Browsing by Author "Thamaga, Kgabo Humphrey"

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    Advances in satellite remote sensing of the wetland ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2022) Thamaga, Kgabo Humphrey; Dube, Timothy; Shoko, Cletah
    Wetlands are highly productive systems that act as habitats for avariety of fauna andflora. Despite their ecohydrological signifi-cance, wetland ecosystems are severely under threat from globalenvironmental changes as well as pressure from anthropogenicactivities. Such changes results in severe disturbances of plantspecies composition, spatial distribution, productivity, diversity,and their ability to offer critical ecosystem goods and services .However, wetland degradation varies considerably from place toplace with severe degradation in developing countries, especiallyin sub-Saharan Africa due to poor management practices thatleads to underutilization and over reliance on them for liveli-hoods. The lack of monitoring and assessment in this region hastherefore led to the lack of consolidated detailed understandingon the rate of wetland loss.
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    Evaluating the impact of land use and land cover change on unprotected wetland ecosystems in the arid-tropical areas of South Africa using the Landsat dataset and support vector machine
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2022) Thamaga, Kgabo Humphrey; Dube, Timothy; Shoko, Cletah
    The study explored the impact of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) change dynamics in relation to the condition and status of an unprotected wetland located in the arid-tropical parts of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The long-term Landsat archival data series was used to map and quantify the impacts of LULC change on the wetland over a period of 36 years (1983–2019). A multi-source satellite image analysis was performed, using the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm and advanced spatially- explicit geographic information system tools. Landsat data series covering the entire study area was used to assess, map and monitor LULC change that occurred over-time. Post-classification maps for the Maungani wetland area were analysed to provide a quantitative assessment and a detailed overview of the rate of change. The generated wetland detection maps for four temporal phases (i.e., 1983–1992, 1992–2001, 2002–2010) were analysed.
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    The impact of land use and land cover changes on wetland productivity and hydrological systems in the Limpopo transboundary river basin, South Africa
    (University of Western Cape, 2021) Thamaga, Kgabo Humphrey; Dube, Timothy
    Wetlands are highly productive systems that act as habitats for a variety of flora and fauna. Despite their ecohydrological significance, wetland ecosystems are under severe threat as a result of environmental changes (e.g. the changing temperature and rainfall), as well as pressure from anthropogenic land use activities (e.g. agriculture, rural-urban development and dam construction). Such changes result in severe disturbances in the hydrology, plant species composition, spatial distribution, productivity and diversity of wetlands, as well as their ability to offer critical ecosystem goods and services. However, wetland degradation varies considerably from place to place, with severe degradation occurring particularly in developing regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where Land Use and Land Cover changes impact on wetland ecosystems by affecting the diversity of plant species, productivity, as well as the wetland hydrology.
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    Use of multispectral satellite data to assess impacts of land management practices on wetlands in the Limpopo Transfrontier River Basin, South Africa
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2022) Dzurume, Tatenda; Dube, Timothy; Thamaga, Kgabo Humphrey
    The study sought to assess the impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) changes on two wetland systems (Makuleke and Nylsvley Nature Reserve) in the Limpopo Transfrontier River Basin (LTRB) in South Africa between 2014 and 2018. To fulfil this objec-tive, multi-date Landsat images were used. Furthermore, the max-imum likelihood classification algorithm was used to identify various LULC classes within delineated wetlands. The LULC changes were mapped from the two wetlands, with high overall accura-cies, ranging from 80% to 89% for both study areas. The spatial extent of the Makuleke wetland declined by 2% between 2014 and 2018, whereas the Nylsvley wetland decreased by 3%.