Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic

In most developing countries, data for coastal change and vulnerability assessment is hard to come by due, e.g., to data inaccessibility or incomplete dataset. In some countries, e.g., Liberia, a country that was ravaged by civil war and Ebola epidemic, such extraneous factors prevent direct observa...

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Main Authors: Awange, Joseph, Saleem, Ashty, Konneh, S., Goncalves, R., Kiema, J., Hu, K.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Pergamon 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/71197
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author Awange, Joseph
Saleem, Ashty
Konneh, S.
Goncalves, R.
Kiema, J.
Hu, K.
author_facet Awange, Joseph
Saleem, Ashty
Konneh, S.
Goncalves, R.
Kiema, J.
Hu, K.
author_sort Awange, Joseph
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description In most developing countries, data for coastal change and vulnerability assessment is hard to come by due, e.g., to data inaccessibility or incomplete dataset. In some countries, e.g., Liberia, a country that was ravaged by civil war and Ebola epidemic, such extraneous factors prevent direct observations, i.e., “boots on the ground”. This study examines temporal changes in land use/land cover (LULC), coastline changes, and coastal vulnerability to erosion and their effects on Liberia over a period of 29 years (1986–2015). The results from the post-classification change detection analysis using Landsat data (validated by moderate resolution Sentinel-2 product) show that bare land and sediment classes decreased over the entire study period by 5.07% and 0.06%, respectively. Water, vegetation, and residential classes are found to have increased during the 29 years of evaluation by 0.41%, 3.29% and 1.43%, respectively. Vegetation cover during the post-civil war era (2002–2015), however, reduced by about 0.31%. Furthermore, the results for the coastal analysis indicate more erosion during the period 1998–2002, i.e., the post-civil war period. The results also show an increase in residential areas possibly due to population growth, especially in the most populated areas such as Monrovia, the capital city.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-711972020-11-20T05:08:06Z Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic Awange, Joseph Saleem, Ashty Konneh, S. Goncalves, R. Kiema, J. Hu, K. In most developing countries, data for coastal change and vulnerability assessment is hard to come by due, e.g., to data inaccessibility or incomplete dataset. In some countries, e.g., Liberia, a country that was ravaged by civil war and Ebola epidemic, such extraneous factors prevent direct observations, i.e., “boots on the ground”. This study examines temporal changes in land use/land cover (LULC), coastline changes, and coastal vulnerability to erosion and their effects on Liberia over a period of 29 years (1986–2015). The results from the post-classification change detection analysis using Landsat data (validated by moderate resolution Sentinel-2 product) show that bare land and sediment classes decreased over the entire study period by 5.07% and 0.06%, respectively. Water, vegetation, and residential classes are found to have increased during the 29 years of evaluation by 0.41%, 3.29% and 1.43%, respectively. Vegetation cover during the post-civil war era (2002–2015), however, reduced by about 0.31%. Furthermore, the results for the coastal analysis indicate more erosion during the period 1998–2002, i.e., the post-civil war period. The results also show an increase in residential areas possibly due to population growth, especially in the most populated areas such as Monrovia, the capital city. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/71197 10.1016/j.apgeog.2018.10.007 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Pergamon fulltext
spellingShingle Awange, Joseph
Saleem, Ashty
Konneh, S.
Goncalves, R.
Kiema, J.
Hu, K.
Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic
title Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic
title_full Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic
title_fullStr Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic
title_full_unstemmed Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic
title_short Liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and LULC change analysis: Post-civil war and Ebola epidemic
title_sort liberia's coastal erosion vulnerability and lulc change analysis: post-civil war and ebola epidemic
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/71197