Remote Sensing of Bush Encroachment on Commercial Cattle Farms in Semi-Arid Rangelands in Namibia
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
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Environmental Modeling for Sustainable Regional Development: System Approaches and Advanced Methods. ed. / V. Olej; I. Obršálová; J. Krupka. Hershey : IGI Global Publishing, 2011. p. 327-343.
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Remote Sensing of Bush Encroachment on Commercial Cattle Farms in Semi-Arid Rangelands in Namibia
AU - Schröter, Matthias
AU - Jakoby, Oliver
AU - Olbrich, Roland
AU - Eichhorn, Marcus
AU - Baumgärtner, Stefan
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Bush encroachment is one of the most extensive changes in land cover in semi-arid rangelands and an urgent problem for cattle farming, rapidly reducing the productivity of the rangeland. Despite the severity of these consequences, a complete and accurate assessment of bush encroached areas is still missing at large. This study aims at assessing bush encroachment on commercial cattle farms in central Namibia by employing remote sensing methods to distinguish between areas covered by bush and open rangeland. The authors use different classification techniques and vegetation indices to characterize the nature of vegetation cover. Their analysis shows that results are sensitive to specific classifications of indices. As an accuracy assessment could not be run on these results the authors could not analyze which classification approximates real bush encroachment best. Hence, this study highlights the need for further analysis. Ground truth data, in the form of field mappings, high resolution aerial photographs or local expert knowledge are needed to gain further insights and produce reliable results.
AB - Bush encroachment is one of the most extensive changes in land cover in semi-arid rangelands and an urgent problem for cattle farming, rapidly reducing the productivity of the rangeland. Despite the severity of these consequences, a complete and accurate assessment of bush encroached areas is still missing at large. This study aims at assessing bush encroachment on commercial cattle farms in central Namibia by employing remote sensing methods to distinguish between areas covered by bush and open rangeland. The authors use different classification techniques and vegetation indices to characterize the nature of vegetation cover. Their analysis shows that results are sensitive to specific classifications of indices. As an accuracy assessment could not be run on these results the authors could not analyze which classification approximates real bush encroachment best. Hence, this study highlights the need for further analysis. Ground truth data, in the form of field mappings, high resolution aerial photographs or local expert knowledge are needed to gain further insights and produce reliable results.
KW - Economics
KW - bush encroachment
KW - Ecological-Economic Modeling
KW - Namibia
KW - cattle farms
KW - Grazing Management
KW - Ground Truth Data
KW - Remote Sensing
KW - Semi-Arid Rangelands
KW - Vegetation Index
KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics
KW - bush encroachment
KW - Ecological-Economic Modeling
KW - Namibia
KW - cattle farms
KW - Grazing Management
KW - Ground Truth Data
KW - Remote Sensing
KW - Semi-Arid Rangelands
KW - Vegetation Index
U2 - 10.4018/978-1-60960-156-0.ch016
DO - 10.4018/978-1-60960-156-0.ch016
M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies
SN - 978-1-609-60156-0
SP - 327
EP - 343
BT - Environmental Modeling for Sustainable Regional Development
A2 - Olej, V.
A2 - Obršálová, I.
A2 - Krupka, J.
PB - IGI Global Publishing
CY - Hershey
ER -