Assessing natural resource change in Vhembe biosphere and surroundings

Abstract

South Africa is a custodian of an immense wealth of natural and biodiversity resources in Africa. Natural resources are continually changing in different South African biospheres based on anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic causes. Land use activities like agriculture, cultivation, livestock rearing, commercial plantations, urbanisation and mining are among the major drivers of natural resource change and transformation. In this study, land cover change assessment was used to assess natural resource change in Vhembe biosphere and surroundings. To assess natural resource change in Vhembe biosphere, land use land cover change assessment was conducted using South African’s national land-cover dataset, generated from multi-seasonal Landsat 5 and Sentinel-2 images. The 72× class land cover map was re-classified into 12× classes to fit the study objectives. Eight out of twelve classes quantified in hectares: indigenous forests, thicket/dense bush, natural woodland, shrubland, grassland, water bodies and wetlands were categorised as natural resources for which the natural resource change assessment for this study was based. Assessment findings established that land use and its related activities have contributed substantially to natural resource change where cultivated commercial, natural woodland and built-up residential contributed the most significant upward change in hectarage and percentage, from 132,246.9 to 365,644.92 (ha)—percentage change of 176%; from 94,665.42 to 257,889.68 (ha)—percentage changes of 172% and from 74,070.27 to 147,701.88(ha)—percentage change of 99% respectively. Shrubland, thicket/dense bush and indigenous forests registered the highest downward changes from 263,070.6 to 977.72 (ha); from 338,723.7 to 23,166.92 and from 13,211.91 to 7402.92 (ha) with percentage changes of −100%, −93% and −44% respectively in Vhembe biosphere and the surroundings from 1990 to 2018. The study showed how natural resources are changing and the use of remote sensing for environmental monitoring and assessment in the Vhembe district.