1.0

Base habitat map for conservation planning, Ecosystem Status and Protection Levels.

Habitat Mapping: The conservation planning process made use of the finescale vegetation map produced by Jan Vlok (Vlok et al. 2005). This high quality vegetation map is based on a combination of extensive field surveys during 2004, the subdivision of landscape into topogeomorphic units hand drawn on 1:50 000 Landsat images and additional remote sensing interpretation. A hierarchical classification system was used with vegetation units, nested within habitats which are nested within biomes. In transformed areas, the pretransformation vegetation was estimated and mapped based on surrounding vegetation and remaining patches Targets were based on those defined for the Little Karoo study region using a systematic approach (Vlok & Reyers Unpublished). Each target was derived using the slope of the speciesarea curve (Desmet & Cowling 2004). This benefited habitats with greater species heterogeneity The percentage of species targeted for conservation was set at 75%. The targets were rescaled so that the target range was 16-34% as per the national standard Ecosystem status calculations are based on a union between the vegetation, transformation and protected areas layers for the “Little Karoo Planning Domain” defined by Vlok et al. 2005. A pivot table was used in Excel to calculate per vegetation type summary statistics of transformation, degradation and protection. Ecosystem status calculations were performed using transformation and degradation together.

Available documentation:

Skowno, A.L., Holness, S.D. and P.G. Desmet (2010) Biodiversity Assessment of the Kannaland and Oudtshoorn Local Municipalities, and Eden District Management Area (Uniondale). DEADP Report LB07/2008a, 60 pages

SANS 1878

FGDC-STD-001-1998