Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T13:03:26.380Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Repeat Landscape Photography, Historical Ecology and the Wonder of Digital Archives in Southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Samantha L. Scott ,
Rick Rohde  and
Timm Hoffman
Samantha L. Scott
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Rick Rohde
Affiliation:
Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Timm Hoffman
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Get access

Extract

Environmental history projects using repeat photography often involve the acquisition of large collections of historical and current images, matching those images for comparative analysis, and then cataloguing and archiving the imagery for long-term storage and later use (Webb et ah, 2010). When used in combination with other techniques, repeat photography is an excellent tool for documenting change (Gruell, 2010) and has been used in a variety of disciplines, including historical ecology, to determine changes in plant populations, soil erosion, climate trends and ecological processes to name a few. Historical photographs often provide greater temporal range to an analysis compared to, for example, satellite imagery and in many cases even aerial photography (Gruell, 2010).

Type
Research Article
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 131: Papers from SCOLMA Conference 2017: Document to Digital: How does digitalisation aid African research?, National Library of Scotland, 11 September, 2017 , 2017 , pp. 35 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acocks, J.P.H. (1953) ‘Veld types of South Africa’, Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa, 28, 1-128.Google Scholar
Bonney, R., Cooper, C.B., Dickinson, J., Kelling, S., Phillips, T., Rosenberg, K.V. and Shirk, J. (2009) ‘Citizen science: A developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy’, BioScience, 59, 977-984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyer, D.E., Webb, R.H. and Turner, R.M. (2010) ‘Techniques of matching and archiving repeat photography used in the Desert Laboratory Collection’, pp. 12-23 in Webb, R.H., Turner, R.M. and Boyer, D.E. (eds) Repeat photography: methods and applications in the natural sciences, Island Press: Washington DC. ISBN 978-1-59726-713-7.Google Scholar
Delaney, D.G., Sperling, CD., Adams, C.S. and Leung, B. (2008) ‘Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks’, Biological invasions, 10, 117-128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, J.L., Zuckerberg, B. and Bonter, D.N. (2010) ‘Citizen science as an ecological research tool: Challenges and benefits’, Annual review of ecology, evolution and systematics, 41, 149-172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glen, H.F. and Germishuizen, G. (2010) Botanical exploration of southern Africa, 2nd ed. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria (Strelitzia, 26).Google Scholar
Gruell, G.E. (2010) ‘Foreword’, pp. xiii-xviii in Webb, R.H., Turner, R.M. and Boyer, D.E. (eds) Repeat photography: methods and applications in the natural sciences, Island Press, Washington DC. ISBN 978-1-59726-713-7.Google Scholar
Gunn, M.D. (1971) ‘Illtyd Buller Pole Evans (1879-1968)’, Bothalia, 10(2), 131-135.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M.T., Rohde, R.F., Duncan, J. and Kaleme, P. (2010) ‘Repeat photography, climate change and the long-term population dynamics of tree Aloes in southern Africa’, pp.133-142 in: Webb, R.H., Boyer, D.E. and Turner, R.M. (eds.) Repeat photography: methods and applications in the natural sciences. Island Press, Washington DC. ISBN 978-1-59726-713-7.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M.T. (2014) ‘Changing patterns of rural land use and land cover in South Africa and their implications for land reform’, Journal of Southern African studies, 40 (4), 705-725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, M.T. (2015) ‘Environmental change in twentieth-century South Africa and its implications for land reform’ in: Cousins, B. and Walker, C. (eds) Land divided, land restored: land reform in South Africa for the 21st century, Jacana, Cape Town. Hoffman, M.T. and Cowling, R.M. (1990) ‘Vegetation change in the semi-arid eastern karoo over the last 200 years: An expanding karoo-fact or fiction?’ South African journal of science, 86, 286-294.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M.T. and Cowling, R.M. (2003) ‘Enough to be considered useful’: John Acocks’ contribution to South African botany’, South African journal of botany, 69(1), 1-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, M.T. and O'Connor, T.G. (1999) ‘Vegetation change over 40 years in the Weenen/Muden area, KwaZulu-Natal: Evidence from photo-panoramas’, Africa?i journal of range and forage science, 16, 71-88.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M.T. and Rohde, R.F. (2007) ‘From pastoralism to tourism: the historical impact of changing land use practices in Namaqualand’, Journal of arid environments, 70, 641-658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, M.T. and Rohde, R.F. (2010) ‘An analysis of 20th century vegetation change in Namaqualand using repeat photography’, pp. 15-21 in: Schmiedel, U. and Jurgens, N. (Eds) Biodiversity in Southern Africa - Volume II: patterns and processes at regional scale. Klaus Hess Publishers, Gottingen and Windhoek. ISBN: 978-3-933117-46-5.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M.T., Todd, S.W. and Duncan, J. (2005) Environmental change in Riemvasmaak 10 years after re-settlement. Report prepared for FARM-Africa, pp. 117.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, J. (1946) A botanist in South Africa, P.R. Gawthorn, London. Killingray, D. and Roberts, A. (1989) ‘An outline history of photography in Africa to ca. 1940’, History in Africa, 16, 197-208.Google Scholar
Masubelele, M.L., Hoffman, M.T, Bond, W.J. and Gambiza, J. (2014) ‘A 50 year study shows grass cover has increased in shrublands of semi-arid South Africa’, Journal of arid environments, 104, 43-51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marloth, R. (1908) Das Upland, Gustav Fischer, Jena.Google Scholar
Okubamichael, D.Y., Jack, S., De Wet Bosenberg, J., Hoffman, M.T. and Donaldson, J.S. (2016) ‘Repeat photography confirms alarming decline in South African cycads’, Biodiversity conservation, 25,2153.Google Scholar
Rogers, G.F., Malde, H.E. and Turner, R.M. (1984) Bibliography of repeat photography for evaluating landscape change, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Rohde, R.F. and Hoffman, M.T. (2012) ‘Historical ecology of Namibian rangelands: Vegetation change since 1876 in response to local and global drivers’, Science of the total environment, 416, 276-288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, D., Hoffman, M.T. and Collocott, S.J. (2014) ‘The influence of local and global drivers on a century of woody plant encroachment in the dry Kimberley savanna of South Africa’, African journal of range and forage science, 31(2), 107-121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, R.H., Turner, R.M. and Boyer, D.E. (2010) ‘Introduction: a brief history of repeat photography’, pp. 3-11 in: Webb, R.H., Turner, R.M. and Boyer, D.E. (Eds) Repeat photography: methods and applications in the natural sciences, Island Press, Washington DC. ISBN 978-1-59726-713-7.Google Scholar