A wetland is any ecosystem with a range of characteristics that is saturated with water and has vegetation that alters the soil's qualities (Ministry of Land and Forestry, 1999), causing the land to function differently from aquatic or dry environments. Wetlands cover about 6% of the planet’s land area which is important in enhancing water quality, sequestering carbon, regulating climate, reducing storm surges, and promoting biodiversity globally. Based on the ecosystem services that wetlands provide, an international treaty known as the Ramsar Convention provides strategies, interventions, and actions for the conservation and responsible usage of wetlands.
In that light, Ghana's buffer zone policy, which aims to delineate natural landscapes by enforcing zones to prevent the indiscriminate encroachment of unapproved structures, wetlands delineating features are water and associated vegetation, which lie between 10 and 100m with hydrological variations to the location. wetlands in Kumasi are characterized by different vegetative cover, hydroperiod, and hydrological changes. KNUST Police station is associated with the Wiwi river with its ubiquity of saturated water and vegetation, validating them to be categorized as wetlands that cover an area of 1.6km2.
Some Aquatic plants from the KNUST wetlands
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