Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The railway transportation system is fundamental in sustaining the economic activities of a country, by providing a safe, reliable and relatively affordable means of transporting people and goods; hence, the need to ensure its ongoing reliability is of paramount importance. The principle and applications of rail reliability have been reviewed, and reliability improvement in rail infrastructure has been investigated using failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA). Reliability improvement is a continuous process that is geared to meeting dynamic changes in operation and stakeholders’ expectations. Recently, growth has occurred in the amount of rail transport traffic utilisation undertaken, together with the degradation of the infrastructure involved. Such deterioration has amplified the operating risks, leading to an inadequacy in rail track maintenance and inspection that should have kept abreast with the changes. The result has been increased rail failures, and subsequent derailments. A case study of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) Metrorail maintenance policy was reviewed to evaluate its maintenance strategy and identifying the potential critical failure modes, so as to be able to recommend improvement of its reliability, and, thus, its availability. On the basis of the case study of PRASA Metrorail maintenance strategy and its performance, it is recommended that PRASA Metrorail change its maintenance policy through employing a cluster maintenance strategy for each depot. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die spoorwegvervoerstelsel is fundamenteel om die ekonomiese bedrywighede van ’n land te ondersteun deur die voorsiening van ’n veilige, betroubare en betreklik bekostigbare manier om mense en goedere te vervoer. Dus is dit van die allergrootste belang om die voortgesette betroubaarheid daarvan te verseker. Die beginsels en toepassings van spoorbetroubaarheid is hersien en die betroubaarheidsverbetering van spoorinfrastruktuur met behulp van foutmodus-eneffekontleding (“FMEA”) ondersoek. Betroubaarheidsverbetering is ’n voortdurende proses om tred te hou met dinamiese bedryfsveranderinge sowel as verskuiwings in belanghebbendes se verwagtinge. Die hoeveelheid spoorvervoerverkeer het onlangs beduidend toegeneem, terwyl die betrokke infrastruktuur agteruitgegaan het. Dié agteruitgang het die bedryfsrisiko’s verhoog, en lei tot ontoereikende spoorweginstandhouding en -inspeksie, wat veronderstel was om met die veranderinge tred te gehou het. Dit gee aanleiding tot ’n toename in spoorwegfoute en gevolglike ontsporing. ’n Gevallestudie is van die instandhoudingsbeleid van die Passasierspooragentskap van Suid- Afrika (PRASA) Metrorail onderneem om dié organisasie se instandhoudingstrategie te beoordeel en die moontlike kritieke foutmodusse te bepaal. Die doel hiermee was om verbeteringe in stelselbetroubaarheid en dus ook stelselbeskikbaarheid voor te stel. Op grond van die gevallestudie van die PRASA Metrorail-instandhoudingstrategie en -prestasie, word daar aanbeveel dat PRASA Metrorail sy instandhoudingsbeleid verander deur ’n klusterinstandhoudingsplan vir elke depot in werking te stel.

Mobile money is gaining momentum in emerging markets as the solution to bank those who were previously unbanked. The number of people in Africa who have mobile phones is 644 million subscribers and has for a long time exceeded those who have bank accounts and access to formal financial services (Cobert, Helms,&Parker, 2012). About 2.5 billion adults, just over half of world’s adult population, do not use formal financial services to save or borrow, of this number 2.2 billion of these unserved adults live in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East (Chaia et al., 2009). This study sought to explore factors that will determine adoption of mobile money by adapting Venkatesh, Thong and Xu’s (2012) Unified Theory of Acceptance and Technology Use (UTAUT 2) research model to assess the drivers of behavioural intention. The model was extended by incorporating two additional constructs; trust and infrastructure reliability, which have been excluded in previous studies that have been done in developed countries. Further to this, the findings of this study will make a significant contribution to Information Systems (IS) research by identifying factors that influence technology adoption in a developing market context.This main aim of this quantitative research was to empirically discover the deeper motivations that affect the consumer behavioural intention and usage behaviour to use mobile money in Malawi. The value of this paper lies in the use of interviews to unveil new determinants of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Technology use in the adoption of mobile money in a developing market that influence behavioural intention and usage behaviour. The seven factors examined in this study are performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), price value (PV), infrastructure reliability (IR), and trust (T) moderated by gender and age impact on technology adoption. The study sample consists of 508 respondents with a response rate of 84%.The findings indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, trust, and price value were positively associated with consumer behavioural intention to use mobile money in Malawi. In addition, infrastructure reliability and social influence were found to have an insignificant effect on consumer behavioural intention to use mobile money.The research adds value on existing studies on technology adoption as it contributes to understanding disruptive technology from a consumer perspective in a developing market which has been excluded in previous research papers. Another value of this paper lies in the use of UTAUT 2 to identify a new construct, trust, as a determinant of mobile money adoption in a consumer perspective which is applicable in Malawi. In addition to this it enables us to contribute to current literature on the emerging mobile money market in Malawi, which is largely under researched. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The United States coastline contain some of the most valued ecological resources, the most populated urban areas, the most complex infrastructure systems, the most prolific economic engines, and the busiest ports of trade. However important the coastline may be to our nation, the history of our coastal communities suggests that they are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, including hurricane landfall. There are many potential reasons for this vulnerability, and several of them are considered in this work. The common goal of research presented here is to better understand the hydrodynamic forces developed as hurricanes impact the coast so that the resulting effects on coastal resources can be better understood and managed, and vulnerability can be significantly minimized. This work begins with consideration of the hydraulic domain at the interface between inland riverine and coastal environments. Regulators, and therefore those being regulated, generally prefer to separate riverine systems from coastal systems in the design and analysis of coastal infrastructure. Although analysis is greatly simplified, important synergistic hydrodynamic effects are not considered which can have dramatic negative effects on the ability of infrastructure to withstand hurricane impact. Research continues by evaluating how society delineates the coastal flood hazard. Current methods apply a deterministic, steady-state approach to defining this highly dynamic feature influenced by multiple uncertain and variable parameters. By ignoring the variability inherent in the coastal floodplain, society is not able to correctly define the flood hazard, and therefore cannot fully asses the risk to which it is exposed. A methodology is presented to more realistically quantify the coastal flood hazard and to calculate an appropriate flood risk metric. Finally, this research considers the reliability of a coastal community's water distribution system under hurricane impact. By understanding system vulnerability and system interdependence, community leaders can provide more reliable infrastructure systems, thereby reducing the magnitude of disaster and shortening the recovery time. A methodology is presented to quantify the reliability of a water system under several hurricane impact scenarios.