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Urban land-cover change is increasing dramatically in most developing nations. In Africa and in the New Juaben municipality of Ghana in particular, political stability and active socioeconomic progress has pushed the urban frontier into the countryside at the expense of the natural ecosystems at ever-increasing rates. Using Landsat satellite imagery from 1985 to 2003, the study found that the urban core expanded by 10%% and the peri-urban areas expanded by 25%% over the period. Projecting forward to 2015, it is expected that urban infrastructure will constitute 70%% of the total land area in the municipality. Giving way to urban expansion were losses in open woodlands (19%%), tree fallow (9%%), croplands (4%%), and grass fallow (3%%), with further declines expected for 2015. Major drivers of land-cover changes are attributed to demographic changes and past microeconomic policies, particularly the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP); the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP); and, more recently, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS). Pluralistic land administration, complications in the land tenure systems, institutional inefficiencies, and lack of capacity in land administration were also key drivers of land-cover changes in the New Juaben municipality. Policy recommendations are presented to address the associated challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Land-use change is driven by many interrelated factors including national policies formulated in response to the forces of globalization. This study integrates remote sensing data with social surveys to identify the role of demographic, technology and market-related variables in cropland expansion during economic reforms in Ghana. Macroeconomic changes increased the commercial orientation of farming as the sources of food supply changed from import to domestic production. However interest rates liberalization increased the use of labor at the expense of fertilizer and other complementary inputs. Demographic variables were more important in explaining cropland change after structural adjustment. Public agricultural support services are required for sustainable market-induced agricultural change in Ghana. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]