Natural Environment

GTI provides specialist skills in the use of remote sensing technology for natural environment and forestry applications. This information is generated from a wide variety of image sources, including Landsat, SPOT, ASTER, digital aerial imagery and traditional aerial photography.

Applications include both traditional "area" based mapping such as natural vegetation, fire scar and land-cover / mapping; as well as more specialised modelling procedures such as wetland modelling, automated tree stem counts (in commercial plantations), and integrated spatial modelling in support of EIA and SEA processes. GTI remote sensing specialists have extensive professional background in a variety of natural resource science areas, including geography,geo-eo-morphology and ecology.

A wide range of natural vegetation and forestry application projects have been completed to-date, for both national and international organisations, in countries such as South Africa, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria and Zambia.

Projects:

2006

· Wetlands mapping – Sudan
· Forest concession mapping – Gabon
· Land cover mapping – Western Cape: Mapping of fine scale biodiversity land cover
· Forest cover mapping – Angola· Wetland mapping – Lesotho
· Coastal land cover mapping – KZN

2005

· DWAF Mhlathuze : GTI, as part of a consortium of specialists, completed a pilot agricultural water use mapping project in the Mhlathuze River catchment (KZN) as part of a pilot study aimed at helping DWAF determine the correct procedure for verifying and validating the lawfullness of water use, under the New National Water Act 1998.

· DWAF Olifants - Nkomati : GTI, as part of a consortium of specialists, completed a large multi-season, multi-year agricultural water use mapping project in the Olifants - Nkomati river catchments (Mpumalanga) as part of an operational study aimed at helping DWAF determine the correct procedure for verifying and validating the lawfullness of water use, under the New National Water Act 1998. IN support of this GTI provided DWAF Nelspruit staff with specialist introductory training on the image processing techniuques used.

· London CrossTrain Tree Survey : GTI provided a UK-based ecological survey company with specialist GIS data capture and integration services in support of a detailed tree habitat resource survey across a proposed new rail link route in London.

· Angola Huambo : GTI, as part of a consortium of specialists, completed a large multi-season land-cover / ecological habitat mapping project in Huambo Province, Angola part of an operational study aimed at developing guidelines for conservation planning and development.

· Little Karoo : GTI provided specialist vegetation modelling and mapping services to create the first ever vegetation transformation map of the Little Karoo, in support of Conservation Internationals biodiversity hotspot project activities.

· KZN Wetlands : GTI provided specialist spatial data modelling services in support of creating a user-friendly dynamic GIS interface for modelling various scenarios with respect to catchment level priorities for wetland rehabilitation.

· Nigeria Rice : GTI provided technical assistance to the CSIR (Satellite Application Centre) in the development and implementation of procedures for the modelling and mapping of flood irrigated rice crop production in Nigeria, using a combination of optical and radar imagery.

· SASOL : GTI generated an updated version of a previous land-cover / ecological habitat map of the Inhambane region in Mozambique, in support of SASOLs ongoing environmental monitoring of the area w.r.t to gas pipeline developments.

2004

· Habitat monitoring - Kenya : Provides satellite images to monitor rhino habitat.

· Wetlands - SA: Wetland rehabilitation prioritisation model· Vegetation mapping - SA: Little Karoo vegetation transformation map· Tree survey - England: Digitisation of crosstrain tree survey data

· Tanzania Game areas: Provide the WWF with satellite images and image maps.

· Water use activities - SA: Mapping and time-series assessment of all water use activities for national water use licence development in Mhlathuze Catchment (KwaZulu-Natal)

· Forest Inventory - Mozambique : Review of national forest inventory work completed to-date for Zambesia and Inhambane Provinces, and recommendations / training for improved use of remote sensing imagery.

2003

· Nyoni Park - SA : The processing of digital aerial imagery and environmental spatial modelling in support of a proposed development in a wetland sensitive area. This included image processing, spatial modelling and poster-map production.

2002

· Delineation of viticulture activities - SA (Boland, Western Cape): Delineation of current viticulture activities including an environmental impact assessment of local farming activities on fynbos communities

· Environmental impact - Mozambique: Assisting the CSIR in mapping settlements & vegetation to identify the human impact on the environment

· Landcover - Angola: GTI formed an alliance with IRIS and the Institute for Soil, Climate and Water to map the land-cover, soil and vegetation patterns on a 1: 100 000 scale for 21 million ha in southern Angola.

2001

· Ghana Bui national park: GTI was contracted by a major international civil engineering firm to assist in the preliminary ecological assessment of a proposed hydrological development in western Ghana. Multi-temporal satellite imagery was used to generate maps demarcating key ecological zones.

· Vegetation change detection - SA: - GTI completed an environmental change detection study for a major steel and mining corporation near Hlobane (KwaZulu Natal). Multi-temporal Landsat satellite imagery was used to detect change over a five-year period due to mining activities in the area.

· Pilansberg national park - SA: Fire Scar classification and digitizing of field-mapped fire scars for the North West Parks and Tourism Board.

· National Wetlands Inventory - SA: Pilot Study for - GTI was a key team member of the CSIR-led consortium contracted by the Dept. Environment Affairs and Tourism to determine the optimum remote sensing method(s) for generating a national wetland inventory database.