Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / There is a common assumption that shopping malls are "bad" buildings. But this thesis aims to contest this assumption and offer a new way to approach shopping centre design. The shopping mall is not bad in the sens that it functions highly effieciently and serves the retail requirements of both shopper and tenant. The way in which the shopping mall is bad is the thinking behind their design often as a result of developer control, being one of the most commercially driven building types. This can often result in buildings that have a negative impact on their surroundings. Shopping malls tend to isolate their surroundings by creating inward-facing arcades. This is observed as the only profitable way to deal with shop fronts in shopping malls which results in the creation of large blank facades on the exterior.

Includes bibliographical references. / The increasing pervasiveness of technology has led to questions concerning the contribution and value of technology, and to what extent a particular innovation, invention, product, theory or technological development benefits society. The attempt to answer these questions has led to the development of evaluation methodologies to provde a structured approach to this process of inquiry. In most cases, evaluation methodology can be classified as either fundamentally holistic or reductionist in its approach. This dissertation argues that both holistic and reductionist thinking need to be applied to the evaluation of complex phenomena, and develops theory in order to achieve this. In the context of evaluating Location Based Services (LBS) in South Africa, a conceptual framework was developed to combine the holistic, systems thinking apporach of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and the reductionist approach of metrics and the Process Outcomes model.

Includes bibliographical references. / There are many areas in Cape Town and other South African cities, which historically have been diverse and integrated in terms of race and income. This research is concerned about the quality of these urban areas in light of numerous factors that have the potential to lead to social and spatial exclusion. The aim of this research is to focus on the coastal areas of Kalk Bay, St James and Fish Hoek situated on the Cape Peninsula as a case study of urban exclusion in a global South context. These areas are relatively economically mixed and, in the case of Kalk Bay, racially diverse. The research focuses on exclusion on the basis of income as economic exclusion is no longer strictly bounded by race in the post-apartheid period. The overarching research question asks: what are the extent and outcomes of factors that lead to the social and spatial exclusion of lower income urban residents in the Kalk Bay-St James-Fish Hoek study area? Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through interviews, document analysis, analysis of archival records and field observations. These research findings were interpreted according to an analytical framework consisting of eight significant factors that lead to the social and spatial exclusion of lower income urban residents in cities of the global South. The research finds that the factors that may be having the greatest exclusionary effect on lower income urban residents in the study area are: the lack of affordable housing and the limited potential for future development within the area; the financially exclusionary property market; the commercialisation and privatisation of public spaces; gradual processes of gentrification; exclusion from decision-making; and limited employment opportunities within the area. While current spatial policies in Cape Town seem to prioritise the spatial goals of integration and inclusion, they do not seem to address the economic factors that are often central to exclusion in the study area and in other areas of Cape Town. In light of these policy gaps, this study proposes a number of recommendations to address these exclusionary factors in the study area.

It is important for health planners to provide health services as effectively and equitably as possible for the development of quality living environments. The provision of adequate healthcare services, particularly in metropolitan areas, is becoming more difficult because of three developments: slow economic growth; the rapid growth of metropolitan areas and their subsequent increases in population. It is thus a challenge to provide what is considered a fair or socially just distribution of healthcare services to a population with changing healthcare needs. The spatial distribution of people and their varying need for healthcare services is a long-standing interest in the field of service planning, and provides a classic issue well suited for Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyse. Access is an important aspect in healthcare service planning. GIS-based accessibility analysis is a logical method that can be applied to test the degree to which access is obtained. Such successful applications of GIS-based analysis have been useful in indicating the accessibility of an existing or potential service. This has provided a good basis for the planning of healthcare services. However, it has been increasingly realised that there is a growing need for a paradigm shift in the planning process. In South Africa, primary healthcare (PHC) is a dual system made up of private and public healthcare facilities. Private PHC is expensive and only affordable to people with medical insurance. These people, most currently belonging to the middle and high income brackets, are theoretically also healthier than the rest of the population. But a small proportion of the population in the low income bracket also has medical aid or insurance. Hence, it is quite difficult to make a clear distinction of the low, middle and high income uninsured population when measuring access to public primary healthcare services. In this study, three different scenarios to calculate the uninsured population were generated and tested using a GIS-based form of catchment area analysis. The results from the catchment area analysis were compared with actual public PHC demand in the form of headcounts and further analysis of the origins of the patients was undertaken using a patient register. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in the spatial extent of the catchment areas of the facilities across the three demand scenarios but that there are significant differences in demand visits per scenario. A patient register and facility headcounts, both based on actual visits to public PHC facilities, were compared to the results of the catchment area analysis. The comparison results show that almost 45% of the patients did not use their closest facility as a first point of contact. The total allocated demand visits in scenario 3 was strongly in line with the total number of headcounts of the area, and thus is considered the most suitable calculation of uninsured population for implementation in a GIS-based accessibility analysis.

Bibliography: leaves 170-182. / This dissertation deals with the development and implementation aspects of a semi-automated shack reconstruction strategy for informal settlement GIS (ISGIS) data collection. The main features of this stratedy include: (1) the use of color orthoimagery and digital surface model (DSM) generated from high-resoltion small-format digitial aerial imagery, (2) the separation of the shack reconstruction task into automated shack detection and interactive shack delineation, (3) the integration of multiple cues in a desktop GIS environment, and (4) the 2.5D shack modeling and the three-dimensional (3D) realistic visualization. In accordance with this strategy an informal settlement modeling system (IS-Modeler) prototype has been developed. IS-Modeler is comprised of three software components: digital photogrammetry, image analysis and GIS. The former two are used to generate multiple cues, primarily DSM blobs, shadows and attributed edge contours, the latter is used to implement shack detection, delineation and visualization.

Bibliography : leaves 74-77. / This thesis investigates how GIS can be used in the planning process of informal settlements. Tables, maps and models were created to demonstrate how these data sources could be used to assist in the planning process. Three environmental factors namely, slope, soil and drainage were analysed, reclassified, weighted and computed to create the site suitability map.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Customary tenure is the predominant land tenure system in Ghana. It has been practiced for many years. Customary land tenure is built on the foundations of an African concept of land, distinguished by centrality of community, spirituality, and mutual dependence of the individual and the community. Colonization, increased population, rapid urbanisation has placed enormous pressure on customary tenure, especially in peri-urban areas. This study investigates customary administration in peri-urban Ghana. Using critical realism and multimethodology, peri-urban customary tenure in Accra and Kumasi, the fastest growing cities in Ghana, are assessed. A model for assessing functionality for peri-urban customary systems has been developed. The results indicate that functional customary systems adhere to the principles of good governance in customary land administration, although a lot needs to be done to improve accountability, transparency and land rights of women. It was also observed that whether the system has patrilineal or matrilineal inheritance does not have any significant influence on functionality. Further research is recommended to investigate best practices from other tenure systems to improve peri-urban customary tenure without compromising good aspects of customary systems.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-232).

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The case study applies a GIS-based methodology to assess the vulnerability of Masiphumelele, to both wetland flooding and coastal storm surges. This informal settlement, south of Cape Town has rapidly expanded since its inception 20 years ago, and large numbers of economic migrants largely from the Eastern Cape have swelled the population and over-whelmed the local infrastructure. The settlement is now expanding northwards in a largely uncontrolled fashion into an ecologically important wetland.

Includes bibliographical references. / Public Transport has played a fundamental part in my personal life as it was the mode of transport used to get to friends, part-time work and ultimately university campus over the span of eleven years. Using the South African public railway service on a daily basis for the past six years, it has made me aware of many fundamental architectural problems within this arena, with the biggest concern lying within the public transport interchange precinct; at the coming together of the different modes of public transport. Staying in the Northern Suburbs my entire life, attending Bellville High school and later the University of Cape Town, meant that the Bellville Public Transport Interchange has had a big impact on my idea and conceptions on the functioning of a public transport interchange. Subconsciously studying the Bellville Public Transport Interchange and understanding its functioning over the past eleven years has made me aware of the absence of architectural contribution within its current operational system and has lead me to the investigation of the relationship between architecture and the Bellville public Transport Interchange. The dissertation document that follows seeks to improve the current relationship between architecture and the Bellville Public Transport Interchange through the use of vertical and horizontal architectural layering systems.