The invasion of ecosystems by alien species is a growing threat to the delivery of ecosystem
services. This study explored the spatial distribution of water hyacinth in the Benoni Lakes
and made analysis of its impact on water availability and usability in order to understand the
evolution and its propagation rates. The study used satellite imagery for lake level modelling
using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems for calculations of area covered
by weeds in each lake from 2002 to 2012.The modelling approach illustrates the potential
usefulness in projecting invasive plants under climate change and enabled the quantification
of long term changes in aquatic weeds. The results showed that aquatic infestations in lakes
may be used as powerful predictors of correlations between plant abundance and climate
change. The study therefore informs decision makers to identify areas where invasion is likely
to occur and increase surveillance for early invaders. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/15419 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Rwizi, Lameck |
| Contributors | Nhamo, Luxon |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (x, 107 leaves) : illustrations (some color), application/pdf |
| Rights | CC0 1.0 Universal, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ |
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