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Logic of the map: Approaches and Procedures
Book chapter   Open access

Logic of the map: Approaches and Procedures

Ladislav Mucina, Michael C. Rutherford and Leslie W. Powrie
The vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, pp.13-29
Strelitzia, 19, South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
2006
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CC BY-SA V4.0,  Open Access

Abstract

This chapter sets out the theoretical background and practical procedures adopted by the VEGMAP Project. We describe how we arrived at the two major products of our Project—the vegetation map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland (Section 6) and the descriptive book (Section 7). Mapping of vegetation of a region comprising 11 biomes, about 20 000 species (more than 24 000 taxa) of plants, experiencing a wide range of climates, from subtropical to polar, and spanning the oldest and youngest rocks on this planet, was a daunting task. The complexity of this task is clearly mirrored in the complexity of our approach and justifies the detail contained in this particular chapter. This chapter starts with theoretical sections (1–4) in which we argue our case for the choice of the type of the map and for the basics of the mapping procedures. These are followed by a section (5) on sources of the data used in construction of our Map (as well as other mapping products such as the map of biomes and bioregions), and the Book. There are two methodological sections: Section 6 describes the technical details of the vegetation mapping and Section 7 explains in some detail the structure of the descriptions of vegetation units that form the core of the book.

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