CIFA OCCASIONAL PAPER No. 14 CIFA/OP 14

COMMITTEE FOR INLAND FISHERIES OF AFRICA

SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING TO LOCATE AND INVENTORY SMALL WATER BODIES FOR FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AND AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN ZIMBABWE

James M. Kapetsky
Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service
Fishery Resources and Environment Division

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
ROME 1987

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to call attention to satellite remote sensing as a rapid, costeffective means to provide much of the basic information required to plan for the development and management of small water bodies for fisheries and aquaculture. Zimbabwe was chosen as the study area because of the many small water bodies, and due to the fact that previous work could be used for comparisons with the results of the present investigation.

Management of small impoundments for fisheries and aquaculture appears to have good potential for increasing Zimbabwe's fish supply; however, a prerequisite for such development is information on sizes, locations, productivities and present uses of these small water bodies.

Visual analysis of rainy and dry season Landsat Thematic Mapper images of a 32 400 km² area in NE Zimbabwe was carried out to identify, inventory, estimate changes in surface area, land use context, and water colour of small water bodies.

Accuracy of the results and the financial and technical aspects of satellite remote sensing for small water body studies are discussed.

PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT

This is one of a number of publications that deals with the applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems for resource inventories. The overall purpose of these publications is to illustrate how remote sensing and geographic information systems technologies can be used to provide timely, comprehensive information to aid planning for fisheries and aquaculture development and management.

Related publications can be obtained by writing to the Chief, Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service, FAO, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

Distribution:	For bibliographic purposes this document should be cited as follows:
Members of CIFA Other interested nations and international organizations CIFA mailing list FAO Fisheries Department Fishery Officers in FAO Regional Office	Kapetsky, J.M., 1987 Satellite remote sensing to locate and inventory small water bodies for fisheries management and aquaculture development in Zimbabwe. CIFA Occas. Pap., (14):11 p.