Wetland areas are the most vital ecosystems and they provide important functions towards stabilizing the environment. Hydrological processes in these wetland systems directly affects the productivity of plants. Therefore, assessing vegetation response to climate variability induced drought is vital in wetlands. In this paper, the subtle changes in vegetation distribution were used as a proxy to examine and quantify the extent of drought impacts on wetland ecosystems within the Heuningnes catchment, South Africa. First, vegetation health information was extracted by calculating the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) during the wet and dry seasons for the period between 2014 and 2018. The derived NDVI results were further statistical linked to the corresponding rainfall and evapotranspiration (ET) observed during the study period. An analysis of NDVI results revealed that gradual vegetation health change occurred across the study area. The highest derived NDVI (0.5) for wetland vegetation was observed during the year 2014 but progressively declined over the years. Change in vegetation health indicated a significant (α = 0.05) and positive correlation to the amount of rainfall received over the same period. The results of this study showed that healthy vegetation deteriorated between the study periods due to the 2015–2017 Western Cape drought.
Wetland areas are the most vital ecosystems and they provide important functions towards stabilizing the environment. Hydrological processes in these wetland systems directly affects the productivity of plants. Therefore, assessing vegetation response to climate variability induced drought is vital in wetlands. In this paper, the subtle changes in vegetation distribution were used as a proxy to examine and quantify the extent of drought impacts on wetland ecosystems within the Heuningnes catchment, South Africa. First, vegetation health information was extracted by calculating the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) during the wet and dry seasons for the period between 2014 and 2018. The derived NDVI results were further statistical linked to the corresponding rainfall and evapotranspiration (ET) observed during the study period. An analysis of NDVI results revealed that gradual vegetation health change occurred across the study area. The highest derived NDVI (0.5) for wetland vegetation was observed during the year 2014 but progressively declined over the years. Change in vegetation health indicated a signi cant (α = 0.05) and positive correlation to the amount of rainfall received over the same period. The results of this study showed that healthy vegetation deteriorated between the study periods due to the 2015-2017 Western Cape drought.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.