1.0

Key input to CBA map for the biodiversity sector plans for the four municipalities adjacent to Addo Elephant NP.

Land cover model

A new land cover layer was developed based on existing land cover information with some additional mapping of transformation and agriculture using SPOT 5 (2010) and aerial photographs (2009). The agricultural fields layer developed in 2006 by Geo Terra Image for Department of Agriculture, and the inland water bodies layer from the national 1:50 000 topo series (Chief Directorate National Geospatial Information: CD NGI) were used as the starting point for the land cover for this project. An unpublished land cover mapped at approximately 1:20 000 scale for the Ndlambe Municipality (2011), the national estuaries layer (van Niekerk and Turpie 2011) and the national wetlands layer from the FEPA atlas (Nel et al 2011) was then added to these starting layers covering layers. The next step involved on screen digitising of urban / built up areas, and mines and quarries at a scale of 1:20 00. The agricultural field features, inland water bodies, estuaries and Ndlambe land cover were inspected and corrected where necessary at a scale 1:20 000. Where feature classifications overlapped (for example a polygon coded as a field and a wetland ) the conflicts were resolved as follows:

Land cover feature ranking where the highest rank defines the classification.

RANK Features and Source

1 All features digitised on screen and classified for this project (Skowno 2012) at a scale of 1:20 000 (these include all urban and built up areas, quarries and mines, plus modifications of agricultural fields, estuaries and other wetlands and dams).

2 NFEPA wetlands (CSIR 2011)

3 Inland water bodies (CD NGI)

4 Agriculture field layer (GTI 2006)

5 Ndlambe land cover (Brown 2011)

6 Degradation layer (ECBCP 2007)

While an effort has been made to inspect the whole planning domain at a scale of 1:20 000 and capture land cover features, the imagery dates (2009-2010) and image interpretation factors may lead to minor errors in transformation classes.

Degradation

Assessing the degradation levels for the natural and near natural portions of the planning domain was not possible due to time and financial constraints. This is a significant weakness for certain portions of the planning domain. In particular the coastal grasslands of Ndlambe and the Nama-Karoo / Albany Thicket interface areas of the interior regions are significantly degraded, and are likely to have suffered extensive biodiversity loss. The Degradation layer produced by the ECBCP (Berliner and Desmet 2007) was inserted into the land cover to give an indication of previously mapped degradation levels.

Available documentation:

Skowno, A.L., and Holness, S.D. (2012) Addo Mainstreaming Biodiversity Project - Critical Biodiversity Area

Map Technical Report. South African National Parks.

SANS 1878

FGDC-STD-001-1998