How do urban dwellers identify with features within urban green spaces in the Eastern Cape?
- Authors: Manyani, Amanda
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Land use, Urban -- South Africa , Greenbelts -- South Africa , City planning -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95596 , vital:31174
- Description: Public urban green spaces contain natural and artificial features which play crucial roles in supporting urban social-ecological systems, a fact now recognized globally. The various natural and artificial features contained in public urban green spaces are said to be key contributors to the quality of life and well-being of urban dwellers. Nevertheless, this has been largely ignored in urban design in South Africa, especially in the poorer township and Reconstruction Development Program (RDP) areas. At the individual household and community levels within the poorer communities, the provision of green spaces and trees, as well as recreation facilities, is well below world standards, and much less than what is available in the more affluent areas of South African towns. Additionally, most research on the links between nature and human well-being in urban contexts comes from developed world contexts which adopt a westernized view of the relationship. Yet, in many societies of the Global South, including South Africa, worldviews and experiences of nature in green spaces and use of other recreational features takes on different meanings to those of the Global North. To show these differences, a combination of methods was used in this study, different types of green spaces were assessed and evaluated by structured observations so as to record the features present within the spaces. A survey of 360 households was conducted by targeting green space users and households within 100 metres from a green space. Results indicated that, across all the green space types, formal green spaces had a low cover of shrubs, trees and herbs whilst having high lawn cover. Furthermore, vegetation had poor rating across all the green spaces since the vegetation was either overgrown herbs, dense thickets of shrubs and mostly alien trees that were either diseased or forked. Similar to the disparity in the composition and structure of vegetation within the green spaces, there was a wide variability in the composition of recreational features and amenities across the green spaces. The formal green spaces had the most amenities like play equipment, shelter and seating. Informal green spaces and commonages had little or no recreational features available. The attributes of these spaces therefore influenced the reasons for visiting as more than 90 % of the respondents simply used the spaces for transit. With regards to attitudes and preferences towards particular features, they were emerging sense of strong negative feelings towards natural features. Most respondents emphasized the need for green spaces that are well laid out with maintained lawns, recreational facilities and open vegetation. Thus, the current design and available features within the studied urban green spaces do not meet local needs and aspirations and thus do not contribute to better well-being and quality of life as much as they could. Specifically, the various health benefits linked with being in contact with nature in the public green spaces were not evident in this study. The South African specific context in green space use, perception and people’s preferences is thus crucial for urban planning and sustainability.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Governance and management of urban trees and green spaces in South Africa: ensuring benefits to local people and the environment
- Authors: Chishaleshale, Mwale
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Trees in cities -- South Africa , Urban forestry -- South Africa , Community forestry -- South Africa , City planning -- South Africa , Human-plant relationships -- South Africa , Urban ecology (Biology -- South Africa , Urban ecology (Sociology) -- South Africa , Natural resources -- South Africa , Trees in cities -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:4739 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006035 , Trees in cities -- South Africa , Urban forestry -- South Africa , Community forestry -- South Africa , City planning -- South Africa , Human-plant relationships -- South Africa , Urban ecology (Biology -- South Africa , Urban ecology (Sociology) -- South Africa , Natural resources -- South Africa , Trees in cities -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Description: In the face of rapid urbanization and global climate change, urban trees and green spaces (UTGS) can contribute to the welfare of people and the urban environment. Urban trees and green spaces can assist to address urbanization challenges related to environmental degradation. While functions of UTGS have been well documented in the developed world, they have not yet received full attention in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, UTGS are under threat from urban development and fragmentation. Notably, the problems associated with UTGS also fall into the governance realm and indications are that poor governance and management of UTGS can negatively influence the potential benefits of UTGS to local people and the environment. This formed a basis for this research. The main objective of the study was to determine the current governance and management approaches to UTGS in South Africa. Through document search and review, the study determined the governance institutions influencing UTGS at national level and at provincial level (in the Limpopo and Eastern Cape Provinces). Face-to-face and online survey methods were used to determine the extent to which 28 local municipalities had adopted planned, systematic and integrated management of UTGS. The snowball approach was used to determine the key actors involved in UTGS activities and interviews were conducted to establish the roles and capabilities of these actors. A total of 540 household interviews were conducted to determine the institutional factors influencing local peoples’ ability to access, plant and use UTGS. The findings of the study showed that UTGS have not been adequately covered in existing governance institutions and practice at national and provincial levels. Local government municipalities were not managing their UTGS in a planned or systematic manner due to constraining factors such as insufficient funds, insufficient personnel, lack of equipment and lack of political support. Only 7.1 % of the surveyed municipalities had an urban tree management plan and an estimate of the urban tree stock; 32.1 % had tree policies; 28.6 % had tree bylaws; 21.4 % had tree planting schedules; 10.7 % had tree maintenance schedules and only 3.6 % had tree inspection schedules. Key actors involved in UTGS activities differed among levels of government. The actors included national and provincial government departments, local government municipalities, Non-Governmental Organizations, private sector companies and local volunteers. Most of the actors, however, either planted trees or provided tree seedlings to municipalities and the local people. Tenure security was a key institutional factor affecting peoples’ ability to plant, use or even remove trees from their residential plots. The same applied to trees in the streets and public parks. Whereas most respondents did not require permission to plant (79.8 %) or remove (75 %) trees on their residential plots, a majority of them required permission to plant and remove trees from streets (over 70 %) and public parks (over 80 %). However, with regard to planting and removing urban trees in public open spaces, 54% of the respondents indicated that permission was not required suggesting a lack of clarity among local residents on the issue. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that there is no political recognition and support for UTGS at almost all levels of government. This has resulted in the lack of incorporation of UTGS in urban planning and development and has caused UTGS to receive limited funding to permit planned and systematic management. Given the current rates of urbanization and urban development, the lowly prioritised UTGS are vulnerable to exploitation. To conserve UTGS and promote their potential contribution to local people and the environment, UTGS must be recognized and placed on political and development agendas. There is a need to develop national guidelines for UTGS management, assess the extent of the urban forest resource in local municipalities, clearly define the roles and capabilities of different actors, integrate UTGS in the urban planning and development system, and most of all seek to involve the local people in overall management and governance of UTGS.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Stakeholder management for urban development projects in South Africa
- Authors: Mgemane, Lesley Musa
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Economic development projects -- South Africa , Project management , City planning -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: vital:9014 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018588
- Description: The study arose from a research issue that is both practical and theoretical. The apparent challenges of a stakeholder management nature in the execution of urban development projects in South Africa led to the conception of the study. However, the most compelling need for the study was the theoretical gap – in the urban development theory, in the projects theory, and particularly in the stakeholder management theory – on the management of stakeholders in the South African urban development projects. As a result, the value of the study is both managerial and scholarly. The urban development concept is understood to be referring to the development of urban areas for the purpose of improving the quality of life in the cities, and the development of the infrastructure to enable economic growth. Urban development projects, as vehicles for accomplishing urban development, are important for a newly industrialised economy (NIE) like South Africa. Also, as a result of the political past – in the form of a systematic preferential development based on racial segregation by the previous government, and the two decades of subjection of South Africa to economic and cultural isolation by the international community – South Africa has a huge backlog with regard to the two general purposes of urban development: social progress and economic progress. Consequently, urban development projects in South Africa are very critical and important, particularly for geopolitical and socio-economic reasons. Judging by the extensive negative media coverage, many of the South African urban development projects demonstrate poor stakeholder management. The list of urban development projects that have experienced stakeholder related challenges in South Africa is endless: the Johannesburg BRT project, the Gauteng Freeway Improvement project, the Transnet multi-product pipeline-construction project, the Chapman’s Peak toll-road project, the Kusile and Medupi power stations construction projects, are some examples. The project management profession and body of knowledge view stakeholder management in a serious light, actually a failure in adequately implementing stakeholder management in a project is tantamount to a failure of the project itself. There is also a consensus among numerous researchers that there is a general lack of knowledge for project managers on how to manage stakeholders, particularly external stakeholders. Stakeholder management is a poorly understood and, usually a very badly implemented project management discipline. Managing projects in Africa, and by inference in South Africa, can be particularly complex – given the involvement of multiple stakeholders and their historical, geopolitical, economic relationships, and cultural differences. The study set out to develop a framework to improve the management of stakeholders in urban development projects – by investigating the critical success factors that have an influence on stakeholder management success in urban development projects in South Africa. This study is important primarily because there seems to be no previous research conducted on this important project management discipline, stakeholder management of urban development projects; and there seems to be a neglect of stakeholder management duties by urban development projects agencies, and by inference, projects practitioners in South Africa. A theoretical space was created for this study in the fraternal literature of previous studies on critical success factors and/or stakeholder management in construction projects – as there seem to be none undertaken in the urban development environment, particularly in the South African context.
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- Date Issued: 2012