Appendix O2 - Biophysical Report.pdf - Zitholele.co.za

February 2011 96 1261910 PREFERRED ROUTE SELECTIONThis section aims to identify the most suitable routes available using each of the biophysicalcriteria discussed above. This will be done per criteria and the end result would be the bestAlternative 1, 2 and 3 to take forward to the impact assessment phase.10.1 Soils and Land CapabilityIn order to identify the most suitable route one must first identify what features are sensitive andshould be avoided. In the case of soils and land capability the reasoning is that soil with a highagricultural potential and hence a potential to generate an income for the landowner is morevaluable than land that can only be used for grazing or in extreme cases nothing. Therefore theroute selection was based on the amount of agricultural soils present within the proposedcorridors. Agricultural soils are defined as Class I – III soils as per the agricultural potentialassessment above. However Class I and II soil are a lot better than class III soils and have beenregarded as more important to avoid. Thus in the route alignment assessment the value of goodagricultural soils was twice as important as agricultural soils. Each of the alternatives is discussedin detail below.10.1.1 Alternative 1As mentioned in the Alternative Description Section Alternative 1 traverses on the western side ofthe study area. The potential route segments that can be used are shown in the table below.Alternative 1 starts at the Camden Power Station at point A and follows route AB. At point B thereis an option to traverse to straight point C or to point C via point K. It was found that route BK-KChas a much large impact and hence route BC was rather used. This exercise was done for all thepotential route segments and the ones highlighted in red below have been excluded.Table 10-1: Soil Route Selection Alternative 1Route Ha Good Agricultural soil (Class I and II) Ha Agricultural Soil (Class III)AB 3787 2299.2BC 0 3133.3BK 0 8470.1KC 0 3541.4CD 0 5738.3KD 4868 5529.1DE 708 4990.833EF1 0 1866.8EF2 0 1296.2FG 0 1512.0GL 0 1642.2GH 0 2289.8SGH 0 1731.6LH 0 1421.3ZITHOLELE CONSULTING