Impact of land use and land cover change on land degradation in rural semi-arid South Africa: case of the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality.

ABSTRACT: In semi-arid regions, interactions between biophysical and socio-economic variables are complex. Such interactions and their respective variables significantly alter land use and land cover, degrade landscape's structure, and impede the efficacy of the adopted land management interventions. This scenario is particularly prevalent in communal land tenure system or areas managed by a hybrid of traditional and state led institutions. Hence, this study sought to investigate the impacts of land use and land cover changes (LULCCs) on land degradation (LD) under communal rural districts, and the key drivers of habitat fragmentation in the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality (GSDM), South Africa. The study used the wet and dry season multi-temporal remotely sensed image data, key-informant in

SUBMITTER: Kgaphola MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10205882 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature