Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study undertakes a broad exploration of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process in South Africa through a case study analysis of the N2 Gateway Project, a low cost housing project of the new housing policy, Breaking New Ground (BNG). This study of the housing situation in South Africa is done to provide some context on informal settlements and shows why this is a significant social issue in post-apartheid South Africa. The main housing policies are discussed in order to indicate how the South African government attempts to address the housing challenges in the country, and more specifically, in the Western Cape. The overview is useful in gaining perspective about the nature of this process, including reasons why EIAs take such a long time to complete and how the effectiveness of these are determined. The key challenges and benefits of EIAs are discussed together with an analysis of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) tool. The case study analysis reveals how the EIA was not conducted in a proper way during the planning and implementation phases of the project. Together with this, various other significant matters of the project are highlighted because of the controversial nature of this project. The study reveals that it is not necessarily EIAs that are the cause of delays in the implementation of low cost housing projects, but that poor planning, fast tracking of the EIA process and completing the EIA too late in the planning procedure of the project are the main contributing factors causing the delays. The recommendations given are based on these findings, which indicate that the environmental authorization processes ought to be incorporated at a much earlier stage in the pipeline of the planning procedure, as well as transparent and more clearly defined roles should be established from the start. Better project management is also required and participation and communication between all the stakeholders involved should be given due attention. The study argues that the use of SEA can be very helpful and should be used to ensure that the proper planning mechanisms are in place. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsing stel deur ʼn gevallestudie ondersoek in na die Omgewingsimpakassessering (OIA) van „n lae-koste behuising projek bekend as die N2 Gateway Projek in die Wes-Kaap provinsie, as deel van die regering se behuisingsbeleid bekend as Breaking New Ground. (BNG). Hierdie studie oor die omstandighede van die behuisingsituasie in Suid-Afrika is gdoen om konteks te gee oor informe nedersettings en te wys waarom dit ʼn belangrike onderwerp in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika is. Die belangrikste beleidstukke oor behuising word bespreek om te wys hoedat die Suid-Afrikaans regering die behuisingsuitdagings in die land aanspreek, mer spesifiek in die Wes-Kaap. Hierdie oorsig is waardevol om perspektief oor die aard van die proses te gee, wat onder andere die redes insluit waarom OIAs so ʼn lang tyd neem om te voltooi en om ook te wys hoe die effektiwiteit van laasgenoemde bepaal word. Die kern uitdagings en voordele van OIAs word bespreek sowel as ʼn analise van die wat bekend staan as strategiese omgewings assessering (SOA) instrument. Die analise van die gevallestudie wys hoedat die OIAs nie op die gepasde wyse gedurende die beplannings- en implementerings fases van die projek gedoen is nie. Hiermee saam is verskeie ander betekenisvolle faktore van die projek uitgelig as gevolg van die kontroversiële aard van die projek. Die studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat dit nie noodwendig die OIAs is wat die vertraging in die implementering van dié lae koste behuisingsprojek tot gevolg gehad het nie. Die belangrikste faktore wat tot daartoe bygedra het, kan eerder aan swak beplanning, die versnelling van die OIA proses en die voltooiing van die OIA eers teen die einde van die projek toegeskryf word. Die aanbevelings wat gemaak word geskied teen dié agtergrond. Dit behels onder andere dat die OIA-proses vir die goedkeuring van die projek veel vroeër in die beplannings proses gedoen moes word. Te same hiermee moes daar baie duideliker aanwysings gewees het oor wie verantwoordelikheid vir uitvoering van spesifieke take moes ontvang. Beter kommunikasie en deelname van die verskillende partye wat by die projek betrokke was, is verder ʼn voorvereiste wanneer soortgelyke projekte aangepak gaan word. Die gebruik van die SOA instrument is ook belangrik en behoort in projekte soos die N2 Gateway gebruik te word sodat daar beter beplanning gedoen kan word.

Thesis (Master of Environmental Management)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Over the past decades, environmental problems associated with low-cost housing developments have been reported on a national and global scale (see Sowman and Urquhart, 1998 and also Norville, 2003). Poor community participation in the early stages of project design and lack of public involvement in decision making regarding low cost housing development are said to have contributed to these environmental issues. The environmental issues that have been reported so far relate to escalating water quality due to poor storm water management and improper waste disposal which poses a threat to the natural environment. While there is as emerging view that the nature of environmental problems experienced in these settlements are due to a lack of participation by local people in decision making, there is virtual no studies that have located this analysis within the theoretical debate of modernist planning. The issue that has been ignored thus far is the fact that low cost housing development (in generally) still resembles the spatial pattern of both the modernist and apartheid planning orthodox. It is thus from this context that the local people are increasingly excluded from participating in decision making. This form of modernist development is contrary to the ethos of sustainable development. In essence, sustainable development, as a new development theory, also adheres to the notion of local citizenry involvement in development for the benefits of the future generation. The research study further argues that poor people need to participate in decision making regarding the design and delivery of these houses (Oelefse, 1997). Therefore, the study investigated the underlying environmental implications associated with informal economic activities in a low cost housing establishment. The research study adopted a qualitative research design and an inductive approach. Dunoon was used as a case study for the research. The study used two sampling techniques, purposive sampling and random sampling,were used. Interviews, questionnaires and observations were used to collect data from the residents, informal businesses in Dunoon and key stakeholders from the Department of Environmnental Affairs as well as City of Cape Town. The findings of the thesis illustrate that long-term environmental impacts that are visible in the low-cost housing development of Dunoon are triggered by informal economic activities that are practised by the local people to make a living. In this regard, this thesis argues that local people need to be involved in the early planning and design stages of low-cost housing development. They need to be involved in all development stages to ensure that they drive the vision of the development. Lack of involvement of the local people in the initial stages of decision-making on the project triggered severe long term environmental impacts. The study then concludes that long-term environmental impacts in Dunoon are intertwined with the escalation of informal economic activities initiated by the local people in order to cope with harsh economic realities. These informal activities are a form of reaction to the imposed version of development. Thus, the environmental problems that emerged out of this pattern of human activities must be analysed by means of conceptualising the Dunoon low-cost housing as a product of modernist planning philosophy. Based on the information gathered and discussed in this thesis, it is concluded that the low-cost housing development is a product of modernist planning.

The report identifies a case study in which there was competition for land between conservation and low income settlement users. The nature of these potentially conflicting interests were identified and an evaluation of how these were played out followed. The fact that the interest of the low income settlement users carried the background of apartheid based discriminations, made the situation a sensitive one. Moreover, it was a unique case whereby the needs of a community's rural lifestyle were to be met in an urban environment. The planning process had political overtones which directed the decision-making process and consequential planning. The study informs development and planning, that in post-apartheid planning, there is the need to incorporate social reconstruction within urban and rural reconstruction. In planning and development processes, planning should play a fundamental role of providing input to guide the process. The input provided by planning should be cross-sectional in the context of conflicting interests, in order for the final plan to represent a compromise, serving the better interests of all the interested parties. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1996.

In Conakry, the capital city of Guinea, more than two thirds of the housing stock consists of self-built housing. Self-built housing is the result of uncoordinated choices of households who buy land, decide the kind of houses and on-site facilities to build and implement their projects often without compliance with land use management policies. As a result this type of housing causes considerable environmental problems that affect the city population as a whole. Unless Conakry local authorities, i.e. communes develop capacities to design and carry out technically and financially appropriate strategies to address and improve households individual actions, the city's environmental conditions will continue to deteriorate. On the basis of lessons learned from theories and successful experiences of self-built housing improvement, the present creative project suggests general and specific guidelines, that commune officials can employ to develop the said capacities and generate substantial changes of housing conditions in Conakry. / Department of Urban Planning

In 1994, the South African government set in place an ambitious plan to reduce the housing backlog and eradicate slums by 2012. The delivery of housing is subject to the South African National Environmental Management Act of 1998 that seeks to ensure sustainable resources use towards sustainable development of all activities. However, the question is whether or not reality matches the policy’s vision. One concern which arises is that the high demand for housing and the speed with which delivery of low-cost housing is occurring may compromise the environment. This study examines the challenges of implementing environmental policy requirements in low-cost-housing, using the case study of Ambleton in the Msunduzi Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In attempting to assess the challenges of implementing environmental management policy requirements of the housing policy of 1994 and NEMA of 1998, four key challenges were identified: understanding environmental policy requirements, institutionalising capacity and cooperation, resolving conflict of values among stakeholders, and recognising budget constraints. The key participants in the study were officials from the provincial departments of Housing and the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, Msunduzi Municipal officials who implement the policy, including the Ward Councillor of Ambleton and the Service Provider. The methodology used to gather data was observation, in-depth interviews, and document review. It was revealed in the study that the understanding of policy requirements amongst key stakeholders is limited and that the institutional capacity is limited in terms of skills, coordination, and physical capacity. Different priorities of stakeholders play a major role in budget and priority setting by government, which affect the implementation of environmental policy requirements. It was pointed out by municipal staff that there is a shortage of funds for meeting all environmental policy requirements. Also explored were possibilities for improving environmental policy implementation. These include making environmental policy requirements in housing and NEMA more explicit to enhance stakeholders’ understanding, and enforcing compliance by environmental monitoring and audits. There is also a need for increased capacity building as well as improving coordination for better implementation of environmental policy requirements in low-cost housing. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.