canopy cover. The study areas divided into three zones were randomly sampled within a stratum of 25x25km frames divided into 150 sample frames for proper analyses using the i-Tree Eco v6.0.23. The following microclimatic data were captured and analyzed; photosynthetically active radiation, rain/precipitation, temperature, transpiration, evaporation, water intercepted by trees, avoided a runoff by trees, potential evaporation by trees, isoprene and monoterpene by trees. This study also further discusses the tree benefits of a green, low carbon, and sustainable environment within the context of biodiversity conservation considering carbon storage, carbon sequestration, hydrology effects, pollution removal, oxygen production, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There is a quick need for remotely-sensed information about the protected areas at regular intervals and government policies must be strict against illegal poaching, logging activities and other hazardous human impacts.

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“…In the Guinea zone deforestation, slash-and-burn agriculture, population growth, and urbanization are the major human factors driving land cover change. Integration of West Africa into the global economy with investment in the timber and gold industry has led to signi cant loss in forest areas through logging and mining activities in the Guinean forest countries (Cotillon and Tappan, 2016;Gbedzi et al, 2022). Urban demand for charcoal for cooking is met by tree-falling for charcoal production mainly from the Sudanian zone.…”

Section: Spatiotemporal Land Cover Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between climate and land use land cover change over West Africa

Mortey

Annor

Arnault

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The relationship between climate and land use land cover change over West Africa has often been assessed with climate simulations, although the model-based approach suffers from the limitations of climate models specifically for West Africa. In this paper, an alternative approach based on physical analysis of historical land cover data and standardized climatic indices is used to investigate climate-land interactions to establish the climatic thresholds and their corresponding land use impacts. Annualized land change intensities and the climatic indices are first estimated separately and then linked at various spatiotemporal scales. The result shows that climate-induced land cover change results from abrupt changes in climatic conditions. A regional change of (-1.0–1.0)\(℃\), (0–1.5)\(℃\),(-0.5–0.5)\(℃\), and up to \(\pm\)50 mm changes in precipitation and climatic water balance leads to (45039–52133) km2, (20935–22127) km2 and approximately 32000 km2 changes respectively, while a \(\pm\)0.5\(℃\) and \(\pm\)20 mm change represents normal climate conditions with changes below 20000 km2. Conversely, the plausible pathways through which West African land surface impacts the climate is the conversion of cropland, forest, grassland, and shrubland. The average climatic risk ranges from − 0.025 to 0.025 yr−1 while the probability of occurrence ranged variably from 0 to 0.833. The results offer the basis to re-evaluate land and climatic information necessary for improving the reliability of climate models over West Africa. For sustainable development, this work reveals the need for policy-driven interventions for efficient resource management and the prevention of degradation and deforestation in the region.

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Impact of mining on land use land cover change and water quality in the Asutifi North District of Ghana, West Africa

Cited by 46 publications

References 22 publications

Quasi-experimental analysis of new mining developments as a driver of deforestation in Zambia

Quasi-experimental analysis of new mining developments as a driver of deforestation in Zambia

Biodiversity Conservation of National Parks and Nature-protected Areas in West Africa: The Case of Kainji National Park, Nigeria

Relationship between climate and land use land cover change over West Africa

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