scholarly journals Remote Sensing of Biomass in the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa: Opportunities and Limitations for Research

Author(s):  
Natasha Ribeiro ◽  
Micas Cumbana ◽  
Faruk Mamugy ◽  
Aniceto Chaque
2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted C. Eckmann ◽  
Christopher J. Still ◽  
Dar A. Roberts ◽  
Joel C. Michaelsen

Abstract Some of the most widely used datasets for monitoring the world’s fires come from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. For virtually all remote sensing systems, including MODIS, pixels that contain fires comprise a mix of burning and nonburning components, each with sizes and temperatures that vary between pixels. Current remote sensing products provide little information about these subpixel components, severely limiting estimates of the gas and aerosol emissions and ecological impacts from the world’s fires. This study shows how multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) can estimate subpixel fire sizes and temperatures from MODIS and can overcome many limitations of existing methods for characterizing fire intensities from remotely sensed data, such as the fire radiative power (FRP) approach. This study used MESMA to estimate subpixel fire sizes and temperatures for MODIS scenes in southern Africa, analyzed how these sizes and temperatures varied with season and land cover, and compared these to analyses made with FRP. This study could be the first to analyze fire sizes and temperatures on a spatial scale as large as a MODIS scene and a temporal scale as large as a full fire season. The variations in MESMA estimates of fire temperature with season and land cover were more consistent than the FRP estimates. Based on these findings, MESMA appears to be more effective than FRP at capturing some variations in fire temperatures, which strongly influence the gas and aerosol emissions from fires, along with their effects on ecosystems.


Author(s):  
Natasha Sofia Ribeiro ◽  
Stephen Syampungani ◽  
Nalukui M. Matakala ◽  
David Nangoma ◽  
Ana Isabel Ribeiro-Barros

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Dewees ◽  
Bruce M. Campbell ◽  
Yemi Katerere ◽  
Almeida Sitoe ◽  
Anthony B. Cunningham ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3218
Author(s):  
Florent Rumiano ◽  
Elodie Wielgus ◽  
Eve Miguel ◽  
Simon Chamaillé-Jammes ◽  
Hugo Valls-Fox ◽  
...  

Interfaces between protected areas and their peripheries in southern Africa are subject to interactions between wildlife and livestock that vary in frequency and intensity. In these areas, the juxtaposition between production and conservation land uses in a context of increasing anthropisation can create issues associated with human-wildlife coexistence and raises concerns for biodiversity conservation, local development and livelihoods. This literature review aimed at addressing the need to consolidate and gather in one article current knowledge on potential uses of satellite remote sensing (SRS) products by movement ecologists to investigate the sympatry of wildlife/domestic ungulates in savanna interface environments. A keyword querying process of peer reviewed scientific paper, thesis and books has been implemented to identify references that (1) characterize the main environmental drivers impacting buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer) and cattle (Bos taurus & Bos indicus) movements in southern Africa environments, (2) describe the SRS contribution to discriminate and characterize these drivers. In total, 327 references have been selected and analyzed. Surface water, precipitation, landcover and fire emerged as key drivers impacting the buffalo and cattle movements. These environmental drivers can be efficiently characterized by SRS, mainly through open-access SRS products and standard image processing methods. Applying SRS to better understand buffalo and cattle movements in semi-arid environments provides an operational framework that could be replicated in other type of interface where different wild and domestic species interact. There is, however, a need for animal movement ecologists to reinforce their knowledge of remote sensing and/or to increase pluridisciplinary collaborations.


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