Remote sensing of bush encroachment on commercial cattle farms in semi-arid rangelands in Namibia

Arbeitspapier

Bush encroachment is one of the most extensive changes in land cover in Namibia 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. Herein we use different classification techniques and vegetation indices to characterize the nature of vegetation cover. Our analysis shows that results are sensitive to specific classifications of indices. As an accuracy assessment could not be run on these results we 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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper Series in Economics ; No. 131

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity Conservation; Bioeconomics; Industrial Ecology ; Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment ; Renewable Resources and Conservation: Land
• Subject: Remote sensing ; semi-arid rangelands ; cattle farming ; bush encroachment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Schröter, Matthias ; Jakoby, Oliver ; Olbrich, Roland ; Eichhorn, Marcus ; Baumgärtner, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre
• (where): Lüneburg
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/30216
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET