NASA Honours Team Including UKZN Professor for Biodiversity Monitoring Research
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) Professor Onisimo Mutanga, South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Land Use Planning and Management, is a member of the Airborne Remote Sensing Observations Team involved in the Survey of the Cape (BioSCape) biodiversity project, which recently received the prestigious National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Group Achievement Award, one of the agency’s highest accolades recognising exceptional contributions to NASA’s mission and scientific endeavours.
BioSCape is NASA’s first biodiversity-focused airborne and field campaign, designed to capture ecosystem structure, function, and composition data in South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region using four NASA instruments on two aircraft. The Region is one of the world’s rare biodiversity hotspots and one of the most biologically rich and unique ecosystems, with thousands of endemic species found nowhere else on the planet.
The team comprised over 150 scientists from more than 40 institutions, including government agencies, universities and non-governmental organisations. BioSCape achieved precise, near-simultaneous observations, positioning NASA’s Earth Science Division to advance biodiversity monitoring globally.
It is one of the most ambitious biodiversity mapping efforts ever undertaken in South Africa, significantly advancing understanding of how ecosystems can be monitored at the landscape scale using cutting-edge remote sensing technology.
Achieving this recognition reflects the hard work, dedication and remarkable accomplishments of the entire BioSCape team.
Mutanga is an expert in vegetation-state analysis under global change using remote sensing techniques. In his work, he integrates ecology, biodiversity conservation, and remote sensing to model the impacts of forest fragmentation, pests and diseases, and invasive species on agricultural and natural ecosystems.
He was the recipient of a prestigious National Science and Technology Forum-Eskom Award in 2023 (NSTF-South 32 Awards) for ‘Engineering Research Capacity Development’, recognising his research capacity development using remote sensing techniques to support land-use management, with a focus on developing the science and applying these techniques to terrestrial ecosystems.
Mutanga has supervised and graduated 48 PhD candidates and 65 master’s students, and holds a B-rating from the National Research Foundation, an H-index of 70, and has more than 18 000 citations and over 300 publications to his name.
In 2024, Mutanga received a Fellowship of the Society of South African Geographers in recognition of his outstanding scholarship, teaching and administration that advance geography. He has contributed to improved understanding of land-use dynamics and the use of technology to inform sustainable environmental practices.
Words and photograph: Christine Cuénod
