Earth Observation Strategies for degradation monitoring in South Africa with Sentinels – Results from the SPACES 2 SALDi-project 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Schmullius ◽  
Marcel Urban ◽  
Kai Heckel ◽  
Hilma Sevelia Nghiyalwa ◽  
Andreas Hirner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
South African ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Data Cube ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Individual Development

<p>The project ‘South African Land Degradation Monitor (SALDi)’ contributes to the German-South African Science Program SPACES by addressing the dynamics and functioning of multi-use landscapes with respect to land use, land cover change, water fluxes, and implications for habitats and ecosystem services. Particularly, SALDi aims: i) to develop an automated system for high temporal (bi-weekly) and spatial resolution (10 to 30 m) change detection monitoring of ecosystem service dynamics, ii) to develop, adapt and apply a Regional Earth System Model (RESM) to South Africa and investigate the feedbacks between land surface properties and the regional climate, iii) to advance current soil degradation process assessment tools as a limiting factor for ecosystem services. Protected areas (SANParks and other) within our six study regions represent benchmark sites, providing a foundation for baseline trend scenarios, against which climate-driven ecosystem service dynamics of multi-used landscape (cropland, rangeland, forests) are evaluated. Our study regions follow a climatic SW-NE transect: 1-Overberg, 2-Kai !Garib/Augrabies Falls, 3-Sol Plaatje/Kimberley, 4-Mantsopa/Ladybrand, 5-Bojanala Platinum/Pilanesberg, 6-Ehlanzeni /Mpumalanga.</p><p>We are utilizing Sentinel-1A/B C-Band VV/VH-SAR time series with a 10 m resolution. The revisit time is 12 days on average for South Africa. Pre-processing is done using pyroSAR, a Python framework for large-scale SAR-processing providing processing utilities in ESA’s Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) as well as GAMMA Remote Sensing software. The first two analytical approaches for the evaluation of the Sentinel-1 time series to detect surface changes, are based on the recognition of irregularities in the radar backscatter or coherence dynamics. Sentinel-2A/B data were pre-processed to L2A and used to calculate a wide range of vegetation indices (e.g. NDVI, EVI, SAVI, REIP) using DLR’s Sen2Cor-processor. The time frame starts with the first Sentinel-1 and -2 acquisitions and continues. The analysis-ready data, that is, harmonized, standardized, interoperable, radiometrically and geometrically consistent data, is being ingested in the SALDi Data Cube. Algorithms and models for developing products such as land degradation indicators are being developed using Jypiter notebooks. SANSA in collaboration with SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory), is developing the open data cube Digital Earth South Africa (DESA) based on SPOT data. Other datasets from different sensors will be ingested at a later stage. SALDi’s Data Cube will be open access to make it available to the wider scientific community, and also for teaching and training purposes. The application/use of the individual development stages should be possible on the fly for the partners in South Africa. The SASSCAL platform shall be used for distribution of the finalised SALDi Data Cube.</p><p>This presentation demonstrates results from hyper-temporal Sentinel-1 and -2 timeseries concerning woody cover mapping and breakpoint analyses of the complex savanna systems, invasive slangbos (Seriphium plumosum) bush encroachment in grassland areas and regional soil moisture retrievals. Validation has been performed by cross-comparisons with VHR airborne DMC surface products, field trips and permanently installed soil moisture networks and interaction with local South African stakeholders.</p><p> </p>

South African Land Degradation Monitor (SALDI) – An overview of recent advancements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Baade ◽  
Christiane Schmullius ◽  
Marcel Urban ◽  
Harald Kunstmann ◽  
Patrick Laux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Soil Degradation ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Geological Conditions ◽  
Rainfall Region ◽  
Semi Arid

<p>For many decades the problem of land degradation has been an issue in South Africa. This is mainly due to the high variability of the mostly semi-arid climatic conditions providing a challenging environmental setting. Strong population growth and resulting socio-economic pressure on land resources aggravate the situation. Thus, reaching a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), like achieving food security (#2), access to clean water (#6), and the sustainable use of terrestrial (#15) and marine (#14) resources represents a challenge.</p><p>In South Africa, land degradation has been linked to the terms veld degradation and soil degradation and has been addressed by numerous measures over the past decades. However, there is still uncertainty on the extent of human induced land degradation as compared to periodic climate induced land surface property changes. In cooperation with South African institutions and stakeholders the overarching goal of SALDi is to implement novel, adaptive, and sustainable tools for assessing land degradation in multi-use landscapes. Building upon the state of the art in land degradation assessments, the project aims to advance current methodologies by innovatively incorporating inter-annual and seasonal variability in a spatially explicit approach. SALDi takes advantage of the emerging availability of high spatio-temporal resolution Earth observation data (e.g. Copernicus Sentinels, DLR TanDEM-X, NASA/USGS Landsat), growing sources of in-situ data and advancements in modelling approaches.</p><p>SALDi focusses on six study sites representing a major climate gradient from the (humid) winter-rainfall region in the SW across the (semi-arid) year-round rainfall to the (very humid) summer-rainfall region in the NE. The sites cover also different geological conditions and different agricultural practices. These include commercial, rain-fed and irrigated cropland, free-range cattle and sheep farming as well as communal and subsistence farming. Protected areas within our study regions represent benchmark sites, providing a foundation for baseline trend scenarios, against which climate-driven ecosystem-service dynamics of multi-used landscapes (cropland, rangeland, forests) will be evaluated.</p><p>The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of recent activities and advancements in the three thematic fields addressed by the project:</p><p>i) to develop an automated system for high temporal frequency (bi-weekly) and spatial resolution (10 to 30 m) change detection monitoring of ecosystem service dynamics,</p><p>ii) to develop, adapt and apply a Regional Earth System Model (RESM) to South Africa and investigate the feedbacks between land surface properties and the regional climate,</p><p>iii) to advance current soil degradation process assessment tools for soil erosion.</p><p>A number of additional SALDi team member presentations will provide detailed information on current developments.</p>

South African Land Degradation Monitor (SALDI) – A German – South African SPACES collaboration to advance land degradation assessments

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Baade ◽  
Andreas Kaiser ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Soil Degradation ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Automated System ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Cooperative Research

<p>South Africa is greatly affected by land degradation, partly due to the high variability of its climatic conditions, the strong population growth and resulting economic demands. Thus reaching a number of SDGs, like achieving food security (#2), access to clean water (#6), and the sustainable use of terrestrial (#15) and marine (#14) resources represents a clear challenge under the present global change pressures. Land degradation has been linked in South Africa to the terms veld degradation and soil degradation and has been addressed by numerous measures. But there is still uncertainty on the extent of human induced land degradation as compared to periodic climate induced land surface property changes.</p><p>In cooperation with South African institutions and stakeholders (ARC-ISCW, SAEON, SANParks, SANSA, Stellenbosch University and University of the Free State, Equispectives Research and Consulting Services, Nuwejaars Wetlands SMA), the overarching goal of SALDi is to implement novel, adaptive, and sustainable tools for assessing land degradation in multi-use landscapes in South Africa. Building upon the state of the art in land degradation assessments, the project aims to advance current methodologies for multi-use landscapes by innovatively incorporating inter-annual and seasonal variability in a spatially explicit approach. SALDi takes advantage of the emerging availability of high spatio-temporal resolution Earth observation data (e.g. Copernicus Sentinels, DLR TanDEM-X, NASA/USGS Landsat program), growing sources of in-situ data and advancements in modelling approaches. Particularly, SALDi aims to:</p><ol><li>i) develop an automated system for high temporal frequency (bi-weekly) and spatial resolution (10 to 30 m) change detection monitoring of ecosystem service dynamics,</li> <li>ii) develop, adapt and apply a Regional Earth System Model (RESM) to South Africa and investigate the feedbacks between land surface properties and the regional climate,</li> </ol><p>iii)    advance current soil degradation process assessment tools for soil erosion, as this process represents an intrinsic limiting factor for biomass production and other regulating, supporting and provisioning ecosystem services, like providing clean water.</p><p>The aim of this presentation is to introduce this new cooperative research project to the EGU Community and to seek new opportunities for collaboration.</p>

Development of earth observation data cubes for monitoring land degradation processes in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Insa Otte ◽  
Nosiseko Mashiyi ◽  
Pawel Kluter ◽  
Steven Hill ◽  
Andreas Hirner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
South African ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Earth Observation ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Data Cubes ◽  
Earth Observation Data

<p>Global biodiversity and ecosystem services are under high pressure of human impact. Although avoiding, reducing and reversing the impacts of human activities on ecosystems should be an urgent priority, the loss of biodiversity continues. One of the main drivers of biodiversity loss is land use change and land degradation. In South Africa land degradation has a long history and is of great concern. The SPACES II project SALDi (South African Land Degradation Monitor) aims for developing new, adaptive and sustainable tools for assessing land degradation by addressing the dynamics and functioning of multi-use landscapes with respect to land use change and ecosystem services. SPACES II is a German-South African “Science Partnerships for the Adaptation to Complex Earth System Processes”. Within SALDi ready-to-use earth observation (EO) data cubes are developed. EO data cubes are useful and effective tools using earth observations to deliver decision-ready products. By accessing, storing and processing of remote sensing products and time-series in data cubes, the efficient monitoring of land degradation can therefore be enabled. The SALDi data cubes from optical and radar satellite data include all necessary pre-processing steps and are generated to monitor vegetation dynamics of five years for six focus areas. Intra- and interannual variability in both, a high spatial and temporal resolution will be accounted to monitor land degradation. Therefore, spatial high resolution earth observation data from 2016 to 2021 from Sentinel-1 (C-Band radar) and Sentinel-2 (multispectral) will be integrated in the SALDi data cube for six research areas of 100 x 100 km. Additionally, a number of vegetation indices will be implemented to account for explicit land degradation and vegetation monitoring. Spatially explicit query tools will enable users of the system to focus on specific areas, like hydrological catchments or blocks of fields.</p>

scholarly journals How applicable is export-led growth and import-led growth hypotheses to South African economy?

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-24
Author(s):  
Ntebogang Dinah Moroke ◽  
Molebogeng Manoto
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Adverse Effect ◽  
Time Series ◽  
South African ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Reserve Bank ◽  
Equilibrium Relationship

This paper investigated exports, imports and the economic growth nexus in the context of South Africa. The paper sets out to examine if long-run and causal relationships exist between these variables. Quarterly time series data ranging between 1998 and 2013 obtained from the South African Reserve Bank and Quantec databases was employed. Initial data analysis proved that the variables are integrated at their levels. The results further indicated that exports, imports and economic growth are co-integrated, confirming an existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship. Granger causal results were shown running from exports and imports to GDP and from imports to exports, validating export-led and import-led growth hypotheses in South Africa. A significant causality running from imports to exports, suggests that South Africa imported finished goods in excess. If this is not avoided, lots of problems could be caused. A suggestion was made to avoid such problematic issues as they may lead to replaced domestic output and displacement of employees. Another dreadful ramification may be an adverse effect on the economy which may further be experienced in the long-run.

scholarly journals Facilitating spatially-explicit assessments of ecosystem service delivery to support land use planning

One Ecosystem ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Vrebos ◽  
Jan Staes ◽  
Steven Broekx ◽  
Leo de Nocker ◽  
Karen Gabriels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Time Investment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Since the early 2000s, there have been substantial efforts to transform the concept of ecosystem services into practice. Spatial assessment tools are being developed to evaluate the impact of spatial planning on a wide range of ecosystem services. However, the actual implementation in decision-making remains limited. To improve implementation, tools that are tailored to local conditions can provide accurate, meaningful information. Instead of a generic and widely-applicable tool, we developed a regional, spatially-explicit tool (ECOPLAN-SE) to analyse the impact of changes in land use on the delivery of 18 ecosystem services in Flanders (Belgium). The tool incorporates ecosystem services relevant to policy-makers and managers and makes use of detailed local data and knowledge. By providing an easy-to-use tool, including the required spatial geodatasets, time investment and the learning curve remain limited for the user. With this tool, constraints to implement ecosystem service assessments in local decision-making are drastically reduced. We believe that region-specific decision support systems, like ECOPLAN-SE, are indispensable intermediates between the conceptual ecosystem service frameworks and the practical implementation in planning processes.

Tourism and Natural Capital

2019 ◽  
pp. 280-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joël Houdet ◽  
Michelle Browne ◽  
Fonda Lewis
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
South African ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Drivers Of Change ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
Global And Local

There is growing concern that ongoing degradation of natural capital, due to various global and local drivers of change, will compromise the delivery of the ecosystem services on which the tourism industry relies. This chapter aims to explore the relationships between natural capital and tourism. The chapter first provides an introduction to the inter-dependencies between business and natural capital and presents an overview of the tourism sector in South Africa. The focus then shifts to conceptualizing the links between tourism and natural capital, focusing on inland freshwater systems. A conceptual framework of the interactions between natural capital and the tourism sector is presented and key links between hydrologic ecosystem services and the tourism sector are described. In the final section, the risks of increasingly stressed water resources on tourism and the South African economy are explored.

Lay Knowledge of Ecosystem Services in Rural Eastern Cape Province, South Africa: Implications for Intervention Program Planning

2019 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 1940001
Author(s):  
Chenai Murata ◽  
Sukhmani Mantel ◽  
Chris de Wet ◽  
Anthony R Palmer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Program Planning ◽  
Intervention Programs ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Lay Knowledge ◽  
Lay People

The ecosystem service concept is a new scientific construct that was coined to lay bare the contribution that nature makes to human well-being. Besides playing an epistemic role (expanding ecological knowledge), the concept is pedagogical in that it seeks to emphasize the need to conserve nature among resource managers and resource users. The growth of ecosystem service literature since the 1980s has been moved by a largely scientific debate that seeks to disambiguate ecological functions from services, develop appropriate resource accounting techniques and critique the concept as a neoliberal construct. Conclusions reached in these debates are used to guide intervention programs such as payment for ecosystem services (PES), but knowledge of the rural people on whose landscapes the programs are implemented seldom features in the debates. Local communities rely on lay ecological knowledge to interpret and interact with nature. The question we have in mind is thus: In the context of South Africa’s chequered history of racialized conservation and top-down development intervention programs, what is the likelihood of success of exclusively scientific ecosystem service programs? We pose this question while aware that the relationship between science and other knowledge systems is more complementary than dichotomous. However, some features make the two work differently from each other. We selected two villages of Mgwalana and Mahlungulu in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa to investigate lay knowledge of ecosystem services. We make an argument for implications of these findings on planning of intervention programs. We used a mixed methods approach that involved two rounds of data collection. The first was a quantitative survey with 33 respondents. The second round involved in-depth interviews with 17 respondents. The study found that lay people understand ecosystem services in significantly different ways to scientists. While they easily recognize provisional and cultural, lay people are not familiar with regulatory and supporting ecosystem services and classification of services into groups confuses them. Messages foregrounded in these findings have potential to both expand the ecosystem service knowledge and attract stakeholder cooperation in intervention programs.

scholarly journals Valuation of Ecosystem Services in South Africa, 2001–2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11262
Author(s):  
Mohamed A. M. Abd Elbasit ◽  
Jasper Knight ◽  
Gang Liu ◽  
Majed M. Abu-Zreig ◽  
Rashid Hasaan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Sensing Model ◽  
Over Time

Although changes in ecosystems in response to climate and land-use change are known to have implications for the provision of different environmental and ecosystem services, quantifying the economic value of some of these services can be problematic and has not been widely attempted. Here, we used a simplified raster remote sensing model based on MODIS data across South Africa for five different time slices for the period 2001–2019. The aims of the study were to quantify the economic changes in ecosystem services due to land degradation and land-cover changes based on areal values (in USD ha−1 yr−1) for ecosystem services reported in the literature. Results show progressive and systematic changes in land-cover classes across different regions of South Africa for the time period of analysis, which are attributed to climate change. Total ecosystem service values for South Africa change somewhat over time as a result of land-use change, but for 2019 this calculated value is USD 437 billion, which is ~125% of GDP. This is the first estimation of ecosystem service value made for South Africa at the national scale. In detail, changes in land cover over time within each of the nine constituent provinces in South Africa mean that ecosystem service values also change regionally. There is a clear disparity between the provinces with the greatest ecosystem service values when compared to their populations and contribution to GDP. This highlights the potential for untapped ecosystem services to be exploited as a tool for regional sustainable development.

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