Depletion of Urban Green Space and Its Adverse Effect: A Case of Kumasi, the Former Garden City of West- Africa

Abstract

Incorporating greenery has been a vital aspect of city planning. Landscape planning has been a vital aspect of city planning since the 19^th Century. Since then, landscape planning has become a social necessity. Assessing the impact of the decline in urban green space is very important. Hence, using Kumasi as a case study largely fit due to the decline of the city’s urban green space. Based on this the study assessed the Landcover change between 2000 to 2010 and projected the Landcover/land use for 2020. It also analyzed the temperature recordings from 2000 to 2016. The result revealed that the city has lost 19.59 km² and 33.39 km² of forest and agriculture lands respectively. It was also projected that it will further decline to 0.7 km² and 8.2 km² respectively. Among the various Landcover classes, agriculture lands were the most delicate land use which suffers massive decline in acreage. Moreover, the adverse effect of the decline in green spaces has been evident in high temperatures, unattractive environment, and atmospheric pollution. In the last decade (2000-2010), the city’s temperature increased by 0.2^oC but has dropped in the past six years (2010-2016). Nevertheless, it doesn’t suggest that the impact of the heat waves has reduced due to the reduction in temperature. Conversely, the impact has increased due to the absence of tree cover. Ultimately, Kumasi’s landscape has depleted and has lost a touch of vegetation, hence appropriate measure needs to be put in place.