Abstract

Understanding the factors and processes controlling catchment sediment yield is crucial and fundamental to water resources management and development. This review provides an inventory on land use and sediment yield studies in Ghana and explores their existing link. The review through desktop studies analyzed the discussions and related studies on the impact of land use/cover change on sediment yield. Available literature showed that generally sediment yield is sensitive to land use/cover, however, the evidence of the empirical link between land use/cover and the catchment sediment yield is unclear. Though various land use/cover and sediment yield studies have contributed to the understanding of the variations in catchment erosion rate resulting from land use/cover changes, the results do not show strong influence of cover types on sediment yield. The results relate sediment yield to rainfall, runoff and catchment area without exploring the empirical evidence of land use impact. Thus, empirically, the extent to which sediment yield varies with land use /cover changes still remain unclear. Further research is recommended to ascertain the empirical link between land use/cover change and catchment sediment yield.

Key words: Sediment yield, river basin, land use/cover changes, water resources management.