Enhancing Spatial Data Accessibility in Ghana: Prioritization of Influencing Factors Using AHP

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a general problem-solving method that is useful in making complex, multi-criteria and multi-stakeholder decisions based on variables that have or do not have exact numerical consequences. AHP was applied to structure a multi-criteria decision problem regarding access to spatial data in Ghana; and to determine the priorities of spatial data accessibility components and influencing factors. A three-level AHP structure was constructed to examine the spatial data access problem, with a main objective, four sub-objectives and five alternatives. Spatial data accessibility was decomposed into four components (discoverability, retrievability, usability and affordability) which were used as sub-objectives (criteria). More so, spatial data access is mediated by affective factors (institutional, technical, policy/legal, socio-cultural and economic) which were used as alternatives. Fifty individuals from twenty four organizations were interviewed and later engaged in focus-group discussion to generate weights (priorities) for the accessibility components and the alternatives. The results provide both qualitative and quantitative information to decision makers regarding the spatial data access problem and their priorities from the perspective of enhancing access to spatial data. Regarding accessibility components (objectives), discoverability and retrievability had the highest priorities while technical and institutional issues had the highest priorities with regard to the affective factors. Considering the overall impact on the main objective and in the face of limited resources, it is concluded that improvement in the technical and institutional environment with the view to improving discoverability and retrievability require the highest priority in order to enhance access to spatial data in Ghana

Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change on Some Hydrological Processes of The Densu River Basin, Ghana

Water resources are among the most sensitive sectors to climate change due to their direct relationship with climate variables. The current study used projected climate datasets under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), 4.5 and 8.5, from the Coupled Model Intercompersion Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), remote sensing and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to estimate the effect of projected climate change on some hydrological processes. We focus on rainfall, water yield, soil water storage and evapotranspiration in the Densu Rvier Basin (DRB) for the 2050s. After calibration and validation of the SWAT model, there was a strong correlation between the simulated and the observed stream discharge coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.84 and 0.77, and a Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.76 and 0.70 for calibration and validation, respectively. The results showed an annual mean increase of 2 ºC in temperature, 61% in evapotranspiration and 20.1 mm in rainfall amount by the 2050s compared to their baseline values. Even though the mean annual soil water storage increases by about 80 mm, water yield declines by about 23 mm by 2050s. This appears to be due to the disproportionate increase in evapotranspiration compared to increase in rainfall. In conclusion, the DRB is projected to experience an overall reduction in water yield