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Sub-Saharan Africa faces a number of essential issues, including water quality. As such, evaluating the surface water quality of lakes and reservoirs is a crucial part of environmental monitoring and management. Especially in a region where these water bodies serve as a source of livelihood for communities living around them. Water quality parameters (WQPs) are usually taken from the site and sent to the laboratory for measurement and analysis. However, this traditional method is time-consuming, costly, and labor-intensive. Combining geographic information system and remote sensing (RS) allows researchers to analyze WQPs more conveniently. This study, therefore, used RS technology to map and estimate WQPs and correlated it with in-situ measurement. Using the empirical regression model and Landsat 8, WQPs such as chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), total suspended solids (TSS) and turbidity were estimated. The results from RS were correlated with the in-situ measurements of water quality. The results showed that the in-situ Chl-a levels varied from 0.206 to 13.5 mg/L, averaging 5.1 mg/L. The Chl-a values estimated from Landsat 8 had R 2 of 0.883 and 0.853, respectively, for both periods (17 December 2022 and 16 March 2023). The green band (B3) was more instrumental in detecting Chl-a. The in-situ measurement for TSS ranged between 18 and 48 mg/L, with a mean value of 28.7 mg/L. These readings were low and within tolerable bounds of 50 mg/L. High TSS concentrations were found near farms and communities with a significant influx of silt into the surrounding lake. The comparison of in-situ water quality and the reflectance from satellite data showed that the turbidity estimated from the sensor from the two periods has R 2 > 0.65. The study showed that the combination of the Landsat image and in-situ measurement offers great ways to provide timely and affordable estimation from WQPs.

Urbanisation in Ghana has been associated with significant effects on the land surface temperature which has its impacts on the natural environment. Conventional literature exhibits that land surface temperature associated with urbanisation have concentrated in the developed world leaving the African terrain unattended to. Hence, its knowledge and implications in Africa and for that matter Ghana is deficient. This study is two-pronged a) examines the relationship between land surface temperature coupled with its spatial patterns (b) examines the surface urban heat island and urban-rural gradient in Greater Accra region of Ghana. Landsat images for 1991, 2002, 2012 and 2020 were used where demarcations for spatial integrity were done. The use of machine learning algorithms were adopted in the land use classification. It was observed that Accra would experience high impervious surface mostly due to rural-urban migration purposely to seek for employment. It was concluded that in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (especially goals 3,6,11 and 13) more efforts should be made to improve the conditions in the rural areas in order to curtail the migration drive which does not only put pressure on the social amenities in the urban areas but also exacerbate in the land surface temperature situation.

Abstract Land use land cover changes (LULCC) caused by mining-related activities have profound impacts on agricultural production, particularly in areas of rich mineral resources in Ghana. The three districts of study are undergoing significant land transformation due to major mining-related activities. In recent times, mining has destroyed much of the arable land as farmers rent their farmland for mining activities, resulting in the destruction of farmland and a decline in crop production. This research assessed the relationship between LULCC and mining and its ensuing effect on crop yield in Central Region of Ghana, of Ghana. Remote sensing data and ground truth data were used to determine the land use changes and the patterns of agricultural land loss resulting from both legal and illegal mining, random forest algorithm in Google Earth Engine (GEE) was used for the classification. Questionnaires, focus group discussions and crop yield data were analysed together with the classified maps to assess the extent mining activities have affected agricultural output. The results showed massive land use change from one class to another. From 2016 to 2022, mining and built-up increased by 61.9% and 22.0% per year, respectively, while Dense Forests, agricultural lands, and water bodies decreased by 5.1%, 5.7% and 4.2% per year, respectively. Thus, crop loss was significant in mining areas (i.e. 35%) when compared to dominant agricultural areas (i.e. 18%). The findings of this study offer valuable insights to assist planners and decision-makers in formulating strategies to preserve green belts in the region.

Managing solid waste effectively has become a burden for many countries especially thedeveloping and the least developed ones. Policies are made as guidelines for various actorsin the waste management sector to implement, but implementation also comes withresource availability and the capacity of the actors to ensure their roles in the policy areachieved. This research focuses on the actors in the solid waste management in twoassemblies of Ghana: the New Juaben Municipal Assembly and the Accra MetropolitanAssembly. The study explores the capacity of the stakeholders in these two study areas inrelation to their roles in the Environmental Sanitation Policy of Ghana, looking at theircurrent practices in solid waste management. A seven weeks field research in Ghanainvolving the use of semi‐structured interviews, informal interviews, snow‐ball sampling,participant observation and focus group discussion with actors within the solid wastemanagement sector, provided for the data of the study. The study identifies somechallenges of these actors and gives recommendation of some issues which would requirefurther research.