An application of GIS and coastal geomorphology for large scale assessment of coastal erosion and management: A case study of Ghana
An application of GIS and coastal geomorphology for large scale assessment of coastal erosion and management: A case study of Ghana
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Date
2012-09
Authors
Boateng, Isaac
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Journal of Coastal Conservation
Abstract
t Coastal erosion poses serious threat to life and
12 properties along Ghana’s coast. This is because major in 13 dustries, urban settlements, recreational facilities, heritage
14 and conservation sites are located few metresfrom the coast.
15 In spite of this threat, management strategies, both past and
16 present, remain an “ad hoc” and site specific. Limited atten 17 tion has been given to large scale assessment and investiga 18 tion to detect the rate of coastal recession and the size of
19 land lost to the sea to inform integrated management plan
20 and to formulate sustainable management strategies to deal
21 with the problem. This paper provides large scale assess 22 ment of coastal recession in Ghana through field investiga 23 tion, applied coastal geomorphology and GIS techniques to
24 selected case study areas. The assessment covered 203 km
25 out of the 540 km coastline of Ghana. Results of the assess 26 ment indicate that coastal erosion is very substantial and
27 wide spread along the coast, but the rate of recession varies
28 across the entire coastline. Significant amounts of losses of
29 settlements have been experienced in some localities in the
30 eastern coast (Keta and Ada) and the central coast (Accra,
31 Shama and Sekondi-Takoradi).In some areas, coastal defen 32 ces have been built to reduce the impacts, yet many areas are
33 still very vulnerable. Interestingly, the paper identified that
34 the high rates of retreat recorded in many areas have yet to
35 cause major risks in some local communities because of the
36 presence of a buffer of largely undeveloped land that has
37 existed historically between the shoreline and the develop 38 ments. However, recent increase in coastal tourism in Ghana
39 has led to “scramble” for purchase of these buffer lands for
development, which increase the risk. Ghana has the oppor- 40
tunity to use education and land use planning to keep the 41
coastline clear of major developments and avoid the temp- 42
tation of engaging in costly cycle of development-risk- 43
defence experienced in many countries including the UK 44
and the Netherlands. The paper recommends that Ghana 45
should adopt the UK SMP, which has progressively moved 46
away from the traditional re-active and parochial approaches 47
of providing localised hard-engineered coastal defence work 48
to solve what was perceived to be a local problem, to a more 49
pro-active and holistic approach that take full account of 50
coastal dynamics, interrelationships of coastal systems, 51
knock-on effects, environment concerns and developments 52
at the backshore.
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Citation
Boateng, I. (2012). An application of GIS and coastal geomorphology for large scale assessment of coastal erosion and management: a case study of Ghana. Journal of coastal conservation, 16, 383-397.