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Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning

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dc.contributor.author Raal, PA en_US
dc.contributor.author Burns, MER en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2007-02-06T13:28:48Z en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2007-06-07T10:07:34Z
dc.date.available 2007-02-06T13:28:48Z en_US
dc.date.available 2007-06-07T10:07:34Z
dc.date.copyright en_US
dc.date.issued 1996-05 en_US
dc.identifier.citation Raal, PA and Burns, MER. 1996. Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning. Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 34, 04 March, pp 389-400 en_US
dc.identifier.issn 0169-2046 en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10204/1551 en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10204/1551
dc.description.abstract In 1989, the opportunity was identified to create a botanical map series which could be used by authorities to make informed decisions and which would highlight the potential impact significance of proposed coastal developments on affected plant community types. In the past, vegetation impact assessments were conducted on a site specific basis and usually included community descriptions and species lists, which contributed little towards objective decision making. Impact significance at a broader, more meaningful spatial scale, for example bio-geographical regions, was rarely established. Based on the needs and the recognised problems, the CSIR developed a protocol for coastal vegetation mapping which included the following: (1) Simplification of the phytosociological complexity by recognising community types rather than communities as the phytosociological units; (2) Development of simple algorithm to determine a relative conservation importance hierarchy for the community types. Variables which are considered to be important for determining conservation importance are used in the algorithm; (3) Creation of a standard colour code to represent relative botanical importance for easy interpretation by non-experts; (4) Division of an approximately 1 km wide strip of the South African coastline into bio-geographical regions so that botanical importance could be established initially at an ecologically meaningful spatial scale; (5) The use of recent, 1:10000 colour aerial photography as a baseline for all mapping and the standardisation of the mapping scale at 1:10000, based on the orthophoto map series, which is a recognised planning scale and which is adequate to identify and map community types; (6) The use of a Geographic Information System to capture and store the vegetation data and to produce high quality maps. The benefits of the vegetation maps are that better decisions can be made with respect to the assessment of the significance of potential development impacts on coastal vegetation. Also, where vegetation importance is a key issue, this is recognised early in the decision making process. The strategy used to express relative botanical conservation importance has greatly facilitated the capability to perform objective first level assessments of potential development impact significance on coastal vegetation. en_US
dc.format.extent 1023516 bytes en_US
dc.format.mimetype application/pdf en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Elsevier Science BV en_US
dc.rights Copyright: 1996 Elsevier Science BV en_US
dc.source en_US
dc.subject Conservation en_US
dc.subject South Africa en_US
dc.subject Coastal vegetation mapping en_US
dc.title Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning en_US
dc.type Article en_US
dc.identifier.apacitation Raal, P., & Burns, M. (1996). Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/1551 en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitation Raal, PA, and MER Burns "Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning." (1996) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/1551 en_ZA
dc.identifier.vancouvercitation Raal P, Burns M. Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning. 1996; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/1551. en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Article AU - Raal, PA AU - Burns, MER AB - In 1989, the opportunity was identified to create a botanical map series which could be used by authorities to make informed decisions and which would highlight the potential impact significance of proposed coastal developments on affected plant community types. In the past, vegetation impact assessments were conducted on a site specific basis and usually included community descriptions and species lists, which contributed little towards objective decision making. Impact significance at a broader, more meaningful spatial scale, for example bio-geographical regions, was rarely established. Based on the needs and the recognised problems, the CSIR developed a protocol for coastal vegetation mapping which included the following: (1) Simplification of the phytosociological complexity by recognising community types rather than communities as the phytosociological units; (2) Development of simple algorithm to determine a relative conservation importance hierarchy for the community types. Variables which are considered to be important for determining conservation importance are used in the algorithm; (3) Creation of a standard colour code to represent relative botanical importance for easy interpretation by non-experts; (4) Division of an approximately 1 km wide strip of the South African coastline into bio-geographical regions so that botanical importance could be established initially at an ecologically meaningful spatial scale; (5) The use of recent, 1:10000 colour aerial photography as a baseline for all mapping and the standardisation of the mapping scale at 1:10000, based on the orthophoto map series, which is a recognised planning scale and which is adequate to identify and map community types; (6) The use of a Geographic Information System to capture and store the vegetation data and to produce high quality maps. The benefits of the vegetation maps are that better decisions can be made with respect to the assessment of the significance of potential development impacts on coastal vegetation. Also, where vegetation importance is a key issue, this is recognised early in the decision making process. The strategy used to express relative botanical conservation importance has greatly facilitated the capability to perform objective first level assessments of potential development impact significance on coastal vegetation. DA - 1996-05 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - Conservation KW - South Africa KW - Coastal vegetation mapping LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 1996 SM - 0169-2046 T1 - Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning TI - Mapping and conservation importance rating of the South African coastal vegetation as an aid to development planning UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/1551 ER - en_ZA


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