THE DISTRIBUTION OF WETLANDS IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

The hydrological and habitat value of wetlands is beginning to be recognised in South Africa, but only in parts of Natal Province has an effort been made to map wetlands and to record their status over large areas. While the most accurate method of mapping wetlands is a combination of photogrammetry and field surveys, this is time-consuming and expensive. An alternative “desktop” method was therefore used to draw up a preliminary distribution of wetlands in the south-western Cape Province, and this approach consisted of summarising the information contained on 1:50 000 topographical survey maps. The summary shows that shallow, vegetated wetlands (vleis) occur mainly in the wetter south and south-west of the region, while the non-perennial wetlands (pans) predominate inland, where the land is dryer and flatter. There are many estuarine wetlands along the coast, resulting from the tendency of river mouths to be blocked by sand-bars. Farming requirements and suitable topography account for the many small artificial wetlands (farm dams) in the central southern parts. Farm dams predominate in the region (15067 were counted), followed by pans (1741), riverine wetlands (261), vleis (216) and estuarine wetlands (15).