Benjamin Kofi Nyarko

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Cape Coast

Background Many Delta residents are dependent on climate-sensitive resources for their survival. Nonetheless, these resources are susceptible to climatic change and variability. The Volta delta of Ghana is severely impacted by sea-level rise resulting in flooding, salinisation and permanent loss of lands, with relentless social and economic consequ...

Plastic pollution has become increasingly apparent in sandy beach zones and aquatic environments, creating more than just visual pollution. Impacts are observed in many environmental and social levels, including the fishing communities that depend on the coastal environment for their livelihoods. Plastic pollution was assessed on the sandy beaches...

This research investigates the influence of remote climate indices, such as ENSO, NAO, IOD, and others on rainfall and temperature variability in northern Ghana, where climate fluctuations impact agriculture, socio-economic and livelihood activities. Using data from 1960–2016, multivariate regression models were applied to analyse correlations betw...

West Africa’s vulnerability to climate change is influenced by a complex interplay of socio-economic and environmental factors, exacerbated by the region’s reliance on rain-fed agriculture. Climate variability, combined with rapid population growth, intensifies existing socio-economic challenges. Migration has become a key adaptive response to thes...

Climate change, population growth, rapid urbanization, shifting dietary patterns, and economic development pose significant challenges to food security, particularly in the Global South. Addressing these challenges involves efforts aimed at sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI), especially for smallholder farmers in marginalized regions. H...

Migration in West Africa is driven by socio-economic, political, environmental and climatic factors. In Ghana, north-south migration has been linked to rainfall variability and soil degradation. This study uses Ghana’s 2021 census microdata to measure internal migration between districts and explores its drivers using remote sensing. The migration...

Agricultural-land use policies play a crucial role in shaping agroecological landscapes globally. The evidence suggests that some of these policies tend to have undesired feedback/trade-offs, particularly about coastal resource use and conservation planning. The present study explores how agricultural policies influence land use/ land cover (LULC)...

Introduction Leveraging data science could significantly advance the understanding of the health impacts of climate change and air pollution to meet health systems’ needs and improve public health in Africa. This scoping review will aim to identify and synthesise evidence on the use of data science as an intervention to address climate change and a...

The incidence of flooding in cities of the global south has become perennial with increasing urbanization, showing a lack of targeted approach to the challenge. The objective of this research was to develop a resilient and an integrated approach to stormwater management that could be used to inform policy. The Research for Design model was adopted...

Artisanal fisheries in Ghana account for more than two-thirds of the country’s food fish production and employ or support up to 2 million people. However, many fish stocks are close to collapse through overexploitation, especially stocks such as sardinella that are a staple food for Ghanaians. Climate change is expected to affect the fish themselve...

Studies on freshwater bodies in Ghana for their sustainability are mostly concentrated on a few large rivers. However, other equally important rivers that do not attract research attention provide varied services and benefits to inhabitants and living organisms in their riparian communities. The basin of River Amissa as a major source of freshwater...

Climate extremes pose threats to lives and properties. It is therefore critical to assess the dynamics of climate extremes in the future. Knowledge of the appropriate models to be used for projection helps reduces uncertainties in model projections. The study assesses the evolution of 8 extreme temperature indices over the Volta Basin for the 1985–...

Studies on freshwater bodies in Ghana for their sustainability are mostly concentrated on a few large rivers. However, other equally important rivers that do not attract research attention provide varied services and benefits to inhabitants and living organisms in their riparian communities. The basin of River Amissa as a major source of freshwater...

Global climate change and its associated local climate variability and extremes add to the complexity of livelihood (in) security, particularly in semi-arid agro-ecologies where the reliance on climate-sensitive resources is high. To unpack this complexity, this chapter explores the nature of farm-household vulnerability to climate risks in semi-ar...

The goal to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through domestic, resource efficient and low carbon agriculture is importance. Interventions to produce more food could impact the resource-base and lead to increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agroecosystems. Unfortunately, existing methods are limited in analyzing small-scal...

All human activities involve an interaction with their spatial surroundings. When tourists visit new places, it is an unsettling feeling for them to be unfamiliar with the travel routes of a desired destination. Disoriented people are anxious, uncomfortable and generally unhappy. This problem diminishes the travel experience of tourists. Tourists'...

The unsaturated zone of floodplain wetlands in the White Volta River basin provides an inextricable link between basin hydrology and the sustenance of plant growth. The HYDRUS-1D model was used to derive water budgets and to estimate fluxes to understand the hydrological complexities of these wetland systems. The model result indicates Spatio-tempo...

This paper applies an integrated methodology which is constituted of the following: (i) the Emergy-Data Envelopment Analysis (EM-DEA), (ii) environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), (iii) Value Chain Analysis (VCA), and (iv) Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) approaches, -to support multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) for strategic agricu...

Groundwater resources in the floodplain wetlands of the White Volta River basin of Ghana is a major source of water for irrigation activities of communities living around and baseflow to sustain the flow of the river. Hydrology of the floodplain wetlands in the basin is complex, characterized by temporally variable storage volumes with erratic cont...

The Volta Delta has fragile biophysical features affected by damming the Volta River and sand mining among other anthropogenic activities. The disrupted ecosystem adversely impacts livelihoods although efforts have been employed to reduce these impacts including both infrastructure and policies. This chapter describes the biophysical and socio-ecol...

The study sought to classify the coastline between Cape Coast and Sekondi and to evaluate the measures put in place to manage and control sea erosion. It involved field observation and community interactions. Satellite and photographic images were used to present the data with the help of Geographic Information System (GIS). It was observed that th...

This study examined the effect of fires on the distribution of SOCS under different vegetation types. Soil samples were randomly collected on 34 plots and 24 sample points at depths 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm per plot in Northern Region of Ghana. Experimentally, 50m x 50m plots were marked out on burnt and unburnt lands under four different veg...

Over the past decades, hypsometric integral (Hi) and hypsometric curves (Hc) has been used as an estimator of the erosion status to differentiate between erosional landforms at different geological stages during their evolution. Hypsometric analysis has been carried out to determine the susceptibility of watershed to erosion and prioritize them for...

Vitellaria paradoxa (Gaertn C. F.), or shea tree, remains one of the most valuable trees for farmers in the Atacora district of northern Benin, where rural communities depend on shea products for both food and income. To optimize productivity and management of shea agroforestry systems, or "parklands," accurate and up-to-date data are needed. For t...

Questionnqire sheet. (DOCX)

Shea fruit productivity assessment in Atacora department, Benin. (DOCX)

Shea fruit yield in Atacora. (DOCX)

Data collection sheet. (DOCX)

Food insecurity is still a major global concern. Population growth, poverty, climate variability, and low agricultural productivity, among others, are threatening food provision. Rural areas in West Africa are particularly vulnerable due to low financial and physical capacity and high dependency on agriculture. Programs to support food provision ex...

The integration of geographic information systems (GIS) and agent-based models (ABMs) can be an efficient tool to improve spatial planning practices. This paper utilizes GIS and ABM approaches to simulate spatial growth patterns of settlement structures in Shama. A preliminary household survey on residential location decision-making choice served a...

Flood is a hazard with increasing number of events and damages in all parts of the worlds. Many studies and researches have been conducted in understanding the causes of flood, effects and finding solutions to reduce its occurrences. Most of the solutions proposed have failed in the light of changing climate, river morphology and human modification...

Flooding is the most devastating hydro-meteorological hazard in Togo. For instance, communities in the Lower Mono River Basin needs attention because they suffer the impacts almost every year. This paper focused on assessment and mapping of social flood risk in the Lower Mono River Basin, West Africa. The study combined GIS, Remote Sensing, and ind...

Temporal changes in a wetland were studied over a period of 25 years (i.e. 1990-2015) through the use of satellite images to assess the extent of environmental degradation in the Songor Ramsar Site, with special emphasis on fragmentation in the wetland. The study sought to analyse the wetland fragmentation and loss at the site. The specific objecti...

Understanding the processes of coastal erosion calls for several methods to assess its extent and impact. Geomorphological investigation into coastal erosion is based on the shape and size of particles. Its importance is manifested in its ability to interpret past and recent geological forms and processes and to envision paleogeographical environme...

The use of satellite remote sensing in monitoring chlorophyll-a pigments in all marine and fresh open inland water has been a significant issue in the past decades for preserving and monitoring ecological issues related to aquatic systems. Three small lakes in the Netherlands were used to study Chlorophyll-a (absorption coefficient of pigments/phyt...

Apart from the earmarked Ramsar sites along the coastal zones of Ghana, no inventory has been conducted to determine the location, distribution, and status of wetlands within any of its river basins. In this study, a logistic regression model was used within the GIS platform to predict, at pixel level, the presence of a wetland in the basin of the...

Biomass burning in Northern Ghana is a major cause for concern because of its potential contribution to global warming, hence climate change. This study assessed the emission of trace gases from human activities in the Guinea savanna of Northern Ghana using the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Carbon content of biomass w...

Biomass burning in Northern Ghana is a major cause for concern because of its potential contribution to global warming, hence climate change. This study assessed the emission of trace gases from human activities in the Guinea savanna of Northern Ghana using the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Carbon content of biomass w...

The impact of Climate Change has a far-reaching implication for economies and people living in the fragile Regions of Africa analysts project that by 2020, between 75 million and 250 million people will be exposed various forms of Climate Change Stresses. Education as a key strategy identified under Agenda 21 has been incorporated into the efforts...

Stable Isotope and hydrochemical techniques were applied to the study basic hydrological processes in Densu Delta Wetland, a coastal Ramsar site close to Accra, the capital of Ghana. Although the wetland is designated as a Ramsar site due to the proximity to the heavily populated capital city, it has been affected by anthropogenic factors such as m...

Groundwater resources in the floodplain wetlands of the White Volta River basin of Ghana is a major source of water for irrigation activities of communities living around and baseflow to sustain the flow of the river. Hydrology of the floodplain wetlands in the basin are complex, characterized by temporally variable storage volumes with erratic con...

The extent of climate change and its possible effect on crop yield in the Mfantseman area of Ghana was studied. Climatic data was obtained from the Ghana meteorological service, Saltpond. The data obtained were: daily rainfall, temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation recordings covering a period of 20 years. Crop yield data was also obta...

CR-39 SSNTD detects radioactive emissions and by etching provides a means of studying tracks of emitted particles such as Fission Fragments and alpha particles. A new way of imaging etched fission fragments and alpha tracks in CR-39 detector is presented. A commercial software Image Pro Plus is used in digitizing the images, counting and classifyin...

This study determined and characterized the quality of underground water in TwifoHemang Lower Denkyira District (THLDD) of the central region of Ghana. Theresearch involved the determinations of levels of copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese(Mn), zinc (Zn) (using mixed acid microwave digestion with Varian AA-240FSAtomic Absorption Spectrometer) and ot...

In West Africa, the management and efficient use of natural resources is becoming ever more important. This is largely due to steeply increasing demand through population growth and economic development, and through the effects of greater uncertainty due to climate and environmental change. Developing research capacity in these countries is an esse...

The Sustainable Development of Research Capacity (SDRC) in West Africa is an 18 month project, funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research, to strengthen the research capacity, give access to data and models, and to support the establishment of the newly formed Volta Basin Authority. The SDRC project largely builds on the results and mo...

Floodplain wetlands influence the timing and magnitude of stream responses to rainfall. In managing and sustaining the level of water resource usage in any river catchment as well as when modelling hydrological processes, it is essential that the role of floodplain wetlands in stream flows is recognised and understood. Existing studies on hydrology...