11. Urban Sprawl and Landscape Transition in Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly

The rapid rate at which cities and towns are urbanising is of concern to urban planners globally. Urbanisation has caused urban sprawl and densification of urban landscapes of cities. This chapter is based on a project that has used remote sensing and social survey methods to assess the transformation of the physical landscape into urban landscape in the Awutu Senya East Municipality between 1986 and 2021. Remote sensing analysis entailed image classification and change detection. Social survey involving questionnaire administration and key informant interviews were conducted to ascertain the causes and impacts of declining vegetative cover. Vegetation and barelands were more transformed into urban landscape. Rising population of the locality related to urban sprawl and intensification causing a decrease in vegetal cover and barelands from a coverage of 53.5% and 35.4%, respectively, in 1986 to 15.3% and 13.7%, respectively, in 2021, while built-up environment increased from 9.7% in 1986 to 70.6% in 2021. Most conversions of vegetation were between 1986 and 2002, barelands between 2002 and 2021 while built-up assumed a rising trend throughout the period. The main driving force of vegetal and bareland diminution is urbanisation which caused an increase in the built-up environment. The landscape transformation is perceived to be causing urban heat, urban aesthetic damage, flooding, etc. The study recommends the development and implementation of a land use plan focusing on urban greening to improve upon the ecological services of the municipality.