Review of available data for a South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems (SAIIAE)

Abstract

The National Biodiversity Assessment of 2011 found freshwater ecosystems to be highly threatened and poorly protected. However, a number of studies have shown that the National Wetland Map (NWM) Version 4 represents less than 54% of wetlands mapped at a fine scale. A more comprehensive South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems (SAIIAE) would greatly improve the assessment of wetland ecosystem types and their condition and conservation status, and is crucial for monitoring trends to inform decision making and planning. In preparation for the third National Biodiversity Assessment of 2018, a review was undertaken to identify possible data sources that could contribute to the SAIIAE. The objectives of the study were to (i) assess which type of information is available for developing a SAIIAE; and (ii) list and understand the availability of fine-scale wetland data for updating the NWM. A variety of data related to species occurrence and distribution, extent and type of inland wetlands and rivers, as well as datasets which describe regional settings of inland aquatic ecosystems, were found across a number of institutions. Fine-scale spatial data amounted to more than double the extent of inland wetlands mapped by remote sensing at a country-wide scale. Nearly 5 million ha of fine-scale data were collected from a diverse number of institutions, with the majority (73%) of these data mapped by Government (3 681 503 ha or 3% of South Africa). It is estimated that < 8% of the sub-quaternary catchments of South Africa had complete wetland data sets, primarily in the Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Western Cape Provinces. Accuracy assessment reports and confidence ratings were however not consistently available for the wetland datasets. Inland wetlands in the majority of South Africa (84%) therefore remain poorly represented. We recommend future steps to improve the SAIIAE, including improving the representation of inland wetland ecosystem types and focusing on accuracy assessment.

Functional diversity and trait filtering of insectivorous bats relate to forest biogeography and fragmentation in South Africa

“…Total river length per forest was extracted from the 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment rivers dataset (van Deventer et al, 2019).…”

National Wetland Map 5 – An improved spatial extent and representation of inland aquatic and estuarine ecosystems in South Africa

“…The extent of the ecosystems and attributes represented in NWM5 has increased compared with the previous versions of the NWMs (Figure 3). In addition, the artificial layer has been separated from the inland aquatic data, and now forms part of a collection of datasets in a geodatabase called the South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems (SAIIAE) (Van Deventer et al, 2018a;Van Deventer et al, 2018b).…”

“…Data sources have been duly acknowledged in the South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems (SAIIAE) Report (Van Deventer et al, 2018a) and journal paper (Van Deventer et al, 2018b). This study was funded by the Parliamentary Grant funding of the CSIR (Project EEEO053), funding allocated by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) to the National Biodiversity Assessment for 2018 (NBA 2018) and the Water Research Commission (WRC) under the project WRC K5/2546 'Enabling more responsive policy and decision making in relation to wetlands through improving the quality of spatial wetland data in South Africa', Desktop Provisional EcoClassification of the Temperate Estuaries of South Africa.…”

“…Since the NFEPA wetland maps of 2011, a number of national and sub-national wetland datasets have been published, which have enabled the improvement of the extent and wetland types across the country (Van Deventer et al, 2018a;Van Deventer et al, 2018b). The NFEPA wetlands had a tremendous impact on several levels .…”

Slippery customers for conservation: Distribution and decline of anguillid eels in South Africa

“…Although innovative, these policies have not been broadly implemented, and issues such as fish migration, environmental flows and maintaining river connectivity are generally not incorporated in water resource management plans (O’Brien et al, 2019). Owing to the many present and increasing human threats (including pressure to meet increasing industrial, mining, agricultural and domestic water demands), most rivers in South Africa are heavily modified and exhibit reduced ecological functionality (Van Deventer et al, 2018; Evans et al, 2022). The estuaries in South Africa are also poorly conserved.…”