The 2013–2014 vegetation structure map of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, produced using free satellite images and software

Eduardo M Arraut,Andrew J Loveridge,Simon Chamaillé-Jammes,David W Macdonald,Hugo Valls-Fox

doi:10.4102/koedoe.v60i1.1497

Abstract

Instituto Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnologia para Mudancas Climaticas (INCT-MC), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq), UK Natural Environment Research Council and Oxford University, grant ANR-11-CEPS-003 of the French ‘Agence National de la Recherche’, together with grants to D.W.M. from the Kirk-Turner, Robertson and Recanati-Kaplan Foundations.

Highlights

Vegetation mapping of protected areas and their surroundings has been a cornerstone of conservation planning and management worldwide (Freemantle et al 2013; Pettorelli, Safi & Turner 2014; Rose et al 2015)
As an example of the map’s ability to capture areas that are vital for one of Hwange National Park (HNP)’s most emblematic species, Figure 6 shows how lion Global Positioning System (GPS) locations fell within the grassland and bushed grassland areas that these animals regularly use for resting, foraging and commuting between waterholes
Of the 500 samples used in validation, 83.2% were classified correctly (Table 1), and when only the 198 validation points that fell within HNP were considered, this percentage increased to 89.9%

Summary

Introduction

Vegetation mapping of protected areas and their surroundings has been a cornerstone of conservation planning and management worldwide (Freemantle et al 2013; Pettorelli, Safi & Turner 2014; Rose et al 2015). In Africa, for example, it has allowed for inferring the health of the threatened Miombo woodlands of Mozambique (Sedano, Gong & Ferrão 2005), assessing the large-scale impacts of herbivores upon the structural diversity of Kruger National Park’s vegetation (Asner et al 2009), predicting the risk of African lion (Panthera leo) attacks on humans in Tanzania (Kushnir et al 2014) and planning of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (Martini et al 2016). Such mapping has been at the heart of conservation initiatives in South America (Oliveira et al 2017), Asia (Davies, Murphy & Bruce 2016), Europe (Palomo et al 2013) and North America (Wiens et al 2009). The first one, of the Robins area, was based on aerial photography and the vegetation was http://www.koedoe.co.za

Results

Discussion

Conclusion