Water Wheel May/June 2022: Wetlands And Society

Abstract

Bringing science, policy and society closer together for the Maputaland Coastal Plain’s wetlands management The Maputaland Coastal Plain (MCP) presents a variety of forested, grass, sedge, and open water wetland cover types that have been surveyed by botanists and earth observation (EO) specialists at local scales. The wetlands transition from freshwater to estuarine systems in this coastal corridor and landscape. Several pressures influence the MCP wetlands negatively, ranging from water abstraction, alien invasive tree species, exotic timber plantations, and slash-and-burn of swamp forests, while uncertainties prevail on the further impact of climate change within this region. Owing to the scale of the anthropogenic and climate change impacts across the landscape, and the limitations in accessing parts of the MCP , remote sensing technologies can play a key role in quantifying and determining the extent and rate of change in wetlands and their catchments for the MCP , and potentially, the types of land covers resulting from anthropogenic impacts.

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