Modeling the impact of gold mining on ecosystem servicesin Ghana´S Southern water basins

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesAll natural resources are more or less limited and they can be overused and destroyed. While nature degradation occurs, political decisions are often short-sighted and profit-oriented, the importance of ecosystems is often unknown or less important than other interests for the decisionmaker. In this work, we apply GIS technics and InVEST models within a gold mining area in the southern water basins in Ghana. The aim was to identify the impact of mining activities on ecosystem services. The research was done with freely available datasets. It was possible to model and map water and soil pollution and to identify differences between regions were gold mining is taking place and regions without it. Gold mining was identified as a threat to the quality of the habitat and the water and soil quality regulation ecosystem services. This work may contribute to mitigate the negative effects of gold mining activities