ENVIRONMENTAL POTENTIAL ATLAS
FOR SOUTH AFRICA
The Environmental Potential Atlas has been in the making for the past six years and has developed from a single map of Gauteng to a complete spatial data set of the entire South Africa.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism will release the ENPAT 2001, which is the updated version, during July 2001 through contract with the University of Pretoria . ENPAT is used by the national DEAT and various provincial environmental management departments as a decision-making tool in the process of environmental impact assessments. ENPAT has improved exponentially during the past six years. The 2001 edition includes the decision-making parameters previously only reserved for official use. These parameters, high-risk development category indications and potential impacts are linked to the 1:250 000 spatial databases on national and provincial level. The main purpose of ENPAT is to proactively indicate potential conflicts between development proposals and critical or sensitive environments. ENPAT can also be used for development planning since it indicates the environment's potential for development.
ENPAT is presented on a spatial data viewer making the information easily available to all users with access to a computer. Although data may also be used in ArcView, the parameters, high-risk development indicators and potential impacts will not be accessible through ArcView.
ENPAT consists of two distinct, parallel sets of information: natural or environmental characteristics, and social-economic factors. The environmental character maps depict geology, land types, soils, vegetation, and hydrology. The socio-economic factors consist of land cover, cadastral aspects and infrastructure, land use and culture. These two sets of information are combined and assessed in terms of their potential or latent environmental sensitivity. Sensitivity is assigned based on the ability of a resource to absorb change or impact. A value of 0 indicates a low sensitivity - thus a high ability to accept change, and a value of 1 indicates a high sensitivity, or a low ability to accept change. Areas of low sensitivity are thus available or suitable for development.
Management parameters are assigned to each of the sensitivity assessments. These are displayed in an environmental management report that is accompanied by the map of the review area. The parameters reflect standards, norms and values for the management of environmental resources and features. They define pre-conditions or limitations for the development activity that may have potential harmful impacts on the environment.
The parameters serve to identify the impacts of development on specific sensitive features or resources. These impacts could be displayed in a feature impact report. Examples of impacts are: destruction of geological formations due to mining, reduction in water quality due to agricultural fertilisation, or transformation of grassland biome due to overgrazing.
High-risk developments for a particular feature are also indicated. These can be displayed in a category impact report. Examples of high-risk developments and the associated impacts may be: high-density residential development in a wetland area which is likely to destroy the wetland, informal industrial development on degraded land that may cause additional erosion, and feedlots near a stream corridor that may reduce water quality downstream.
The planning team envisages the availability of ENPAT on the Web within this year. This will enable ENPAT to continue to form part of the integrated environmental management processes and expand its provision of information to tourism development strategies.
ENPAT 2001 may be ordered by filling in the order form which can be e-mailed to Gwen Breedlove gbreedlo@postino.up.ac.za at the University of Pretoria.
A PowerPoint presentation on the new ENPAT 2000 may be viewed here.
PROJECT TEAM:
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism: |
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University of Pretoria: |
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GIS Business Solutions: |
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