Home
Forgot your password?
Things are mo-o-oving at Ndlovu
|
The SAEON Ndlovu Node is making good progress in science, data management and education outreach, SAEON’s primary areas of responsibility as defined in its mandate.
The physical infrastructure of the node’s new buildings at Phalaborwa Gate in the Kruger National Park is nearly completed and the electrical wiring and telecommunications should be installed within the next month. The plans are to move in by the end of August.
Global research and monitoring
As part of the ongoing process of deciding the position for the core sites where key monitoring will take place, time was spent with Wayne Twine from the WITS rural facility to seek school premises outside Kruger Park which will serve as a contrasting site for flux tower measurements. Learners will be involved in the monitoring process.
This was driven out of an initiative by the CSIR, as part of a global research project, to have a mobile tower that can take measurements both within and outside the protected area. A range of potential sites have been identified and forwarded to the project leader, Dr Bob Scholes of the CSIR.
An interview with Dr Bob Scholes, in which he discusses this project, will be published in a forthcoming issue of SAEON e-News, so watch this space.
New GIS Officer/ Information Manager appointed
Nicola Stevens joined the SAEON Ndlovu Node at the beginning of August to head up Information Management. Her responsibilities include:
- management of spatial and attribute data from multiple sources
- development, management and maintenance of the GIS resources of the Node, including the databases
- ensuring the consistency, integrity and documentation of the SAEON GIS data holdings and ensuring that these holdings meet agreed standards
- partnering with other stakeholders to make sure that these data holdings are easily accessible by users, either via the internet or other mechanisms
- producing GIS products required by a range of user groups
Nicola holds a Top Masters in Evolutionary biology and Ecology from Groningen Rijks Universiteit, Netherlands. She has worked as an environmental consultant in the ecological unit of the CSIR in Pretoria, where she conducted on-site ecological, floral and faunal assessments in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KZN, mapping and GIS of ecologically sensitive sites, and compiled specialist ecological reports. She has also worked as a research assistant at Karongwe Game Reserve in Hoedspruit where she was responsible for the GVI database, daily radio tracking and behaviour monitoring of wild dog, leopard, lion and cheetah, as well as vegetation monitoring and mapping.
But it was as a research assistant at the Bovine TB Research Project at the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, Kwazulu Natal where she gained the most of her experience in GIS and where she researched buffalo movement for her MSc. Here she was responsible for the daily tracking of collared buffalo herds across the park and on foot monitoring of buffalo herd behaviour, followed by a survey of vegetation structure and composition of the area in which the herds occurred. She was also responsible for managing and collecting data for bi-annual buffalo TB testing.
Welcome to the SAEON family, Nicola. We look forward to having you on board!
SAEON Winter Camp for science learners
Following on from the very successful National Science Week 06 programme, funded by the Department of Science and Technology, run by the SAEON Ndlovu Node staff in partnership with the Palabora Foundation and working closely with the Department of Education, Ndlovu has now entered the net stage of education with a SAEON Winter Camp that was arranged for 12 senior science learners from the region. They were exposed to intensive science training for a week-long camp on the premises of the Southern African Wildlife College.
The camp included a visit to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) with whom Ndlovu has developed a partnership for education outreach. Learners received theoretical and practical experience in environmental studies and scientific methods, presented by Dr Dave Balfour of SAEON and Hendrik Sithole of the Kruger National Park.
A full report (by the learners themselves) on the SAEON Winter Camp will be published in the next issue of SAEON e-News.
