Fire encroachment into the Karoo National Park
Loading...
Authors
Khomola, Thivhonali Jonathan
Issue Date
2021-05
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Bush encroachment , Climate , Fire regime , Geographic Information System , Remote sensing
Alternative Title
Abstract
The impacts of fire are multifaceted and pose a threat to ecosystems not accustomed to
fire. In the Karoo National Park, no study has been conducted on fire management
because the park is assumed to have very little fire occurrence. This study assessed
fire encroachment into the Karoo National Park utilising remote sensing and
Geographic Information System (GIS). The main objective of the study was to measure
the frequency and intensity of fire, and map distribution of fire hotspots over space and
time. This was achieved through acquiring the aqua and terra MODIS fire data from
2002 to 2016 from The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Fire
Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). The remote sensing dataset
was augmented with South African Weather Services (SAWS) meteorological data like
rainfall, wind speed, wind direction and temperature. The analysis of fire frequency
revealed that there was a change in the fire regime in the early 21st century. Karoo
escarpment grassland vegetation is associated with more fires than any other
vegetation type, hence creating a fire hotspot. Furthermore, a decline in rainfall and
increase in temperature was exacerbating fire intensity and frequency. For an improved
fire management protocol, the study recommends the development of a fire
management plan since there are high frequencies of droughts, likely to cause more
fires. The results show the possibility of integrating GIS and RS to assess fire
encroachment in the Karoo National Park, and perhaps other semi-arid area in
Southern Africa and elsewhere.