SIMPLE PIIOTOGRAMMETRIC METIIODS FOR MAPPING OF VEGETATION 
POLYGONS BOUNDARIES IN NATIONAL PARKS IN AFRICA 
Professor hab. dr Aleksandra Bujakiewicz 
Head of Department of Surveying 
School of Engineering, University of Zambia 
P.O.Box 32379 Lusaka, Zambia 
Commission IV, Working Group I 
KEY WORDS: Mapping, GIS, GPS and Aerial Triangulation, Optical Rectification, Vegetation Polygons. 
ABSTRACT 
Wildlife management in national parks requires various types of data to be analized. Evaluation of vegetation is one of the 
most important tasks needed for wildlife control and conservation. National parks in Africa cover large areas and 
therefore photogrammetric and remote sensing techniques are the most suitable. Since the boundaries of vegetation 
polygons are not shown on the medium scale topographic maps, therefore there is need for fast and cheap 
photogrammetric methods to be used for their determination. In a project carried out by the joint Zambia - United 
Kingdom team, the whole of Kasanka National Park and surrounding Kafinda Game Management Area in Zambia was 
mapped and then classified into physiognomic habitat types, in respect to vegetation polygons and other features. Low cost 
GPS technology in conjunction with graphical-analytical aerial triangulation have been used for determination of 
planimetric control needed for mapping of vegetation polygons boundaries and geometrical positions of other features with 
the use of an optical rectification device - sketchmaster. Thematic information, concerning types of vegetation and other 
features, was collected by aerial photography interpretation supported with field verification. A digital data base was 
created and processed with ARC/INFO software. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Preservation of natural beauty in large national parks in 
Africa requires careful management, control and 
conservation of wildlife resources. Their proper inventory 
needs many types of data, which have to be collected, 
processed, analysed, up-dated and presented. Digital data 
bases are the most convinient and easiest form to process 
with the use of various digital mapping, remote sensing 
and GIS softwares. Mapping and evaluation of vegetation 
in areas occupied by national parks are very important in 
wildlife management. National Parks in Africa cover 
usually large areas, very often partially not available for a 
direct survey, and therefore aerial photographs and other 
remote sensing data are the best source for vegetation 
mapping. Boundaries of vegetation polygons are not shown 
on medium scale topographic maps, as for example 
1:50000, which is the basic map for rural areas in most of 
Southern African countries, including Zambia. 
Conventional photogrammetric methods of aerial 
triangulation for planimetric control densification and 
stereocompilation with stereoplotters/analytical plotters for 
mapping are too expensive, complicated and time 
consuming to be attractive for supplementing of 1:50000 
map of national parks with vegetation polygons and other 
features. Production of photographic maps from aerial 
photography or remote sensing imagery is faster and 
cheaper and because of their pictorial form, large amount 
of valuable information is available. However, orthophoto 
technology and even ordinary rectification with 
mechanical-optical rectifiers have not been implemented in 
many of African countries, including Zambia. Therefore, 
there was need to use some other fast and low cost 
photogrammetric approaches for control determination and 
mapping of vegetation boundaries in national park. 
Simple photogrammetric approaches for field control 
densification and mapping were proposed and applied by 
the author in the project concerning mapping of habitat in 
the Kasanka National Park and surrounding Kafinda 
Game Management Area in Zambia, for the use in wildlife 
conservation management and scientific research in this 
Park. The whole project, which was carried out by the 
joint Zambian - United Kingdom team, included the 
following two parts; 
(1) Photogrammetric mapping of boundaries of vegetation 
polygons and other features in the National Park, carried 
out in the Department of Surveying, University of Zambia 
[Bujakiewicz, 1993]. 
(2) Collection of data concerning types of vegetation in the 
Park, based on aerial photography interpretation and field 
verification, creation, processing and analysis of digital 
date base with ARC/INFO software, carried out by the 
Department of Biological Sciences, Manchester 
Metropolitan University [Cassels, 1994]. 
This paper concentrates mainly on the first part of the 
project, concerning photogrammetric compilation. 
However, the final results of some GIS processed data will 
also be presented. 
2. PRINCIPLES OF SIMPLE PIIOTOGRAMMETRIC 
METTIODS FOR CONTROL DENSIFICATION 
AND MAPPING 
Control densification. Densification of planimetric control 
proposed by the author for the purpose of this project has 
154 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996 
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