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Mapping land cover change of the Luvuvhu catchment, South Africa for environmental modelling

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Abstract

Considerable land cover changes have occurred in the Luvuvhu catchment in northeastern South Africa in the past two decades. These changes are associated with human population growth and may be contributing to observed reductions in winter river baseflows and increased episodes of river drying within Kruger National Park. Six-class land cover maps of the catchment were created from 1978 (MSS) and 2005 (TM) Landsat imagery using an iterative technique. Results indicate a 1,000 km2 (12%) increase in Bare Ground between 1978 and 2005, with a concomitant decrease in shrubland and indigenous forest cover. Overall classification accuracy in the 2005 image was 80%. Classification was most accurate for Water and Pine classes (100 and 92%) and least accurate for Indigenous Forest (46%), primarily due to misclassification as Shrubland. These maps are suitable for land cover change and landscape modeling analyses, and can serve as baseline data for further research.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge primary funding support from the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium and Wyoming NASA EPSCoR (NASA Grant #NGT-40102 40102 and #NCC5-578). Other financial support was provided by the University of Wyoming’s International Programs, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Renewable Resources, and the Wyoming and National Garden Clubs, Inc. Thanks to Patrick Xibambu, Thomas Mbokota, Kruger National Park Ranger for field support. GIS support generously provided by Sandra Mac Fadyen, Kruger National Park GIS and Remote Sensing Analyst.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA

    Hannah R. Griscom & Scott N. Miller

  2. Kruger National Park, Phalaborwa, Limpopo Province, South Africa

    Thomas Gyedu-Ababio

  3. Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA

    Ramesh Sivanpillai

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  1. Hannah R. Griscom
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  2. Scott N. Miller
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  3. Thomas Gyedu-Ababio
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  4. Ramesh Sivanpillai
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Correspondence to Scott N. Miller.

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Griscom, H.R., Miller, S.N., Gyedu-Ababio, T. et al. Mapping land cover change of the Luvuvhu catchment, South Africa for environmental modelling. GeoJournal 75, 163–173 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-009-9281-x

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