Modeling the internal structure, dynamics and trends of urban sprawl in Ghanaian cities using remote sensing, spatial metrics and spatial analysis

In Ghana, studies on urban sprawl have focused on the use of conventional survey maps and qualitative descriptions that mask policy-relevant information for planning. We apply remote sensing data and spatial statistics to examine the Spatio-temporal dynamics in the internal structure of two cities. We find that the total area of the urban fabric in Wa increased from 11.365ha ± 0.413ha in 1986 to 1, 775.848ha ± 52.094ha in 2017, while Tamale’s increased from 715.425ha ± 5.969ha in 1984 to 6,890.177ha ± 208.105ha in 2017. The results also revealed contiguity in urban clusters. We discuss the implications of our findings within the context of spatial planning in Ghana.