Changes in land use in South Africa between 1961 and 2006: an integrated socio-ecological analysis based on the human appropriation of net primary production framework

Niedertscheider, Maria; Gingrich, Simone; Erb, Karl‐Heinz

doi:10.1007/s10113-012-0285-6

Cited by 42 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…However, South Africa’s land cover has remained relatively stable since 1961 (Niedertscheider et al 2012; Schoeman et al 2013). The only national land degradation study was done by Hoffman et al in 1999 and is qualitative not quantitative (DEAT 2006).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial variability in sustainable development trajectories in South Africa: provincial level safe and just operating spaces

2017

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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represents the first globally agreed framework to address human development and environmental stewardship in an integrated way. One approach to summarising national SDG status is our “barometer for inclusive sustainable development in South Africa”. The barometer downscales global social and planetary boundaries to provide status and trends for 20 critical indicators of environmental stress and social deprivation. In this paper, we explore the sub-national heterogeneity in sustainable development indicators by creating barometers defining the ‘safe and just operating space’ for South Africa’s nine provinces. Our results show that environmental stress varies significantly and provinces need to focus on quite different issues. Although generally environmental stress is increasing, there are areas where it is decreasing, most notably, marine harvesting. Social deprivation results show more of a pattern with high levels of deprivation in employment, income and safety across the provinces, and historically disadvantaged provinces showing the most deprivation overall. Although deprivation is generally decreasing, there are notable exceptions such as food security in six provinces. Our provincial barometers and trend plots are novel in that they present comparable environmental and social data on key indicators over time for all South Africa’s provinces. They are visual tools that communicate the range of key challenges and risks that provincial governments face, and are non-specialist and accessible to a range of audiences. In addition, the paper provides a critical case study of spatial disaggregation of national data that is required for the SDGs implementation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11625-016-0418-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial variability in sustainable development trajectories in South Africa: provincial level safe and just operating spaces

2017

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“…Thus, land use change from forest to agriculture constitutes nearly 90% of the aHANPP in Doddies Creek watershed. South Africa [35] and Austria [36] did have estimates of HANPP that did not differ between a comparable 50 year time span. For South Africa [35], the aboveground HANPP remained constant despite significant changes in land use associated with agricultural intensification and socio-political change.…”

Section: Comparison To Regional and National Patterns Of Hanppmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…South Africa [35] and Austria [36] did have estimates of HANPP that did not differ between a comparable 50 year time span. For South Africa [35], the aboveground HANPP remained constant despite significant changes in land use associated with agricultural intensification and socio-political change. For Austria [36], forest cover increased and urban area increased, whereas agricultural land decreased.…”

Section: Comparison To Regional and National Patterns Of Hanppmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…In the United Kingdom [34], increases in outsourcing of food production and the increase in industrial agriculture caused a decline in aboveground HANPP from the late 1950s to 2000, though agriculture remains dominant. The aboveground HANPP of South Africa was consistent and showed little change between 1961 and 2006 [35] and Austria showed little change between 1950 and 1995 [36]. Austria showed little variation despite considerable change in land cover during that time period, largely tied to agricultural intensification [36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Global yield growth as a function of the industrialization of agriculture [79,80] has resulted in a decoupling between global HANPP and growth of population and the economy [21], and decline of HANPP in some countries [25], but not in others [35,36] (Figure 1). The shift in HANPPharv in Doddies Creek watershed from a mix of row crop and pasture to primarily pasture reflects the local impact of the above global agricultural industrialization.…”

Section: Agroecological Teleconnections and Feedbacksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) in an Agriculturally-Dominated Watershed, Southeastern USA

Andersen

Donovan

Quinn

2015

Land

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Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) quantifies alteration of the biosphere caused by land use change and biomass harvest. In global and regional scale assessments, the majority of HANPP is associated with agricultural biomass harvest. We adapted these methods to the watershed scale and calculated land cover change and HANPP in an agricultural watershed in 1968 . Between 1968, forest cover remained near 50% of the watershed, but row crop decreased from 26% to 0.4%, pasture increased from 19% to 32%, and residential area increased from 2% to 10%. Total HANPP decreased from 35% of potential Net Primary Productivity (NPP) in 1968 to 28% in 2011. Aboveground HANPP remained constant at 42%. Land use change accounted for 86%-89% of HANPP. Aboveground HANPP did not change despite the major shift in agricultural land use from row crop and pasture. The HANPP and land use change in Doddies Creek watershed reflects changing land use patterns in the southeastern US, driven by a complex interaction of local to global scale processes including change in farm viability, industrialization of agriculture, and demographic shifts. In the future, urbanization and biofuel production are likely to become important drivers of HANPP in the region. At the watershed scale, HANPP can be useful for improving land use decisions and landscape management to decrease human impact on the ecosystem and ensure the flow of ecosystem services. OPEN ACCESSLand 2015, 4 514

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Dynamics and Drivers of Net Primary Production (NPP) in Southern Africa Based on Estimates from Earth Observation and Process-Based Dynamic Vegetation Modelling

Thavhana,

Hickler,

Urban

et al. 2024

Ecological Studies

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Terrestrial net primary production (NPP) is a fundamental Earth system variable that also underpins resource supply for all animals and fungi on Earth. We analysed recent past NPP dynamics and its drivers across southern Africa. Results from the Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (DGVM) LPJ-GUESS correspond well with estimates from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite sensor as they show similar spatial patterns, temporal trends, and inter-annual variability (IAV). This lends confidence to using LPJ-GUESS for future climate impact research in the region. Temporal trends for both datasets between 2002 and 2015 are weak and much smaller than inter-annual variability both for the region as a whole and for individual biomes. An increasing NPP trend due to CO2 fertilisation is seen over the twentieth century in the LPJ-GUESS simulations, confirming atmospheric CO2 as a long-term driver of NPP. Precipitation was identified as the key driver of spatial patterns and inter-annual variability. Understanding and disentangling the effects of these changing drivers on ecosystems in the coming decades will present challenges pertinent to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Earth observation and process-based models such as DGVMs have an important role to play in meeting these challenges.

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Changes in land use in South Africa between 1961 and 2006: an integrated socio-ecological analysis based on the human appropriation of net primary production framework

Cited by 42 publications

References 56 publications

Spatial variability in sustainable development trajectories in South Africa: provincial level safe and just operating spaces

Spatial variability in sustainable development trajectories in South Africa: provincial level safe and just operating spaces

Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) in an Agriculturally-Dominated Watershed, Southeastern USA

Dynamics and Drivers of Net Primary Production (NPP) in Southern Africa Based on Estimates from Earth Observation and Process-Based Dynamic Vegetation Modelling

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