Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / Existing literature offers various definitions of sustainable development, yet very few efforts have thus far been made to move specific communities to such a state of development. Popularised by the Brundland report, the concept of sustainable development is understood to be that which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs". However, the abstract concept of sustainable development raises various of questions concerning, for example, intergenerational implications of patterns of resources use and equitable resource allocations as highlighted in this study. This research indicates that the principles of sustainable development posed a veritable challenge to development projects. Hence, the confusion surrounding the concept, often leads to disagreement and misunderstanding in the demarcation of specific projects.

Seasonal climate forecasts (SCF) can play a crucial role in reducing vulnerability to climate variability, particularly for rural populations reliant on agriculture for their livelihood. The use of disseminated SCF by farmers in decision-making could reduce losses and maximise benefits in agriculture. Despite the potential usefulness of SCF, incorporating them into farming decisions is a complex process that navigates through several barriers which constrain their effective use. The first two barriers, namely credibility (trust on SCF) and scale (relevance of SCF in geographical space and time), originate from the limitations of SCF associated with the form in which they are produced. In this study, credibility and scale are investigated as limitations of SCF, which potentially bar the uptake and use of SCF in Bobirwa sub-district. The second group of barriers are beyond the SCF themselves but limit their effective use and emanate from biophysical, socio-cultural and economic factors. This study examines whether credibility and scale are barriers to the use of SCF in Bobirwa farmers' decision-making, investigates how SCF are used in decision-making, and seeks to find out how the barriers are overcome. To make these investigations, qualitative data was collected from subsistence agro-pastoral farmers in eight villages in Bobirwa sub-district of Botswana using semi-structured interviews. Data was collected considering gender to allow for gendered analysis. Themes related to the main study questions were identified from the data and analysed for the number of people who mentioned the themes. It was found that all 47 farmers interviewed coincidentally had access to SCF and the majority used SCF in their decision-making, while only a handful of farmers were non-users of SCF. The results show that scale (both temporal and spatial) is a barrier for users of SCF, whereas credibility is a major constraint for non-users of SCF in Bobirwa. To cope with the barriers, farmers mainly use local knowledge to complement SCF. Additionally, farmers apply advice from Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and use economic information in their decisions to deal with the barriers. Despite the barriers, some farmers indicated that using SCF was beneficial in increasing harvests, providing warnings and minimising losses of crops and livestock. However, disadvantages of using SCF were also highlighted, including lost crops, seeds and harvest, and missed opportunities to plant because of lack of temporal and geographical detail in the forecasts. The barrier of credibility has contributed to a few non-users resorting to using traditional planting, possibly making them vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability. A gendered analysis shows that almost equal proportions of both males and females use SCF. Moreover, women use SCF for crop farming while men use it for livestock management, which is aligned to traditional roles in Botswana. It is also revealed that, unlike women who only use local knowledge and MoA advice to overcome SCF limitations, a few men also use economic ventures, which could make men less vulnerable than women farmers. Strong networks between scientists and farmers can reduce the perceived credibility barrier, and innovative ways of reducing the scale barrier can be devised. Therefore, recommendations from the study include continuous engagement with farmers to understand their decisionmaking context in order to tailor the information to their local context as much as science permits. Government programmes should be designed to integrate SCF to build farmers' resilience to climate variabilities. The impacts on livestock farming, which is dominated by men, need to be given as much prominence in SCF information as arable farming. Forecasters should continue to improve credibility and scale without compromising either factor to avoid chances of contributing to the vulnerability of farmers particularly women, who mostly rely on SCF for crop production.

The scarcity of water and especially the lack of safe drinking water have been accepted as amongst the most serious challenges facing the twenty-first century. The lack of access to water is a global problem that faces between 460 million to more than 1 billion people as a result of an increasing demand for water as well as a diminishing supply of water resources. The lack of access to potable water poses a great constraint on the societal and individual well-being for the inhabitants of the semi-arid regions of southern Africa and the key area needed to improve the sustainable development of water resources and services has been identified as water governance. The aim of this research is, therefore, to understand how access to potable water affects the well-being of communities living in the Cuvelai-Etosha basin in Namibia and to understand how these communities participate in water governance. The Okalonga B and Onandjandja villages were used as case studies.The objectives of this study are to examine how water is accessed and determine what the barriers are in accessing potable water, to examine how the well-being of the communities in the two villages is affected by water access and to explore how communities are engaged in water governance. The overall methodology of the study was based on a qualitative approach to case study research. Interviews were conducted at the household level, the constituency and regional levels using semi-structured interview guides. The study found that the communities of Okalonga B and Onandjandja access water through hand-dug wells, private and communal taps, Etaka dam and Oshana, and boreholes. A total of 6 barriers to accessing potable water were identified. These included distance to communal taps, amount of water one can carry, administration of water infrastructure, maintenance of water infrastructure, ability to pay the set water fees and specific times allocated for collecting water. The barriers to accessing potable water negatively affect the well-being of communities. Communities felt that they would have better economic opportunities if they had access to potable water which would in turn improve their well-being and livelihood opportunities. Furthermore, the study found that community participation in water governance was poor.

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Marmara Sea and Black Sea connected with renowned Bosporus surround Istanbul, the city, which owns the privilege of bridging Europe and Asia. Besides such inland seas; forests and wetlands fragmented around and in the city maintain the natural cycle in the region. However, Istanbul as a fast developing urban area witnesses environmental issues like many other urban areas in global scale. Rapid economic and population growth of the city increase the pressure on above mentioned natural resources. Sustainable development of built environment is one of the best solutions in order to mitigate environmental damages of urban areas. The solution comes with green construction projects and systems yet the city and the market itself have barriers to block or slow the process of sustainable development. Identification of such barriers and reviewing international sustainable development practices paves the way for generating recommendations for environmentally friendly urban expansion in Istanbul. Survey targeting market professionals was conducted to identify sustainable development barriers in Istanbul and in order to address such barriers the thesis refers to conducted interviews and international practices presented in the literature review. The thesis draws economic, market and governmental recommendations which are particularly focused on financial incentives, raising awareness and enacting green laws involving all stakeholders of construction and real estate market.

Despite the increasing availability of scientific information to support climate change decisionmaking for farmers' resilience to the global challenge, a persistent gap exists between knowledge development and its application in decision-making. This is exerting pressure on science to develop more actionable or decision-relevant scientific information to support planning, and climate change decision-making. In the context of communicating climate change adaptation information, this study examined the usefulness of the Credibility, Salience, and Legitimacy (CSL) framework, otherwise known as the knowledge system framework (Cash et al., 2003), in bridging the disconnect between information production and its use in decision-making by commercial farmers in South Africa's Western Cape Province. The study was underpinned by Cash et al.'s 2003 boundary work theory, which argues that there are boundaries at the science and farmer interface which can be managed by knowledge systems employing the CSL framework in knowledge production. As such, the researcher undertook and examined the Western Cape's agricultural climate change response strategy known as the "SmartAgri" Plan, wherein scientists and agricultural experts developed case studies and regional commodity briefs, a proxy of climate adaptation information, to support farmers' resilience to climate change. The research looked at how these communication outputs are actionable in connection to users' perceptions of the credibility, salience, and legitimacy of this knowledge. The research consisted of an online focus group discussion with four SmartAgri scientists and agricultural experts as the producers of the information, as well as semistructured telephone interviews with 11 Western Cape commercial farmers, as users of climate change adaptation information. Findings from the interviews suggest that while there have been efforts to produce credible knowledge for enhanced awareness of climate change and its impacts on the Western Cape province's agricultural sector, availability of salient and legitimate climate change adaptation information remains a challenge at the science-farmer interface. Factors such as, limited experiential evidence, disparities in the scale and resolution of climate projections, the absence of financial support to commercial farmers and limited involvement of farmers in the development of climate change adaptation information, continue to undermine the actionability of climate change adaptation information in the areas studied. As a result, spanning the boundary between knowledge and action has been a challenge. Nevertheless, despite these limitations, commercial farmers consider climate adaptation information potentially useful. Increased engagement with farmers, demonstrations and trials with farmers, documentation and sharing of local best practices will be some of the key steps towards developing more actionable knowledge for farmers' use in climate change decisionmaking.

South Africa is grappling with persistently high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, while at the same time being one of the top twenty greenhouse gas emitters in the world. While calls have been made for South Africa to embark on a just transition to a lowcarbon society, a better understanding is needed of the factors that have led to the country's current unsustainability. Drawing on the concept of the minerals-energy complex, this thesis presents an historical political economy analysis of South Africa's industrialisation process in order to (1) identify the key factors that have contributed to the country's high emissions and low employment; and (2) to determine the role of industrial policy in shaping this unsustainable development pathway. The analysis shows that the capital- and energy-intensive characteristics of South Africa's industrial structure have contributed to the country's high unemployment and high emissions. While industrial policy has been instrumental in shaping this industrial structure, its role in the post-apartheid era has been complicated by the existence of a ‘hidden' industrial policy in conflict with official objectives as well as implementation challenges which together have constrained the effectiveness of policies aimed at inclusive decarbonisation. From these results, it is argued that the adoption of an integrated green industrial policy has an important role to play in enabling South Africa to embark on a just transition to an inclusive low-carbon society.

The new sustainable development agenda for 2030 was adopted in 2015 with implementation now in progress. This ambitious agenda proposed 17 goals and 169 targets in areas of significance: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. Goal 11 of the 17 Goals strive to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. With people continuously choosing to live and work in cities despite the congestion and pollution that result from the high concentration of people, due to the economic growth, innovation and opportunities offered by cities. Hence, it is important to acknowledge that without well-managed urban transition the success of the SDGs will be difficult in developing countries. In the context of this research, it was important and applicable to look at how the ambitious global agenda like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), more specifically Goal 11 on cities is being implemented by local government for cities. The research focus on City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) as a case study for implementing SDG 11. The appropriate research methodology, based on an interpretivist paradigm coupled with the phenomenological constructivism nature of this research, is qualitative. The goal was to combine document analysis and semi-structured interviews to provide the researcher with a more complex understanding of the role of local government, and thereby help the researcher answer the research questions. The research shows that the national, provincial, and local priorities in policy and programmes in South Africa have a high overlap with the SDGs. It is well recognized that development in South Africa can only take place through collaboration between citizens and government, thus policies and their implementation will have to recognize the importance of collaboration. Strategic partnerships between different sectors; government, private sector, civil society and international organisations will bring a strong blend to different strengths and has proved to have means for knowledge sharing. Thus, for CTMM to reach its goal of adequately implementing SDG 11 they would have to leverage on strategic partnerships, develop a framework for implementation and monitoring progress as a way of focusing on implementing the objectives of the Urban Goal while ensuring that there is integration between its national agenda and the global goals. / Mini Dissertation (MA (Environment and Society))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA (Environment and Society) / Unrestricted

The aim of this dissertation was to use Measurement & Verification (M&V) to determine the improvements in net heat rate at a South African coal-fired power plant (CFPP) following an extensive refurbishment programme. The CFPP consisted of multiple subcritical pulverised fuel generating units and the refurbishment programme aimed to improve the overall net heat rate by 1%. The purpose of using M&V is isolate the performance changes attributable to specific energy conservation measures from those changes brought about by other factors, or that would have occurred anyway for other reasons. An extensive literature review was undertaken, firstly into M&V and secondly into CFPP design and performance. The conventionally accepted methods for determining plant performance are the ‘direct method’ in which a measurement boundary is drawn around the entire plant, and the ‘components method’ which evaluates the boiler, the turbine-condenser cycle and the auxiliary loads separately. Caution is drawn to the fact that plant performance may be expressed in many ways depending on how HR is defined and on which coal measurement base is used. The physical factors affecting plant performance were classified as either fixed or variable. Fixed factors included vintage and design, size, condition of the major components (boiler, turbine and condenser), cooling water system type and pollutant controls. Variable factors included ambient conditions, flexibility of operations (such as running at part-load and load cycling) and the characteristics of the coal used including heating value, total moisture, hydrogen, ash, volatile matter, sulphur, hardness & abrasiveness. It is clear from the literature that the language used to describe flexible operations is inadequate and poorly defined. Other factors that may affect the calculated heat rate of a plant include coal weighing, stockpile surveys, length of assessment periods, changes to static stockpiles, measurement boundary selection and other assumptions. The literature review was used as a basis to develop an M&V methodology for the specific CFPP involved in the case study. The energy conservation measures were described in detail as well as constraints regarding availability and resolution of plant data. Although all measurement boundary options were considered, the whole facility approach was chosen (Option C). This approach was mainly motivated by the lack of data available and a high potential for interactive effects. Another reason is the fact that assessments need to capture the overall performance which could include deterioration in one part of the plant and simultaneous upgrades in other parts. The primary data required to find heat rate is the electrical energy use (exported, imported and auxiliary), the mass of coal consumed and the coal higher heating value. The M&V methodology included the development of a baseline adjustment model to adjust for changes in plant load, coal moisture and coal ash content. Ideally the model should have included changes in ambient conditions (temperature and relative humidity) but this was not possible as no ambient data was available and the assessment was done retrospectively. The absence of ambient data was mitigated by stipulating that assessment periods need to consist of a minimum of twelve consecutive months to account for changes in performance due to seasonal effects. The methodology also included a Monte Carlo analysis to quantify the combined uncertainties associated with electrical energy use, coal energy use, coal heating value and the adjustment model itself. The methodology was used to assess the change in net heat rate of the plant used in the case study for two separate twelve month reporting periods. The calculated impacts of the energy conservation measures were not as favourable as originally anticipated. A brief analysis of the results is provided with a discussion of potential reasons for the underperformance. A whole facility approach does not allow the reasons for performance changes to be pinpointed. One possibility is simply that the energy conservation measures had not been implemented as originally planned. An important finding was that the performance changes could not be solely attributed to the exclusion of any independent variables from the baseline adjustment model (e.g. ambient conditions). A more general discussion of the merits, shortcomings and limitations of the methodology is provided as well as some comments on the general interpretation of results. The baseline adjustment model is only applicable to the plant in the case study and is only valid for small changes in the independent variables. When calculating part-load operation, special attention must be given to generating units that have been derated. The application of a single part-load adjustment model to a multi-unit plant is discussed and found to result in conservative reporting. Factors which contribute to uncertainty, but which are unknown include staithe coal level changes, unknown stockpile dynamics, uncalibrated instruments, unrecorded coal movements and inaccuracy of aerial stockpile surveys. The dissertation concludes that the original hypothesis is supported: that a credible M&V methodology may be developed and applied to determine the heat rate improvements resulting from the refurbishment programme at a coal-fired power plant. Recommendations include an upfront agreement on which measurement reporting bases to use (both for heat rate and for coal), selection of a whole facility measurement boundary, a minimum assessment period of twelve months, installation of at least one accurate instrument to measure actual coal consumption (as opposed to coal delivered to the plant and then moved within the plant), sampling of coal, determination of heating value and collection of accurate ambient condition data from the start of the baseline period. Further recommendations are made to reduce uncertainty, determine static factors and to better interpret reported impacts.