GIS time series mapping of a former South African homeland

Abstract

This case study investigates the change in the geographical boundaries by creating a Spatio-temporal mapping of Ciskei (one of the so-called Bantustans or Homelands) during the period of Apartheid. It examines the reasons for its establishment, and what impact the apartheid land legislation had on the geographical boundaries of Ciskei. GIS technology was used in this study to create time series animation and Static map to display the spatial change of the Ciskei boundaries. This investigation was split into quantitative and qualitative assessments. The aim of the quantitative assessments was to determine the amount of the spatial change of the Ciskei geographic boundary. The qualitative methods was used to investigate the map viewer’s understanding of the amount of the information in the static and animated maps. The results of qualitative assessments showed that static and animated maps have their respective advantages in the visualization of the map viewer. The importance of this research is to take advantage of time series mapping techniques to study the homeland areas in South Africa and see all the changes that have occurred as a result of a period of apartheid legislation. For this research, the following data were gathered: Attribute and metadata was the legislation and laws related to the land and the geographic data was the historical maps and coordinate data.