Highveld
Highveld | |
|---|---|
Natural region | |
 Highveld in winter in Gauteng Province north of Johannesburg | |
 A map of South Africa showing the central plateau edged by the Great Escarpment and its relationship to the Highveld and Lesotho Highlands: The portion of the Great Escarpment shown in red is officially known as the Drakensberg, although most South Africans think of the Drakensberg as only that portion of the escarpment which forms the border between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. Here, the escarpment rises to its greatest height, over 3000 m. | |
| Country | South Africa Lesotho |
| Area | |
| • Total | 400,000 km2 (200,000 sq mi) |
The Highveld (Afrikaans: Hoëveld, pronounced [ˈɦuəfælt], lit. 'High Field') is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of the Highveld. It is home to some of the country's most important commercial farming areas, as well as its largest concentration of metropolitan centres, especially the Gauteng conurbation, which accommodates one-third of South Africa's population.
Location and description
The Highveld constitutes almost the whole of the
The Highveld terrain is generally devoid of mountains, consisting of rolling plains, especially in the Free State, sometimes interrupted by rocky ridges such as the
The Highveld
Urban areas and industry
Cities located on the Highveld include
lies on the border of the Highveld and the southeastern Kalahari.About half of the
.The pollution in this region is also very high principally due to coal thermal power stations producing nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.[4][5]
Flora
Naturally occurring vegetation in the Highveld consists of different types of well-established
Fauna
The Highveld is home to a number of endangered animals, including
Threats and preservation
Like so many areas of grassland all over the world, the Highveld is excellent agricultural land and most of the area has been converted for farming. The grassland areas now remaining in the natural state are in various nature reserves, which, although a small portion of the Highveld, are still the largest areas of remaining grassland in South Africa. The protected areas include Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve,[6] Verloren Valei Nature Reserve, Nooitgedacht Dam Nature Reserve, Bronkhorstspruit Dam Nature Reserve, Vaal Dam Nature Reserve, and Koppies Dam Nature Reserves and Willem Pretorius Game Reserve.[7]
Popular culture
- The Highveld is featured in Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, "How the Leopard Got His Spots".
See also
- Witwatersrand basin– Ridge of erosion resistant rock in South Africa
- Vredefort impact structure – Largest verified impact structure on Earth, about 2 billion years old
- Transvaal Basin – Geological basin of the Kaapvaal craton
- Lowveld– Type of rural landscape in South Africa
References
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica; Macropaedia Vol 17, p. 66. (1974) Helen Hemingway Bento Publishers, Chicago.
- ^ Dictionary of South African English (1993) Oxford University Press, Cape Town
- ^ a b Atlas of Southern Africa p. 13 (1984) Reader's Digest & the Directorate of Surveys and Mapping
- ^ "Dans l'Afrique du Sud charbonnière, la population est prisonnière d'une pollution mortelle" [In South Africa, the population is trapped in deadly pollution]. Le Monde (in French). 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "Pollution and smog plague lives on South Africa's Highveld". The South African. 29 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
- ^ "Department of Agriculture and Rural Development". Archived from the original on 2010-09-19.
- ^ "Highveld grasslands". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
