International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915

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International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijdrr

Urban sprawl and green space depletion: Implications for flood incidence in
Kumasi, Ghana
Kabila Abass a, *, Daniel Buor a, Kwadwo Afriyie a, Gift Dumedah a, Alex Yao Segbefi a,
Lawrence Guodaar b, Emmanuel Kofi Garsonu a, Samuel Adu-Gyamfi c, David Forkuor a,
Andrews Ofosu a, Abass Mohammed c, Razak M. Gyasi d
a
Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
b
Department of Geography, Environment and Population (GEP), School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia
c
Department of History and Political Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
d
Ageing and Development Unit, African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Urban area expansion has often been cited as a flood inducing factor globally. However, there is a dearth of
Urbanization research on how the phenomenon influences the occurrence of floods in Ghana. This paper examines urban
Urban planning sprawl-induced green space depletion and its attendant implications for urban flood incidence in a developing
Urban sprawl
world context. Focusing on Kumasi, the study employed a combined use of geospatial techniques, key informant
Impermeable space
Urban floods
interviews and direct observations to explain the relationships between urban sprawl and flood occurrence. The
Africa study found that impermeable areas have expanded by 54% from 1986 to 2016 while permeable space corre­
spondingly declined by the same rate within the period due to unplanned and unregulated urban expansion. The
high proportion of impermeable surface, caused by urban expansion, underlies the worsening flooding situation
in Kumasi. But the myriad of other factors such as poor spatial planning, inadequate storm drain infrastructure,
poor waste management practices, and law enforcement lax combine to increase the intensity and severity of the
floods. Adopting and enforcing smart growth policies are key in addressing the uncontrolled urban expansion
and its associated flood challenges. Besides, land use control through legislative enforcement and prioritizing
greening by the city authorities and other key stakeholders are essential for effective flood control and mitigation
in Kumasi.

1. Introduction
In 2018, urban areas accommodated 55% of the world’s population,
and this estimate is projected to rise to about 68% by 2050 (United
Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, [1]. By 2050,
urban communities will receive about 2.5 billion more people, but very
importantly, Asian and African regions will be home to about 90% of
urbanites [1].
Urban sprawl describes a non-contiguous, uncontrolled, scattered,
uneven and unplanned pattern of growth [2,3]. It describes a process by
which an urban area makes use of the greater proportion of the available
land area [4] but with low density physical development [2]. This
contrasts with urban densification which for many has been considered
as the most appropriate strategy for ecological modernization in urban
spatial development [5]. From urban economic theory perspective,
urban sprawl is the result of three fundamental forces - population
growth, rising incomes and lower transportation costs resulting from key
investments in transport infrastructure [3]. From the perspective of
Gómez-Antonio et al. [3], preferences by individual land users and the
Tiebout sorting, market and public sector failures among other factors
underlie urban sprawl.
Urban sprawl has been identified as resulting in among other things

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: kabass.cass@knust.edu.gh (K. Abass), drdrbuor@gmail.com (D. Buor), kwadwo_afriyie@yahoo.com (K. Afriyie), dgiftman@hotmail.com
(G. Dumedah), segbefia@yahoo.com (A.Y. Segbefi), guodaarlaw@gmail.com (L. Guodaar), garskofi@yahoo.co.uk (E.K. Garsonu), mcgyamfi@yahoo.com (S. Adu-
Gyamfi), bomsonsempaa@yahoo.com (D. Forkuor), fosua702@gmail.com (A. Ofosu), abass2x2@yahoo.com, mabass.cass@knust.edu.g (A. Mohammed), rgyasi@
aphrc.org (R.M. Gyasi).
URL: http://abakabila@yahoo.com (K. Abass).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101915
Received 23 March 2020; Received in revised form 30 September 2020; Accepted 7 October 2020
Available online 20 October 2020
2212-4209/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Abass et al.
inefficient resource utilization and depletion of green space [6]. The
need to accommodate the increased urban population and the resulting
activities have induced rapid land use and land cover transformations
(LULC) at spatial and temporal scales [7]. These changes come about as
urban dwellers try to meet their residential, industrial, commercial,
agricultural and other urban infrastructure needs [2]. Thus, the urban
development process typically involves the conversion of land uses from
rural to urban and the replacement of vegetated soils with impermeable
built surfaces [8]. The increasing urbanization induces higher flood risk
for to the vast population residing in the urban areas [9–11]. An
important factor to consider when analyzing the relationship between
land use, land cover change and flooding is the extent of impervious
surfaces that come with the urban expansion [12]. Conversion of natural
landscapes to urban or suburban developments can lead to reduced
functionality of hydrological systems [13,14], a condition that can in­
crease flood risks.
Land use and land cover change from permeable to impermeable
surfaces affect runoff generation in several ways. While it reduces sur­
face water infiltration [7], it tends to increase the total runoff volume
and peak discharge of storm runoff events which give rise to floods in
urban areas [15,16]. Impermeable surfaces can have hydrological im­
plications by decreasing soil water infiltration while increasing surface
water runoff during rainfall [17]. Spatial expansion of impermeable land
surface at the expense of green surface has been found to account for
increased peak discharge and flood volume [17]. Studies have shown
that vegetative land cover or urban greenery can help in reducing sur­
face water runoff and urban floods [13,18,19].
Urban growth processes and associated land use and land cover
changes that give rise to floods can be linked to institutional and policy
failures. A number of studies have shown how institutional and policy
failures and associated deficiency in spatial planning have given rise to
floods [20–22]. A study of four major floods in the last century in the UK,
for example, indicated that while such events raised many policy issues,
just a few of these were captured in policy agendas [23]. An empirical
study revealed how several institutional gaps and regulatory weaknesses
accounted for the 2010 floods in Pakistan [21].
The effects of changes in the urban landscape for hydrological pro­
cesses have been widely explored [16,24]. In Ghana, recent empirical
works on causes and adaptation to urban floods have been carried out by
a number of authors [25–28]. While these works, generally, explored the
factors that have given rise to floods in Ghanaian cities, the implications
of changes in urban landscape from the green or permeable surface to
grey or impermeable surface for urban floods have not been explored.
The aim of this paper, therefore, is to examine the extent to which urban
sprawl underlies flood incidence in urban Ghana. The paper was guided
by this key question: Has the sprawl been a driving factor in the rising
flood incidence in Kumasi? The next section deals with the methods,
followed by results and discussion and ends with conclusion and policy
recommendations.
2. Methods
2.1. Study area
A key feature of Ghanaian towns and cities has been their uncon­
trolled and unplanned outward spatial expansion, with associated in­
creases in the frequency and spatial extent of floods. Kumasi, which is
the focus of this study, lies between latitude 6◦ 35’ and 6◦ 40′ N and
longitude 1◦ 30’ and 1◦ 35′ W [29]. It is located within the wet
sub-equatorial climatic region and has double maxima rainfall regime.
The average minimum and maximum temperatures stand at 21.5 ◦ C and
30.7 ◦ C respectively. Over the years, the city has witnessed remarkable
growth in terms of population and physical extent as a result of
geographic, demographic, economic and socially-related pooled factors
[29]. Growing at an annual rate of 5.2% between 1984 and 2000, it went
up to 5.4% from 2000 to 2010 [29,30]. Compared to the national growth
2
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915
rates of 2.7% (1984–2000) and 2.4% (2000–2010), these growth rates
have been well above that of the national estimates [31]. The city is
particularly attractive to both local and foreign migrants because of its
strategic central location. The population of the city has increased
sharply since 1960 largely as a result of both internal and international
migration [30]. There are 929,203 migrants, translating into 53.7% of
the population of the area [29]. The rapid population growth of Kumasi
has necessitated an increase in housing delivery mainly by private de­
velopers leading to irregular expansion at the fringes of the city [30].
Urban expansion has led to physical developments in wetlands and
buffer zones, often without the requisite physical and social infrastruc­
ture [31,32]. This development creates the condition for flood occur­
rence which potentially can undermine efforts at its management and
control.
2.2. Data and analytic procedures
2.2.1. GIS method
While indicators measuring urban expansion may differ across
countries due to contextual diversities, direct comparisons among global
cities have revealed increased use of remotely sensed data and census
information [33]. Land use and land cover change analyses were done
employing three cloud-free Landsat images: Thematic Mapper (TM)
1986; Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) 2004; and Landsat 8
Operationalized Landsat Imager/Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLIS/TIRS)
2016. These were obtained from the United States Geological Survey
(USGS) global visualization viewer (GloVis) website using path 194 and
row 055. We rectified these images to the Universal Transverse Mercator
(UTM) zone 30, World Geodetic System (WGS) 84 by USGS. The image
scenes were clipped to the Kumasi area boundary shapefile in ArcGIS
10.3 software. This was followed by loading the images into ERDAS
imagine 2013 software where they were pre-processed. The images
were, however, checked for both geometric and radiometric errors. The
Geometric correction was performed only on the 1986 image to correct
the image from the World Reference System (WRS) 1 to WRS 2 just like
the other images. Radiometric corrections were, however, performed on
all the three images. Although the images were characteristically free of
clouds, an operation to remove haze was performed on all images to
clear the likelihood of any humidity that may have been present at the
time the images were captured as well as to improve the brightness of
the images [34].
Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) algorithm was used to
classify the three images because of its accuracy in image classification.
Being one of the well-known parametric classifiers, MLS takes into ac­
count the variance–covariance within class distributions and for nor­
mally distributed data, it performs better than other known parametric
classifiers [35]. Land use and land cover classes that were generated
include built-up (including rooftops and concrete surfaces), arable
(including fallow and tilled land) and vegetation (which consists of a
mixture of light forests groves, grasslands and other green spaces). In
this study, the rooftops and concrete surfaces constitute the imperme­
able surfaces. The arable land and vegetation, including all unpaved
surfaces constitute the permeable areas.
Accuracy assessment of classified images was done by comparing
identified point locations such as built-up areas, arable land and vege­
tation to their corresponding ground truths. In all, 256 reference points
were used for the assessment. The ground reference data for 2004 and
2016 images were delineated using the on-screen digitizing method by
drawing polygons around identified land cover classes that fall into
similar pixel spectral characteristics on Google Earth and the raw image
for 1986. For the 2016 image, GPS was used for collecting point data in
geographic coordinates from 45 sites (15 for each class) which were
added to the 211 samples extracted from Google Earth, where they were
loaded onto the classified imagery for accuracy assessment. A confusion
matrix as shown in Tables 1a–c was generated, with the overall accuracy
computed for each classification. Quantitative analysis of the area
K. Abass et al. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915

Table 1a The qualitative data obtained from the various categories of in­
Error matrix, 1986. terviewees were analyzed thematically following Nowell et al. [38].
Classified data Arable Built- Vegetation Total User’s Several steps were involved using this method. The first step saw the
up accuracy transcription of all audio recordings into text by the first and third au­
Arable 63 4 23 90 70.00% thors. Next, interview transcripts were exported to NVivo 9 analytical
Built-up 12 63 1 76 82.89% software, where coding of data was done inductively and deductively
Vegetation 12 0 78 90 86.67% [39]. The coding process continued to a theoretical saturation point
Total 87 67 102 256 where no new concepts emerged from further coding of data. As a
Producer’s 72.41% 94.03% 76.47%
accuracy
further step, themes were developed. Although minor disagreements
were observed, the series of reviews and discussions of the themes and
Overall Classification Accuracy = 79.69%. sub-themes by the coding team led to mutual agreements in their
meaning and context. This repeated process of data review as Babbie
[40] noted enhances intercoder reliability and improves the credibility
Table 1b
and reliability of qualitative data. In the end, themes were defined and
Error matrix, 2004.
appropriately named followed by a detailed analysis of each theme.
Classified data Arable Built- Vegetation Total User’s
Where relevant, verbatim normative quotations taken from the inter­
up accuracy
view transcripts were used to elucidate pertinent themes.
Arable 49 3 21 73 67.12% Ethics approval was sought from the Committee on Human Research
Built-up 3 102 1 106 96.23%
Publication and Ethics (CHRPE), School of Medical Sciences, Kwame
Vegetation 18 1 58 77 75.32%
Total 70 106 80 256 Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Komfo Anokye
Producer’s 70.00% 96.23% 72.50% Hospital, Kumasi (Ref: CHRPE/AP/548/17). All participants were
accuracy adequately informed of the purpose of the study with their consents
Overall Classification Accuracy = 81.64%. obtained in written or oral form. They were told of their right to with­
draw if they deemed so regardless of the stage they got to in the inter­
view process. They were also given assurance of anonymity and that the
Table 1c information they provided would be treated with the utmost
Error matrix, 2016. confidentiality.
Classified Data Arable Built-up Vegetation Total User’s
accuracy 2.2.3. Direct observation
Arable 39 0 18 57 68.42% Observation was another primary method of data collection. Land
Built-up 8 106 7 121 87.60% use, land cover changes, actual flood situations, inundation of homes,
Vegetation 23 0 55 78 70.51% and damaged properties were observed. We also observed human
Total 70 106 80 256
intrusion of floodplains. To gain a better appreciation of the state of the
Producer’s 55.71% 100.00% 68.75%
accuracy
drains, community inspections of some of the drains were also made.
Thus, visits were made to specific flood-prone communities based on the
Overall Classification Accuracy = 78.13%. knowledge of the research team and additional information available
from NADMO. Some of the places visited were Atonso S-line, Dichemso,
covered by each LULC type for each of the three images was done in Aboabo, Breman, Ayigya Zongo, Old Tafo, Kwadaso, Boukrom and
hectares to show their spatio-temporal changes. Anwomaso (Fig. 1). Observation notes and photographs were taken as
supplementary information to the audio-recorded interviews. The
2.2.2. Interviews combined effect of these different methods, as Lincoln and Guba [41]
The study employed one-on-one in-depth interviews (IDIs) using the noted, is to triangulate the different modes of data collection to ensure
interview guide as a data collection instrument. IDIs were conducted more credible and reliable results.
involving 9 key informants. They represented heads of the various in­
stitutions sampled purposively for the study. These institutions included 2.2.4. Rainfall data and analysis
National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Metropolitan, Daily rainfall for Kumasi was collected from the Ghana Meteoro­
Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), Town and Country Plan­ logical Agency, Accra, covering a period of 36 years (1980–2016). The
ning Department (T&CPD), Ghana Meteorological Agency (Gmet), Hy­ MAKESENS and time series plots were used in the analysis of the rainfall
drological Services Department (HSD), Water Resources Commission data. Various descriptive statistics were used to reveal the trends and
(WRC) and three traditional authorities. As Milena et al. [36] aptly patterns of rainfall. Specifically, the Mann-Kendall test (Z) and Sen’s
pointed out, the use of this method produces information-rich data on slope (Q) were used. The alpha level was set at 0.05.
participants’ opinions, feelings, perceptions and experiences regarding
urban expansion, land use and land cover change dynamics and asso­ 3. Results and discussion
ciated flood incidence in Kumasi. Besides, social cues, including body
language and voice of the interviewees offered supplementary infor­ 3.1. Accuracy of classified images
mation to their verbal responses [37]. The unstructured nature of the
interview allowed for further probes, which provided a check on the From the maximum likelihood classification for the 1986, 2004 and
accuracy of the information provided by the respondents. Questions 2016 land use land cover maps, the overall classification accuracy ob­
during interviews revolved around the following broad themes: Nature tained were 79.69%, 81.64% and 78.13% respectively. The user’s and
and impact of floods; the influence of urban sprawl and land use and producer’s accuracies are captured in Tables 1a–c. The overall accuracy
land cover changes on floods; other conditions that give rise to floods; according to Congalton [42] is probably the simplest descriptive sta­
and flood mitigation measures. All interviews were conducted in English tistics which, in addition to the accuracies of the individual land use
since all participants had the capacity to fluently communicate in En­ types provide information about the accuracy of classified images. The
glish. In average terms, each interview session lasted about 40 min. All results show that the classified images are reasonably accurate.
interviews were audio-recorded with the aid of a digital voice recorder
with participants’ consent in addition to interviewers’ field notes.

3
K. Abass et al.
Fig. 1. a: Classified Land Cover of Kumasi, 1986, b: Classified Land Cover of
Kumasi, 2004, c: Classified Land Cover of Kumasi, 2016.
3.2. Urban sprawl and changing land use andland cover in Kumasi
Spatio-temporal satellite image analysis of Kumasi has shown that
the impermeable urban land area has expanded at the expense of green
4
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915
space (Fig. 1a, b, 1c and Table 2). While built-up area made tremendous
gains from 23.34% to 77.56% between 1986 and 2016 (an increase of
54.22%), green space (arable and vegetation) drastically reduced from
76.66% to 22.44% (a decline of 54.22%) over the same period. The
green space continues to dwindle due to human encroachment with
much of it being converted to other forms of land use. Fig. 2 shows the
population density of Kumasi for 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, reflecting
expansion and densification of urban areas.
A number of empirical studies have shown substantial gains of urban
grey space over green infrastructure [20,27,31,43]. According to
Oduro-Ofori et al. [44], about 90% of parks in Kumasi are without their
greenery with many re-zoned into other useful forms. It is noted that the
forest reserve cover of Kumasi is lost almost entirely [43], with its total
tree canopy coverage put approximately at 7% of the total land area
[43]. The picture is not different from other cities in Ghana. Accra-Tema
area is said to have only one recognizable and functioning public park, a
trend considered worrying and unacceptable given that the area ac­
commodates 3.6 million residents [45].
Land use and cover changes are the results of the interplay of several
factors. As urbanization intensifies, land within urban centers become
scarce due to the competing demands for them [43]. This makes them
expensive often beyond what an average income earner can afford. Land
rent, however, decreases with increasing distance from the city center.
Kumasi peri-urban areas become tenure hot spots where arable and
other prime lands are being rapidly converted to land uses for residential
and small-scale industries [30]. As urban and peri-urban lands become a
valuable commodity, it makes sense to convert them to economically
rewarding residential, industrial and commercial buildings. The conse­
quence of the extension of the built-up area is the destruction of eco­
systems and alteration of land use and land cover, ripping off vast areas
of green and open spaces [43]. This trend, definitely, has implications
for flood incidence and its management in the city. In other African
cities, rapid urban expansion and associated land use changes in flagrant
disregard for planning regulations have been observed [46,47].
3.3. Nature and impact of floods
Different types of floods are at play in the study area. One of these is
the pluvial (or overland) floods, which occur when surface runoff gen­
eration exceeds infiltration rates and drainage capacity, often during
high-intensity short-duration storm rainfall events. Besides, quite a
number of these flood occurrences in Kumasi are fluvial (river) floods. A
number of rivers flowing through the study area such as Aboabo, Daban,
Sisa, Subin (Fig. 1) sometimes overflow their banks at the peak of the
rainy season. This inundates a number of settlements located along the
banks of these rivers. Flash floods are common and are characteristically
rapid, often occurring within just a few hours [48]. A less common type
of floods is triggered by high water table combined with heavy rainfall,
as found in some parts of Atonso S-line. They are characteristically slow,
but have a longer duration.
Floods in Kumasi are perennial affecting several communities. This
normally occurs at the onset and peak of the rainy season, when
torrential rains come with destructive floods, sometimes beyond the
capacity of these communities to cope with. Records show that flood
incidence has increased in frequency, spatial extent and magnitude of
impact, with each case impacting more negatively than the preceding
one. Floods affect homes and public spaces causing massive destruction
to public and household buildings and other valuables (Figs. 3 and 4).
Sometimes flood waters stay on for days and weeks affecting socio-
economic activities. In severe cases, floodwaters will rise as high as
the rafters of houses, while some become completely submerged.
Flooding of compounds and rooms were observed to be widespread. The
number of days affected people live under flood conditions varies
greatly depending on the location and severity of floods. Campion and
Venzke [32] found that it took twenty days for floodwater to dry up in
some communities while it takes more than a month in some cases.
K. Abass et al. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915

Table 2
Proportion of Land use/cover types based on classified 1986, 2004 and 2016 Landsat images.
Land-use/Land-cover Type Area (hectares) Percentage change

1986 2004 2016 1986–2004 2004–2016 1986–2016

Built-up 5038.39 (23.34%) 12378.70 (57.34%) 16742.35 (77.56%) 145.69 35.25 232.30
Arable 7375.62 (34.17%) 6134.85 (28.42%) 3391.83 (15.71%) − 16.82 − 44.71 − 54.01
Vegetation 9173.31 (42.49%) 3073.77 (14.24%) 1453.14 (6.73 %) - 66.49 − 52.72 − 84.16
Total 21587.32 21587.32 21587.32 – – –

Fig. 2. Population density in Kumasi for 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, showing the expansion and densification of urban areas.

Quite a number of abandoned buildings were observed in Atonso S-line
where the original owners and occupants had evacuated as they could
no longer cope with the floods menace (Fig. 5). In place of the original
owners, in some cases, newcomers take over by occupying these build­
ings for free.
The immediate effect of destructive floods is that people are rendered
homeless when their houses collapse or are forced to relocate tempo­
rarily. In the medium to long-term, households may have to go through
the trouble of raising money to secure new places of residence by renting
or putting up entirely new buildings. Information from Table 3 shows
that the number of flood cases and affected people in Kumasi have
increased steadily over the years. While 391 people were affected by
floods in 2013, the number rose to 3236 in 2017, about 88% increase in
4 years. Participants described the flood situation as worrying. This was
how one of the participants put it:
Floods have been largely destructive. Every year, we experience severe
floods in many parts of the city. Both the state and households’ assets
including roads, bridges, houses and other valuables are destroyed. The
repairs of these come at a huge cost to the state and individuals. In worst
cases, human lives are lost. But life lost can’t be restored. It is worrying my
brother. (Male participant, NADMO)
3.4. Implications of urban sprawl and land use and land cover changes for
flooding
Our findings clearly show as the city sprawls, there is loss of vege­
tated areas. Thus, the information in Fig. 1a, b and1c established that
physical development is taking place over green space. This is further
supported by the population density maps shown in Fig. 2, indicating
that both urban sprawl and densification have occurred in the study
area. However, a direct connection between the urban sprawl and flood
incidence has not been established by this study. Instead, this study
infers that increased urban development will indirectly lead to increased
flood incidence because of its associated creation of land surface sealing
and non-permeable areas. As shown in Table 3, the rise in flood cases
correlates with the number of persons affected. The rise in the number of
cases directly implies a rise in the geographical spread of flood in­
cidences. Spatio-temporal analysis based on the available information
shows that while floods have been persistent in some communities or

5
K. Abass et al.
Fig. 3. Ruins of disserted residential units after destructive floods (Aboabo).
Fig. 4. A flooded compound (Atonso S-line).
Fig. 5. Abandoned house on wetland (Atonso S-line).
6
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915
Table 3
Flood cases, number and affected communities.
Year Number of cases Number of People affected
2004 1 30
2012 7 391
2013 12 645
2014 4 614
2015 10 1757
2016 17 2990
2017 38 3236
Source [48].
locations in Kumasi, new floods areas have also emerged (Fig. 6a-c). This
geographical spread of flood occurrences could be linked to uncon­
trolled urban expansion, with these new areas inadequately connected
with the right storm drains and waste infrastructure. Geographical
expansion of flood incidences poses a serious challenge because it is an
indication of the emergence of new flood prone areas, and the associated
rise in the ecological and human costs of floods. This development may
appear worrying in light of pronouncements from government in­
stitutions like NADMO that a lot of efforts are being put in place to
reduce the incidence of floods and human vulnerability in the city. As
staggering as these statistics may be, it may even be more worrying if
this is considered against the backdrop of a number of unrecorded cases.
Replacement of green and permeable land surfaces by impermeable
surfaces due to urban expansion has triggered flood incidence in
Kumasi. Interviews with key informants indicate that the basic expla­
nation of perennial floods in the city is its rapid growth in population
numbers and spatial expansion. With the rapid growth of the urban
population and dwindling open space, many urban dwellers tend to use
any available space for residential and commercial activities. Flood
plains, marshy and waterlogged areas and other environmentally
dangerous areas within the city have not been spared. Human occupa­
tion of river and stream buffer zones and building in waterways have led
to narrowing and obstruction of urban streams and rivers. A study by
Amoateng et al. [49] has shown that the widths of major streams that
traverse Kumasi have dwindled over the years due to urban intrusion.
The spatial extent of the urban rivers and floodplains has seen a
reduction from 38 km2 in 1985 to 6 km2 in 2013 (approximately 84%
decline), resulting in the inland water network in the city being sparsely
distributed and fragmented. But these streams and rivers will always
have a way to flow often resulting in preventable floods, loss of prop­
erties and preventable deaths. A key informant put it this way:
The city has grown in both population and area. Kumasi, being strategi­
cally located, has attracted people from different parts of the country and
outside. This comes with the provision of infrastructure requiring massive
concrete works. Concrete surfaces, however, do not allow water to
percolate. With heavy rains, and increased surface water run-off, coupled
with inadequate storm drains, floods are inevitable. But the problem is
exacerbated by unregulated spatial development over the years leading to
people building in water ways. (Male participant, NADMO)
Urban expansion, as noted by other works, has come to be associated
with the conversion of urban greenery and wetlands to built-up envi­
ronments, changing hitherto permeable surface to impermeable con­
crete surface [27,32]. This means that the role of green space acting as a
sponge for soaking excess water in Kumasi has been reduced drastically.
By implication, rainwater will be transported rapidly to surface streams
or any available sewage system. With the available sewage and drainage
systems being inadequate, poorly designed and lacking the capacity
necessary to drain away the huge volumes of generated run-offs,
flooding becomes inevitable. As Konrad [50] noted, the impermeable
road surfaces, rooftops and parking lots will not allow water to infiltrate
into the ground but rather speed up the process of runoff to drains and
streams. As the city expands, not only are its natural channels obstruc­
ted, but also the various storm drains constructed ensure that surface
K. Abass et al.
Fig. 6. a. Flood incidences in Kumasi from 2012 to 2013 showing their geographical expansion and persistence. b. Flood incidences in Kumasi from 2014 to 2015
showing their geographical expansion and persistence. c. Flood incidences in Kumasi from 2016 to 2017 showing their geographical expansion and persistence.
water runoff joins urban drainage systems or streams more rapidly.
Where these streams cannot store the volumes of water that rapidly
drain into them during the heavy and prolonged downpour, they rise
more rapidly with higher rates of peak discharge . A major limitation of
culverts and concrete channels provided in an urban setting is that they
cannot adjust to changes in the frequency of heavy rain, as natural
streams do [51]. The situation worsens when these drains are clogged by
solid waste and silt [51]. Urban floods are simply not meteorological
events but are also linked to modifications that take place in the urban or
built-up areas [51].
The role of green and other open spaces in reducing floods is well
grounded in literature. Green spaces have been linked to hydrological
improvement by limiting surface runoff and recharging ground water or
aquifer [52] and acting as both buffers and natural storm water drains
during floods [53]. Remondi et al. [54] have shown how progressive
clearing of forest for urban development has led to accelerated runoff
and worsening flood risk.
A number of empirical studies have shown how urban processes are
linked to the incidence of floods. The worsening flood problem in Accra,
Ghana, for example, has been linked to uncontrolled urban expansion
7
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915
and rapid urbanization [26]. Although floods originate from natural
factors in the Bamenda region of Cameroon, anthropogenic modifica­
tions spearheaded by urbanization have been identified as having
reinforced their frequency and magnitude [55]. Adelekan [56] noted
that the greater proportion of imperviousness resulting from urbaniza­
tion in the coastal city of Lagos is a key factor in the flood incidence.
Such a high rate of imperviousness means that almost all the rainfall is
instantaneously converted to runoff, increasing flood occurrence even
without increases in the rainfall intensity [57].
3.5. Telling the flood story beyond the sprawl factor
It is important to note that perennial floods in urban Ghana are not
solely the result of urbanization and urban growth dynamics but a
number of factors are at play. These factors are interrelated and are
hydrological, meteorological and anthropological in nature [26]. Field
interviews show that the problem of floods in urban Ghana has to do also
with poor urban planning and land use regulations enforcement lax. The
views of a traditional leader in an in-depth interview summed it up this
way:
K. Abass et al. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915

Fig. 6. (continued).

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Our planners have failed us. But you their ways into streams, and choking storm drains. A key informant said
cannot put the blame solely on them. The general public has also not been this in an in-depth interview.
supportive. All the flood problems have got to do with the Ghanaian
From what I have seen on the ground, the flood problem is self-inflicted …
attitude. If you put up a building in waterways and dispose of waste
The floods problem will not end if people continue to build in waterways
indiscriminately, what would you expect? If the institutions also fail to
and if huge volumes of refuse remain uncollected and find their way into
ensure the right thing is done, there will be lawlessness. I will also blame
drains that are already narrow. (Male participant, NADMO)
some of my colleague chiefs. (Male participant, IDI)
The inefficient management of municipal and domestic wastes as a
These findings are consistent with earlier findings [27,28,57–59]. In
factor explaining the rise and persistence of urban floods has been re­
their study of causes of floods severity in Douala, Cameroon, for
ported by Owusu-Ansah [28] in Ghana. Similar findings have also been
example, Yengoh et al. [59] found massive increase in the population in
reported outside Ghana [56,57,60,61]. In the views of Amoako & Boa­
association with poor planning and investment in the city’s infrastruc­
mah [26] however, the specific factors such as poor physical develop­
ture to be the causes rather than changing rainfall patterns. In the pre­
ment control, informal housing development, building in flood-prone
ceding section, it was argued that urban expansion and associated land
areas and poor waste management are themselves indicators of rapid
use and land cover changes create conditions for floods to occur. But the
and unplanned urbanization.
link between urban growth processes and flooding is more complex than
One phenomenon that has often been blamed for increasing urban
this. Rapid urban growth and spatial spread often come with waste
flood incidence in Ghana is climate change. From Fig. 7, not only has
management challenges. Several narratives from our study participants
annual rainfall been rising marginally in the past thirty-six years
show that the current flood situation in the major cities in Ghana has
(1980–2016), but has also shown great variability. With a p-value of
been aggravated by poorly managed solid waste, most of which find

8
K. Abass et al. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915

Fig. 6. (continued).

Fig. 7. Annual trend in rainfall in Kumasi (1980–2016).

9
K. Abass et al.
0.084 as shown in Table 4, it is clear that the positive rainfall trend is not
significant (p > 0.05).
Key informant interviews revealed that climate change-induced in­
crease in rainfall and temperature rise may account for the rising flood
incidence in Kumasi. This was how a participant put it when he was
asked if the current flood problem could have been caused by the climate
change phenomenon.
Yes, my brother. We can’t rule out the climate change factor. The rain
comes very heavy and lasts for hours. Besides, the environment is warmer
than it used to be. (Male participant, NADMO)
While limited empirical studies exist linking the climate change
factor to the perennial floods in Kumasi [62,63], a number of studies
based on climate data analysis of the area have proven that the current
flood problem is not the result of climate change [27,28,32]. Historical
analysis of rainfall pattern and trend by Amoateng et al. [27] from 1961
to 2013 shows a decreasing trend for the total annual rainfall for
Kumasi. Besides, the rainfall pattern has a high inter-annual rainfall
variability with monthly rainfall for June, being the peak rainfall month,
also showing a decreasing trend. A trend analysis of heavy rainfall
events for the same study area by Campion & Venzke [32] has shown
that annual heavy rainfall events are decreasing in trend, although at an
insignificant rate. The inconsistency in the rainfall trend of the same
study context reported by those earlier studies and this particular study
could partly be attributed to the different temporal scope of the histor­
ical meteorological data used for the studies [64]. While it is valid to
argue that floods in the city always coincide with the rainy season, the
rising incidence of floods and associated vulnerability are more likely to
be human induced than climate change. Our study, is however, incon­
sistent with that of Abaje [60] in Makurdi town of Nigeria where cli­
matic factor was identified as the major cause of floods.
The topography of the study area is generally undulating, with a
substantial part of the landscape made up of highlands separated by
lowlands. Elevations range from 206 m to 315 m above sea level, with
generally gentle slopes (Fig. 6). All the flood-prone communities studied
were observed to be low-lying. The low and flat land could partly
explain the persistence and severity of floods in these communities.
However, previous studies [28,65] have shown that physiographic fea­
tures play little role in flood incidence and vulnerabilities in Ghanaian
cities.
3.6. Institutional and legal contexts for flood management
Urban planning policy, as an instrument for reducing associated ef­
fects of hydric risk is expressed by flood areas zoning, discouraging
constructions in floodplains and offering of technical advice regarding
land use. The role of public institutions as Minea & Zaharia [66] noted is
to restrict approvals of new construction in flooding areas and reset­
tlement. In urban Ghana, this is never the case. Symptomatic of the
national picture, land use pattern in Kumasi can aptly be portrayed as
chaotic. This sounds disturbing given the number of planning regula­
tions and institutions that have been established to regulate physical
development [31].
Institutions involved directly or indirectly in flood control and
management include Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Town and
Country Planning Department, Environmental Protection Agency, the
Table 4
Mann-Kendall trend statistics for annual rainfall in Kumasi.
Description Rainfall statistics
Kendall’s tau 0.203
Mann-Kendall Statistics (S) 128.000
Var(S) 5390.000
p-value (Two-tailed) 0.084
Alpha 0.05
10
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915
Lands Commission, and Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands. Key
among them are KMA and NADMO. KMA is responsible for, among other
things, the provision of adequate and consistently functioning drainage
systems for minimizing the impacts of flood hazards while also ensuring
that bye-laws are enforced. Town and Country Planning Department is
responsible for planning and managing growth and development of
settlements in the country; while NADMO has the responsibility for
managing disasters and related emergencies.
Conventionally, the approach has been to manage flood risks
through combined use of structural defense mechanisms, warnings sig­
nals and emergency response. In more recent time, development con­
trols and land zoning policies have been included. Since 1988,
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have played
their role as agents of development at the local and community level.
The Local Government Act of 1993 (Act 462) mandates MMDAs to ex­
ercise deliberative, legislative and executive functions in order to bring
sustainable development to the local and community level. MMDAs
through the local governance system are, therefore, enjoined to tackle
among other issues, flood risks challenges and the social and economic
vulnerabilities of their people [67].
From the in-depth interviews, it came up that influential actors are
involved in the land sales business. This makes it difficult to effectively
stop people who have been allocated plots in environmentally precari­
ous areas not to go ahead to develop them. A key informant from the
Water Resources Commission in Kumasi explained:
The perennial flooding in the city is really worrying. As a commission, we
have clear policy guidelines (referring to the Riparian Buffer Zone Policy)
that seek to protect water bodies from encroachment by developers. There
is a limit to which we can go. We don’t have the power to stop people from
building in wetlands. We don’t sell nor allocate lands. The institutions
mandated to do this are simply not helping. They together with chiefs are
to blame. (Female, IDI)
Another key informant from the Hydrological Services Department
noted:
We design and supervise construction of drains. We do not construct them
ourselves. It is normally given to contractors. In Ghana, it isn’t the case
that we don’t have the right caliber of professionals but it’s simply our
refusal to do the right thing. We would offer the right technical advice but
may not be followed strictly due to funds unavailability when the imple­
mentation comes. The failure of people to do the right thing including the
planners is what is causing the flooding issue. (Male, IDI)
An officer at T&CPD, KMA who was unhappy about the perennial
floods in Kumasi, remarked:
The citizens are to blame. Why do I say so? Why should anybody in the
first place pay for land located in a place that you know is uninhabitable?
It would interest you to know that most of those who develop their
property in waterways and in other flood-prone areas do not have the
requisite permit to do so. They are unauthorized buildings. KMA pulls
these buildings down today and tomorrow new buildings spring up. In
most cases, we don’t have any idea about these developments. (Male, IDI)
Similar blaming of others was recorded in an interaction with an
officer at the Lands Commission (the Land Registration Division and the
Public and Vested Land) and the Department of Parks and Gardens. This
could probably be diversionary tactics to create the impression that they
played no role as institutions in the flood problem.
To stem the menace of perennial urban floods, then effectively
planning and managing urban space become critical. In the case of
Kumasi, many institutions are involved. Key among them are the
MMDAs, Department of Parks and Gardens (DPG), Town and Country
Planning Department (TCPD), the Office of the Administrator of Stool
Lands, Forestry Commission (FC) and Lands Commission with its sub­
sidiary institutions [20]. Prevention, control or management of floods
K. Abass et al.
would require that these and many other institutions including NADMO,
play their roles effectively. The effectiveness of these institutions to
carry out their mandates, however, has been compromised due to the
following reasons: many different institutions with conflicting functions,
lack of effective co-ordination and collaboration, undue political inter­
ference, resource constraint, negative public attitude and law enforce­
ment lax [20,43]. Kumasi Metropolitan Authority (KMA) occasionally
organizes demolition of buildings located in environmentally precarious
locations or in waterways to allow streams to flow smoothly and save the
larger community from risks of floods. However, this approach has
never worked in the desired way because of its reactive rather than
proactive nature. Besides, its selective nature leaves some buildings in
waterways untouched while others are cleared. This selective process
often degenerates into unnecessary confrontations which sometimes
attract the interventions of some influential public figures. It also comes
with protracted legal tussles at the court making the demolishing exer­
cise ineffective. Thus, the flood situation appears to be worsening year
by year with the current approach to fighting floods menace giving no
glimmer of hope.
Institutional failure also finds expression in delays associated with
securing a building permit. Such undue delays only push developers to
undertake building projects without permits. Botchway et al. [68] esti­
mated that between 1990 and 2000, only 7.2% of buildings in Kumasi
had the requisite permits. Besides, over 80% of buildings springing up
had neither building permits from T&CPD nor development permits
from KMA [68]. The reality is that, planning has not been able to
effectively control the outward growth of human settlements with the
result that the pattern of growth of these settlements is nothing but
chaotic [30,31,43,69].
An issue of critical concern in the land use and flood management
discourse is the land ownership system. A significant proportion of what
is called stool land is held by customary institutions in trust for their
citizenry [70]. The nature of these land ownership and control does not
give state institutions the freehand to control them for orderly physical
development. This land ownership arrangement presents disagreements
over urban space management making it more difficult for purposes of
its planning and management [20]. Thus, the chiefs who see themselves
as the rightful landowners, are powerful agents in land sale arrange­
ments. They lease plots of land to individual land developers, and often
demand rezoning of available spaces for residential or commercial uses.
The seeming disagreements existing between state institutions and
traditional landowners are central to the changing nature and use of
urban landscape in Kumasi [20]. This is because such disagreements
provide the space for individual land developers to engage in land use
infractions including development in flood-prone and buffer zones with
its concomitant effects on flood incidence.
One major challenge to effective land use planning in Ghana has
been the nature of our legal provisions. For many years these were
contained in scattered legislations with different approaches for the
preparation, approval and implementation plan. This made their con­
current operation not only cumbersome, but also confusing [31,71].
Besides, weak legislative enforcement as regards land use underlies the
haphazard development within Kumasi. It has been reported that some
officials of government institutions in collusion and connivance with
private land developers and some chiefs, make personal economic gains
from the sales of public land [72]. Although this was not verified in the
current analysis, other allegations of this kind are common. For as long
as these land sales bring economic returns to these actors, land con­
versions from green to concrete surfaces may not end soon [73]. Strin­
gent policy interventions are needed, therefore, to stem this trend. These
findings support that of Adeleye et al. [57] who found that increased
urbanization, lax planning laws concerning building in flood plains,
among other factors were the underlying causes of floods in Lagos.
The country has since taken giant steps to address these weaknesses
with some policy initiatives as reflected in the following: National Water
Policy (2007); Environmental Sanitation Policy (2010); and National
11
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51 (2020) 101915
Urban Policy (2012). The coming into force of Ghana’s Land Use and
Spatial Planning law (Act 925) in 2016 was appropriate [71]. The
problem, however, goes beyond the presence of laws. It has to do with
“fair and just” enforcement and compliance efforts. If a safe, resilient
and sustainable city as captured under goal 11 of Sustainable Develop­
ment Goals is to be a reality, law enforcement is of cardinal importance.
4. Conclusions and policy recommendations
The study provides empirical evidence on how urban sprawl induced
impermeable surface within the context of weak institutional and leg­
islative frameworks results in increasing flood incidence in the urban
setting in the developing world. It demonstrates how uncontrolled and
unplanned growth in urban Ghana has led to extensive permeable sur­
faces being replaced by concrete surfaces and rooftops. This develop­
ment has increased surface runoff, key antecedents of flood incidence.
In the face of the expanding city, effectively managing urban green
infrastructure is unequivocally critical for effective flood risk manage­
ment. But institutional ineptitude and failure to enforce land use regu­
lations have not helped in reversing the trend. One significant step in
addressing the current flood challenge is law enforcement, especially
those having to do with land use by appropriate state institutions.
Institutional strengthening through adequate resourcing of various in­
stitutions and non-interference in the performance of their duties are
essential in ensuring positive results. Urban sprawl must be controlled
through smart growth policies. Adopting and enforcing smart growth
policies is key not only in creating a more compact city but may also help
to protect the urban greenery. In this regard, already-built-up areas
should be revitalized while compact urban development is promoted.
Adopting vertical building style as opposed to lateral pattern is the way
to go but will require institutional commitment rather than individuals
to achieve this. Developing new green spaces, while mounting conscious
efforts to protect and preserve existing ones should be an important task
by key stakeholders. An effective way of achieving this is to have a green
plan or strategy in place to guide its creation and management. These
green areas would then serve as sponges that will soak surface water
which otherwise would result in floods. Intensive public education using
the culturally oriented mass media on the benefits of urban green space
to the environment, health and human survival is critical. An effective
collaboration among all the key stakeholders including traditional au­
thorities could help engender desirable results. Effective waste man­
agement regime, as well as structural flood control measures such as the
provision of storm drains and desilting of existing ones, are essential in
minimizing the flood menace in Kumasi.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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