Browsing by Author "Yevugah, Lily Lisa"

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    Spatial mapping of carbon stock in mangroves in the Ellembelle District, Ghana.
    (October, 2016) Yevugah, Lily Lisa
    Compared to other wetland ecosystems, mangroves are well known for their numerous ecosystem services, especially carbon pool. In Ghana, however, there is limited information on the sequestered carbon in mangroves. There is increasing interest on national climate change mitigation and adaptation plans in mangroves in developing nations, and Ellembelle in the Western Region of Ghana is of no exception. Ellembelle, the study area, is one of the areas where the little information on the size and variation of mangrove carbon stock needs to be addressed. This research, therefore, aimed at determining the carbon stock from the carbon sequestered in mangrove and the areal extent in mangrove forest. It also aimed at determining the changes that has occurred over the years 1991, 2000 and 2015, and the prediction for 2025. The spatial map of the mangrove forest was obtained using a random forest classification algorithm to determine the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) for the mangrove forest in Ellembelle in the Western Region of Ghana. The accuracy assessment for the classified images of 1991, 2000 and 2015 are 76.16%, 82.45% and 81.13% respectively; with kappa of 0.70, 0.78 and 0.76 respectively. The mangrove cover in 1991 was 298.35 ha, in 2000 it increased to 350.01ha and further increased in 2015 to 374.49ha. A change map was used to determine the changes of mangrove in the years 1991 to 2000 and 2000 to 2015. A Markov chain analysis used to predict mangrove extent showed that mangrove will increase to 381.69ha in 2025. The ecosystem carbon density estimate for the mangrove forest was weighted based on their spatial distribution across the landscape to yield a total carbon stock of for the Ellembelle mangrove forest. The error obtained from the 95% Confidence Interval was + 1.53%, which is within the acceptable levels of uncertainty based on the Monte Carlo Analysis. The overall carbon estimated for 2015 based on the area for mangrove was 1,550,295 tons with an uncertainty of +57,125.40 tons.