Browsing Research Articles (Geography and Environmental Studies) by Title

Now showing items 27-46 of 117

    • Deprivation among unemployed South African youth : intergenerational or transitional? 

      Booysen, D.; Van Eeden, A. (University of the Free State, 2013)
      The troika of poverty, unemployment and inequality are hallmarks of the South African socio-economic landscape. With approximately one out of every four young people between the ages of 15 and 35 being employed, unemployment ...

    • Description and validation of some European forest syntaxa – a supplement to the EuroVegChecklist 

      Willner, Wolfgang; Solomeshch, Ayzik; Carni, Andraz; Bergmeier, Erwin; Ermakov, Nikolai; Mucina, Ladislav (De Gruyter Open, 2016)
      In this paper we present nomenclatural adjustments and validations of syntaxa of the forest vegetation of Europe. We introduce a new, valid name of the class of nemoral coniferous or mixed forests (Asaro europaei-Abietetea ...

    • Developing the Environmental Long-Term Observatories Network of Southern Africa (ELTOSA) 

      Henschel, Joh; Pauw, Johan; Banyikwa, Feetham; Brito, Rui; Chabwela, Harry; Palmer, Tony; Ringrose, Sue; Santos, Luisa; Sitoe, Almeida; Van Jaarsveld, Albert (Academy of Science for South Africa, 2003)
      LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH (LTER) facilitates the understanding of long-term environmental processes and episodic changes at local to global scales. The Environmental Long-Term Observatories Network of Southern Africa ...

    • Development of a composite soil degradation assessment index for cocoa agroecosystems in southwestern Nigeria 

      Adeniyi, Sunday Adenrele; De Clercq, Willem Petrus; Van Niekerk, Adriaan (European Geosciences Union, 2017-08-09)
      Cocoa agroecosystems are a major land-use type in the tropical rainforest belt of West Africa, reportedly associated with several ecological changes, including soil degradation. This study aims to develop a composite soil ...

    • Disentangling vegetation diversity from climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity for explaining animal geographic patterns 

      Jimenez-Alfaro, Borja; Chytry, Milan; Mucina, Ladislav; Grace, James B.; Rejmanek, Marcel (Wiley Open Access, 2016)
      Broad-scale animal diversity patterns have been traditionally explained by hypotheses focused on climate–energy and habitat heterogeneity, without con- sidering the direct influence of vegetation structure and composition. ...

    • The distribution of lung cancer mortality in Cape Town and related factors 

      Haldenwang, B. B. (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 1991)
      Lung cancer, a disease which primarily occurs in urban areas, caused 1130 deaths during 1984-1988 in Cape Town. It is the most prevalent cause of cancer death in men and is second only to breast cancer in women. It was ...

    • Do social grants contribute to the jobless population growth in the former South African homelands? 

      Geyer, H. S.; Ngidi, Mawande; Mans, Gerbrand (University of the Free State, 2018)
      The former homelands and tribal authorities have large populations and high densities with low levels of economic activity and low employment. Population growth in these settlements is in contrast to expectations of ...

    • The Drabo corymbosae-Papaveretea dahliani − a new vegetation class of the High Arctic polar desert 

      Daniels, Fred J. A.; Elvebakk, Arve; Matveyeva, Nadezhda V.; Mucina, Ladislav (De Gruyter Open, 2016)
      A new class and a new order (Drabo corymbosae-Papaveretea dahliani and Saxifrago oppositifoliae-Papaveretalia dahliani) have been described, and the Papaverion dahliani validated. This is vegetation of zonal habitats in ...

    • Economic and demographic performance of municipalities in South Africa : an application of Zipf's rule 

      Morudu, Hlabi; Du Plessis, Danie (University of the Free State, 2013)
      There are vast differences among South African local municipalities, with a limited number of large municipalities (both in terms of population size and economic activity) and a seemingly disproportionate number of ...

    • Effect of feature dimensionality on object-based land cover classification : a comparison of three classifiers 

      Myburgh, Gerhard; Van Niekerk, Adriaan (CONSAS Conference, 2013)
      The efficient mapping of land cover from remotely sensed data is highly desirable as land cover information is essential for a range of environmental and socio-economic applications. Supervised classifiers are often applied ...

    • EUNIS Habitat Classification: Expert system, characteristic species combinations and distribution maps of European habitats 

      Chytry, Milan; Tichy, Lubomir; Hennekens, Stephan M.; Knollova, Ilona; Janssen, John A. M.; Rodwell, John S.; Peterka, Tomas; Marceno, Corrado; Landucci, Flavia; Danihelka, Jiri; Hajek, Michal; Dengler, Jurgen; Novak, Pavel; Zukal, Dominik; Jimenez-Alfaro, Borja; Mucina, Ladislav; Abdulhak, Sylvain; Acic, Svetlana; Agrillo, Emiliano; Attorre, Fabio; Bergmeier, Erwin; Biurrun, Idoia; Boch, Steffen; Boloni, Janos; Bonari, Gianmaria; Braslavskaya, Tatiana; Bruelheide, Helge; Campos, Juan Antonio; Carni, Andraz; Casella, Laura; Cuk, Mirjana; Custerevska, Renata; De Bie, Els; Delbosc, Pauline; Demina, Olga; Didukh, Yakiv; Dite, Daniel; Dziuba, Tetiana; Ewald, Jorg; Gavilan, Rosario G.; Gegout, Jean-Claude; del Galdo, Gian Pietro Giusso; Golub, Valentin; Goncharova, Nadezhda; Goral, Friedemann; Graf, Ulrich; Indreica, Adrian; Isermann, Maike; Jandt, Ute; Jansen, Florian; Jansen, Jan; Jaskova, Anni; Jirousek, Martin; Kacki, Zygmunt; Kalnikova, Veronika; Kavgacı, Ali; Khanina, Larisa; Korolyuk, Andrey Yu.; Kozhevnikova, Mariya; Kuzemko, Anna; Kuzmic, Filip; Kuznetsov, Oleg L.; Laiviņs, Maris; Lavrinenko, Igor; Lavrinenko, Olga; Lebedeva, Maria; Lososova, Zdenka; Lysenko, Tatiana; Maciejewski, Lise; Mardari, Constantin; Marinsek, Aleksander; Napreenko, Maxim G.; Onyshchenko, Viktor; Perez-Haase, Aaron; Pielech, Remigiusz; Prokhorov, Vadim; Rasomavicius, Valerijus; Rojo, Maria Pilar Rodriguez; Rusina, Solvita; Schrautzer, Joachim; Sibik, Jozef; Silc, Urban; Skvorc, Zeljko; Smagin, Viktor A.; Stancic, Zvjezdana; Stanisci, Angela; Tikhonova, Elena; Tonteri, Tiina; Uogintas, Domas; Valachovic, Milan; Vassilev, Kiril; Vynokurov, Denys; Willner, Wolfgang; Yamalov, Sergey; Evans, Douglas; Lund, Mette Palitzsch; Spyropoulou, Rania; Tryfon, Eleni; Schaminee, Joop H. J. (2020-07)
      Abstract: Aim: The EUNIS Habitat Classification is a widely used reference framework for European habitat types (habitats), but it lacks formal definitions of individual habitats that would enable their unequivocal ...

    • Evaluating ‘homegrown’ research networks in Africa 

      Adelle, Camilla; Elema, Nico; Chakauy, Ereck; Benson, David (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2018)
      Attempts to improve the policy environment have led to a growing pressure on governments in Africa to embark on policymaking that is more evidence based and considers a wide spectrum of scientific and indigenous knowledge. ...

    • Evaluation of satellite-derived burned area products for the fynbos, a Mediterranean shrubland 

      De Klerk, Helen Margaret; Wilson, Adam M.; Steenkamp, Karen (CSIRO Publishing, 2011-10-17)
      Fire is a critical ecological process in the fynbos of the south-western area of South Africa, as it is for all dwarf Mediterranean shrublands. We evaluated the potential of current publicly available MODIS burned area ...

    • Everyday hazards and vulnerabilities amongst backyard dwellers : a case study of Vredendal North, Matzikama Municipality, South Africa 

      Zweig, Patricia J. (AOSIS Publishing, 2015-11)
      The populations of many small towns in South Africa continue to expand unmatched by parallel economic growth, entrenching high levels of poverty. The town of Vredendal, located close to the national route between Namibia ...

    • Extreme 1-day rainfall distributions : analysing change in the Western Cape 

      De Waal, Jan H.; Chapman, Arthur; Kemp, Jaco (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2017)
      Severe floods in the Western Cape Province of South Africa have caused significant damage to property and infrastructure over the past decade (2003–2014). The hydrological design criteria for exposed structures and design ...

    • Fire and life history affect the distribution of plant species in a biodiversity hotspot 

      Magadzire, Nyasha; De Klerk, Helen M.; Esler, Karen J.; Slingsby, Jasper A. (Wiley, 2019)
      Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) provide valuable insights into species–environment relationships and potential climate change impacts on diversity. Most SDMs do not account for the role of natural disturbance ...

    • Fire‑mediated disruptive selection can explain the reseeder–resprouter dichotomy in Mediterranean‑type vegetation 

      Altwegg, Res; De Klerk, Helen Margaret; Midgley, Guy F. (Springer, 2014)
      Crown fire is a key selective pressure in Mediterranean-type plant communities. Adaptive responses to fire regimes involve trade-offs between investment for persistence (fire survival and resprouting) and reproduction (fire ...

    • Food for body and soul : tourism development opportunities in the Western Cape 

      Van der Merwe, Johannes (SUN MeDIA, 2013)
      This article applies spatial multiple criteria evaluation (MCE) by weighted linear combination of factor layers in a computerised geographical information system (GIS) to aid development of spatial policy and planning of ...

    • Framing the concept of satellite remote sensing essential biodiversity variables : challenges and future directions 

      Pettorelli, Nathalie; Wegmann, Martin; Skidmore, Andrew; Mucher, Sander; Dawson, Terence P.; Fernandez, Miguel; Lucas, Richard; Schaepman, Michael E.; Wang, Tiejun; O’Connor, Brian; Jongman, Robert H. G.; Kempeneers, Pieter; Sonnenschein, Ruth; Leidner, Allison K.; Bohm, Monika; He, Kate S.; Nagendra, Harini; Dubois, Gregoire; Fatoyinbo, Temilola; Hansen, Matthew C.; Paganini, Marc; De Klerk, Helen Margaret; Asner, Gregory P.; Kerr, Jeremy T.; Estes, Anna B.; Schmeller, Dirk S.; Heiden, Uta; Rocchini, Duccio; Pereira, Henrique M.; Turak, Eren; Fernandez, Nestor; Lausch, Angela; Cho, Moses A.; Alcaraz-Segura, Domingo; McGeoch, Melodie A.; Turner, Woody; Mueller, Andreas; St-Louis, Veronique; Penner, Johannes; Vihervaara, Petteri; Belward, Alan; Reyers, Belinda; Geller, Gary N. (John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2016-03)
      Although satellite-based variables have for long been expected to be key components to a unified and global biodiversity monitoring strategy, a definitive and agreed list of these variables still remains elusive. The growth ...

    • Free satellite data key to conservation 

      Buchanan, G. M.; Beresford, A. E.; Hebblewhite, M.; Escobedo, F. J.; De Klerk, H. M.; Donald, P. F.; Escribano, P.; Koh, L. P.; Martínez-Lopez, J.; Pettorelli, N.; Skidmore, A. K.; Szantoi, Z.; Tabor, K.; Wegmann, M.; Wich, S. (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2018-07)
      INTRODUCTION: Biodiversity is in crisis, with extinction rates orders of magnitude higher than background levels (1). Underfunded conservationists need to target their limited resources effectively. Over the past ...