Vegetation description and mapping along a strip transect in central Namibia with the aid of satellite imagery

Abstract

Abstract provided by author:

Long-term vegetation monitoring and effective land-use planning and -management in Namibia is currently hampered by a lack of ecological data available on different vegetation types. The Vegetation Survey Project of Namibia, together with BIOTA Southern Africa, aims to progressively re-classify the Namibian vegetation which has thus far only been sketchily described by the Preliminary Vegetation Map of Namibia of 1971 and the Homogenous Farming Areas Report of 1979

Vegetation along a strip transect traversing mainly the Thornbush Savanna of Namibia was classified and characterised by subjecting 467 samples, distributed over a 30 x 320 km transect, to Braun-Blanquet and TWINS PAN procedures. Initial stratification of this transect was done by means of two LANDSAT-7-TM false-colour satellite images. Classification of floristic data resulted in the description of 14 different vegetation types. The distribution of these vegetation types was established using a supervised classification of the satellite images. Several vegetation types were combined to enable the preliminary mapping of vegetation types on a 1: 250 000 scale. This map will be used as guideline for further validating vegetation surveys to enable a future re-classification of the Thornbush Savanna described by the Preliminary Vegetation Map of Namibia