Thesis (MA)-- tellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa today is facing many social and welfare problems. Three of which are very prominent: named HIV/Aids; unemployment; and sexual and/or violent crimes against woman and children. With churches being some of the biggest and most influential nongovernmental organizations in the country, government is increasingly acknowledging that churches have a very important role to play in order to help curb social and welfare problems in the community. One inhibiting factor keeps churches from playing the role that government is expecting of them: the roles and expected roles of churches have not been quantified sufficiently. A geographical information system was chosen to help in this process of quantification. Previous studies related to GIS being used by social and welfare services showed that this software give these service agencies a powerful new way to analyse services in relation to clients and the communities in which they operate. The crux throughout the study is the process by which it is shown how a GIS can be used and is central from the process of data gathering, storing and manipulation of the gathered data, deriving information from it, through to communicating and visualising the obtained results. Key words: geographical information systems; GIS; ArcGIS; Statistica; Microsoft Access; church; NGO; social services; social problems; welfare services; welfare problems; data base; data base management systems; geodatabase; Factor Analysis; quantification / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hedendaagse Suid Afrika is daar 'n menigte van sosiale en maatskaplike probleme. Drie van die prominentste van die probleme is MN/Vigs, werkloosheid en seksuele en/of geweldsmisdade teen vroue en kinders. Kerke is van die grootste en mees invloedryke nieregeringsorganisasies in Suid Afrika. Die regering besef al meer dat kerke 'n belangrike rol kan speel in die aanspreek van die sosiale en maatskaplike probleme van die land. Daar is egter 'n inhiberende faktor wat kerke daarvan weerhou om dié rol te speel wat die regering van hul verwag; en dit is die feit dat die rol wat kerke speel, en die rol wat die publiek verwag kerke moet speel, nog nie gekwantifiseer is nie. 'n Geografiese inligting stelsel is gekies om te help in die proses van kwantifisering. Vorige studies waar daar gekyk is na die gebruik van GIS deur sosiale en maatskaplike dienste het aangedui dat die sagteware hierdie dienste 'n effektiewe en innoverende wyse gee waardeur hul dienste ontleed en gemonitor kan word. In die studie word gewys hoe 'n GIS gebruik kan word en sentraal is in die prosesse van data insameling, stoor en manipulasie van die ingesamelde data, hoe data omgesit word in inligting en laastens die kommunikasie en visualisering van die resultate wat verkry word.

Thesis (MSc (Geography and Environmental Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Since mechanised borehole drilling began in South Africa in the late 1800s, over 1 100 000 boreholes have been drilled. As the country’s growing population and the perceived impacts of climate change increase pressure on water surface supplies, attention is turning to groundwater to meet the shortfall in water supply. This will mean even more drilling will take place. Until the introduction of the Standard Descriptors for Boreholes, published in 2003, South Africa has not had a set of guidelines for borehole information capture. This document provides a detailed description of the basic information requirements needed to describe and characterise the process of drilling, constructing, developing, managing and monitoring a borehole. However, this document stands alone as a specification with little or no implementation or interpretation to date. Following the development and publishing of the ArcHydro data model for water resource management by the CRWR based at the University of Texas at Austin, there has been a great deal of interest in object-oriented data modelling for natural resource data management. This thesis describes the utilisation of an object oriented data modelling approach using UML CASE tools to design a data model for South African Boreholes, based on the Standard Descriptors for Boreholes. The data model was converted to a geodatabase schema and implemented in ArcGIS.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Geodemographics has been used extensively as a decision-support tool in both the business sector and the market survey environment in the United States, the United Kingdom and numerous other countries. This has however not been the case in South Africa, partly because of the expense involved in capturing current and complete customer information. As an alternative to capturing all the required customer information, geodemographics has frequently made use of government census data to supplement the organisation-specific data. However, even the census data has its shortcomings. This research has explored a method for building an organisation-specific database using a combination of government census data and organisation-specific data. The organisation-specific data was captured using a questionnaire that was targeted to a specific group of people. The information obtained from the questionnaire and which overlapped with specific census data variables was then used to update the relevant census variables. Cluster analysis was subsequently conducted on the census data in order to identify enumerator areas within the Western Province that had demographic and economic characteristics similar to those of the surveyed areas. Once the appropriate enumerator areas had been identified, the organisation-specific information from the survey was extrapolated to these new areas outside of the surveyed areas. The methodology used in this research provides a process that allows organisations to build a unique geodatabase by making use of the good qualities of both the census data and user-specific data. The resulting geodatabase is one that contains current and pertinent information while also providing complete spatial coverage. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geodemografie word op groot skaal gebruik as n hulpmiddel vir die ondersteuning van besluitneming in die sakesektor en die markopname-omgewing in die Verenigde State, die Verenigde Koninkryk en talle ander lande. Dit is egter nie in Suid-Afrika die geval nie, deels as gevolg van die onkoste verbonde aan vaslegging van die jongste en volledige kliente-inligting. As n altematief vir die vaslegging van al die vereiste kliente-inligting maak geodemografie dikwels gebruik van sensusdata om data eie aan n organisasie aan te vul. Selfs sensusdata het egter tekortkominge. Hierdie navorsing het n metode ondersoek vir die opbou van n databasis eie aan n organisasie deur gebruik te maak van n kombinasie van sensusdata en data eie aan n organisasie. Die data eie aan ri organisasie is vasgele deur gebruik te maak van ri vraelys vir n spesifieke teikengroep. Die inligting wat uit die vraelys verkry is en wat met die spesifieke sensusdataveranderlikes ooreengestem het, is toe gebruik om die relevante sensusveranderlikes by te werk. Skakelingsanalise is daama op die sensusdata uitgevoer ten einde opnemerareas in die Westelike Provinsie te identifiseer wat soortgelyke demografiese en ekonomiese kenmerke gehad het as die areas waarin die vraelysopname gemaak is. Nadat die geskikte opnemerareas gei'dentifiseer is, is die inligting eie aan die organisasie uit die opname geekstrapoleer na hierdie nuwe areas buite die areas waar die opname gemaak is. Die metodologie wat in hierdie navorsing gebruik is, verskaf n metodologie wat organisasies in staat stel om n unieke geodatabasis op te bou deur gebruik te maak van die goeie eienskappe van beide die sensusdata en die data eie aan die gebruiker. Die geodatabasis wat hieruit voortspruit, is een wat die jongste en verbandhoudende inligting bevat en volledige ruimtelike dekking bied.