Journal of Geographic Information System, 2016, 8, 618-632
http://www.scirp.org/journal/jgis
ISSN Online: 2151-1969
ISSN Print: 2151-1950
DOI: 10.4236/jgis.2016.85051 October 31, 2016
Using Geospatial Information Component to
Monitor the Watersheds along the Densu
Basin in Ghana
Clement Nyamekye
1
, Faruk Kwansah Nyame
2
, Samuel Anim Ofosu
1
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Koforidua Polytechnic, Koforidua, Ghana
2
COCOBOD, Cartography and Survey Division, Accra, Ghana
Abstract
The Densu basin is a coastal river catchment in southern Ghana and a typical rural
community like all other rural settlements in Ghana. It is the only basin amongst 43
other basins of the country that supplies water to two regional capitals of Ghana,
namely, the capital city of Ghana, Accra and Eastern regional capital, Koforidua. The
qualities of these water resources vary naturally and widely depending on climate,
season, and the geology of the bedrock, as well as anthropogenic activities. The pri-
mary aim of this research is to determine data requirements for efficient and cost-
effective development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to map and detect
the extent of the sources of the watersheds and how to protect the environment for
continuous supply of water. Among the Nine catchment areas, only one catchment
WSA_05 (Koforidua Township) was determined to have a very high risk of being
vulnerable and therefore required urgency to protect environment for continuous
supply of water. Four catchment areas WSA_02 (Weija Dam), WSA_03 (Aped-
wa-Asafo), WSA_06 (Suhum) and WSA_09 (New Tafo) were determined to have a
high risk of being affected and therefore there was the need to protect the environ-
ment for continuous supply of water. Ghana as a country will have to take a respon-
sible step in protecting its water body and its environment to enable continuous and
sustainable supply of water to its citizens. This study therefore reveals the state of the
water users and how urgent it environment needs to be protected.
Keywords
Watershed, Geographical Information System (GIS), Densu Basin,
Water Service Areas (WSA), Land Use Land Cover (LULC)
How to cite this paper: Nyamekye, C.,
Nyame, F.K. and Ofosu, S.A. (2016) Using
Geospatial Information Component to Mo-
nitor the Watersheds along the Densu Basin
in Ghana. Journal of Geographic Informa-
tion System, 8, 618-632.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jgis.2016.85051
Received: May 3, 2016
Accepted: October 28, 2016
Published: October 31, 2016
Copyright © 2016 by authors and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access