Author:Kgaphola, Motsoko J; Ramoelo, Abel; Odindi, J; Mwenge Kahinda, Jean-Marc; Seetal, Ashwin RDate:Mar 2023Land degradation (LD) is a global issue that affects sustainability and livelihoods of approximately 1.5 billion people, especially in arid/semi-arid regions. Hence, identifying and assessing LD and its driving forces (natural and anthropogenic) ...Read more
Author:Wessels, Konrad J; Van den Bergh, F; Scholes, RJ; Miteffa, SDate:Apr 2011There has been a recent proliferation of remote sensing-based trend analysis for monitoring regional desertification. These show contradictory results. All of them claim to have been “validated” through expert interpretation, in the absence ...Read more
Author:Archer, Emma RM; Tadross, MADate:2009Despite significant attention paid to desertification and climate change in the last few decades, interactions between the phenomena, as well as implications thereof, have received less of a focus. Such a trend is particularly marked in the ...Read more
Author:Wessels, Konrad JDate:2006This chapter describes the current condition of dryland systems with respect to the services they provide and the drivers that determine trends in their provision. Within the context of the mounting global concern caused by land degradation ...Read more
Author:Reyers, B; O'Farrell, Patrick J; Cowling, RM; Egoh, Benis N; Le Maitre, David C; Vlok, JHJDate:2009Land-cover change has been identified as one of the most important drivers of change in ecosystems and their services. However, information on the consequences of land cover change for ecosystem services and human well-being at local scales ...Read more
Author:Kgaphola, Motsoko J; Ramoelo, A; Odindi, J; Mwenge Kahinda, Jean-Marc; Seetal, Ashwin RDate:Oct 2021Interaction between biophysical variables and socioeconomic conditions are far more complex and affect land cover and quality. These are aggravated by global climate change and climate variability in semi-arid regions. Therefore, the study ...Read more
Author:Audouin, Michelle ADate:Jan 2007Unsustainable agricultural practices have had a role to play in the degradation of land on which agriculture depends. South Africa has an international obligation to develop a National Action Programme (NAP), the purpose of which is to identify ...Read more
Author:Ramoelo, Abel; Munyati, C; Lück-Vogel, Melanie; Le Maitre, David C; Van Aardt, JDate:Sep 2007Land degradation is of great concern in South Africa particularly in the Inkomati catchment. Here a mosaic of different land use types such as plantation agriculture, subsistence farming, irrigated commercial farming, rural and urban settlements, ...Read more
Author:Wessels, Konrad JDate:Mar 2009There is an urgent need for a quantitative, repeatable measure of land degradation and remote sensing provides the only viable option at a regional to global scale. It is therefore commendable that Bai et al. (2008) attempted to use remote ...Read more
Author:Wessels, Konrad J; Van den Bergh, F; Scholes, RJDate:Oct 2012This paper demonstrates a simulation approach for testing the sensitivity of linear and non-parametric trend analysis methods applied to remotely sensed vegetation index data for the detection of land degradation. The intensity, rate and ...Read more
Author:Le Maitre, David C; Milton, SJ; Jarmain, C; Colvin, C; Saayman, I; Vlok, JHJDate:Jul 2007There is growing acknowledgement of the dependence of human society on ecosystem services and of the fact that service delivery is being compromised by human impacts on ecosystems. This paper describes the linkage between landscape-scale ...Read more
Author:Wessels, Konrad JDate:2011In South Africa, land degradation in rangelands has been regarded as a major environmental problem for many years. During the last ten years, attention focussed on the land degradation in the former homelands, now communal lands. There is an ...Read more
Author:Wessels, Konrad J; Prince, SDate:2007Desertification is defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as ‘land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas (dry-lands) resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human ...Read more
Author:Wessels, Konrad J; Prince, SD; Carroll, M; Malherbe, JohanDate:Apr 2007According to the nonequilibrium theory, livestock grazing has a limited effect on long-term vegetation productivity of semiarid rangelands, which is largely determined by rainfall. The communal lands in northeastern South Africa contain ...Read more
Author:Audouin, Michelle A; Lochner, Paul A; Tarr, PDate:Jan 2011On a continent where the livelihoods of the majority of Africans are closely linked to the health of the natural environment, and where poverty and land degradation has increased in recent decades, there is a critical need for sustainable ...Read more