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The Land Use indicator is a state indicator,
the categories of which are those derived by the CSIR for the
National Land Cover Database (Thompson, 1996; 1999). The categories
provide a baseline
or current state of land use in the
province and the categories can be linked to some of the key
environmental issues and indicators that were identified for
Mpumalanga.
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| Assessment of
Data |
Mpumalanga is dominated by vast open areas
of natural vegetation (71% of the total area of the province),
comprising grasslands, thickets, woodlands and forests. According to
the land cover map, approximately 1.7% of these natural areas are
classified as degraded, with an additional 0.03% of the total area
being classified as eroded ("dongas and sheet erosion scars").
Urbanisation in the province is still relatively low
(1.25%) and most of the land converted to another land use is
under some form of cultivation (26%), including commercial
plantations which comprise 8% of the total area of Mpumalanga,
which is significant when considering the high potential in the
province for desertification (farmlands being most at risk).
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