The Large Footprint of Small-Scale Mining in Ghana

In the past decade, unregulated artisanal mines accounted for more deforestation than industrial mines.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using data from Barenblitt, Abigail, et al. (2021), Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, and topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Story by Kasha Patel.

Published June 15, 2021
Data acquired 2007 - 2017

Sources:

DEM

Landsat 5 > TM

Landsat 7 > ETM+

Landsat 8 > OLI

Model

TANDEM-X

Collection:

Applied Sciences