The Natal Land and Colonisation Company was incorporated in 1860 in London. Its capital was partly subscribed by City financiers, the rest being made up of land obtained from Natal land speculators in exchange for fully-paid-up shares. On the basis of very little research, it has been assumed that it was a land-speculation company which held its land against an expected rise in value and rack-rented to black squatters. The deduction has been that this kept land out of the reach of white settlers and thus retarded the development of the white economy. Study of the Company records has shown this view to be entirely erroneous. The primary objective of the Company was to borrow surplus capital in Britain at a low interest rate and invest it in Natal at a higher rate. The landholdings of the Company were used as collateral for raising funds on the London market or sold, when the market permitted to release capital for reinvestment. Only the profit on land sales was distributed to shareholders. This relatively straightforward plan of operation was modified between 1860 and 1890 in reaction to changing economic circumstances in Natal. The Company initially lent large sums on mortgage, but a severe depression between 1865 and 1869 led to large-scale defaulting on repayments and the Company was forced to foreclose. This vastly increased the Company's rural landholdings, and brought in several established plantations and a large number of urban properties. The Company invested unsuccessfully, in the plantation economy, was prevented by the colonial and imperial governments from investing in railway and coal-mining development and, owing to a poor land market, sold only a small proportion of its land. For income, it relied on leasing land to white settlers, renting urban properties and collecting hut-rents from black squatters. This last practice brought it into conflict with white settler interests as it gave blacks an alternative to wage-labour. The Witwatersrand gold discoveries stimulated economic development in Natal, particularly urban development, and the Company finally found a profitable and stable investment area in urban property. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.

Land is a non-renewable and finite resource which comprises a variety of ecosystems that support biological diversity and provide food, shelter and raw materials to society. With a multitude of land uses competing for this precious resource, the land is becoming fragmented, altered and transformed. Land transformation has been acknowledged as a key contributor to the degradation of the environment and has serious implications for poverty, food security and biodiversity. This research focuses on land use changes within the uMngeni and Mpofana municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. The main objectives were to critically review Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) decisions and document those EIAs received and finalised over the period 1999 – 2010, spatially define the location of decided EIAs, determine the types of EIA decisions issued, characterise the type and extent of land uses, describe patterns of land use change and identify the key factors responsible for changes in land use. During the research period a total of 337 EIA applications were received and 332 EIA applications were completed in the uMngeni Municipality and 182 EIA applications were received and 178 completed in the Mpofana Municipality. The types of EIA decisions issued consist of Records of Decisions, Environmental Authorisations, Exemptions, Withdrawals and Commencements. The key classes of land use changes that have occurred in uMngeni Municipality are Agriculture to Residential, whilst within the Mpofana Municipality the predominant land use change occurred within the Agricultural land use category. For both municipalities the Agriculture to Residential land use category experienced the greatest extent in land use change. In authorising EIA applications, the predominant key decision factors were based on the comments from Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife and Amafa aKwaZulu-Natali. In refusing EIA decisions the findings of various specialist studies, incompatible land uses and land use planning initiatives were the predominant key decision factors. The conclusions are that agricultural land is being transformed for use as nonagricultural activities specifically that of residential use. The recommendations include the need for accurate record keeping of data and information pertaining to EIAs and the integration of spatial planning tools and initiatives including Geographical Information Systems in the review of EIAs to improve decision making. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal. 1978.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

One of the most controversial and dramatic features of recent city development is the phenomenon of access to land through informal means, which is a reflection of the lack of alternative delivery systems. Constraints on the supply of land for housing the urban poor have resulted in a large housing backlog, reSUlting in overcrowding, the emergence of unplanned housing such as backyard shacks and free standing informal settlements. In South Africa, the majority of the popUlation who have been historically constrained by racist and restrictive land allocation processes found it difficult to access well located and affordable serviced land. These constraints have resulted in poor people obtaining access to land through informal delivery systems. This effective exclusion of the urban poor from the formal land market has resulted in the emergence of the informal systems of land delivery, such as land invasions etc. Both internationally and in South Africa, informal settlements and squatting have represented a way of addressing and challenging market relations and state regUlation and thus, allow for poorer people to move into better located areas. The existing informal settlement within the Cato Manor area (Cato Crest) can be regarded as an example of this kind of urban process. The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the performance of the informal delivery systems in Cato Crest, to establish whether these systems have reached the urban poor and to look for ways of dealing with informal land mechanisms in the future. The findings from the survey indicated that in Cato Crest these illegal land supply systems have benefitted poor people in terms of job opportunities, proximity to the city and location. A number of recommendations can be made in this regard: that there is a need for a land policy on informal land supply systems, that which should seek to make strategically located land available for low income housing in the future. If this is not accomplished, illegal land occupation will continue unabated until no land will be available for low income housing. / Thesis (M.Sc.U.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

South Africa is confronted by a number ofproblems which include: a high and rapidly increasing population, conditions of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, unemployment, and a degrade9 environment. These problems are associated with inappropriate land use and development and the unwise utilization of natural resources. This work investigates the rural land use dynamic within KwaZulu-Natal and specifically where many of these conditions are most evident, namely: within traditional land tenure areas. The need for an effective, transparent, measurement-based and environmentally linked land use management and regulation system is investigated and a theoretical model is developed with sustainable development as the central focus. The proposed methodology modifies South African approaches to land use management and regulation and draws on the rationale employed within intemationalland use management and state ofthe environment research. The model has the following aims: to strive towards the collective achievement of sustainability as the underlying goal within the planning and plan implementation process; to develop the capability of measuring the extent to which planning policies, goals and programmes are achieved; to guide their review and reformulation; to encourage the inclusion and integration of the policies and programmes of all public and private agencies; and thereby to strengthen the link between land use planning and land use management. The implementation of this model entails an iterative process of performance indicator identification, selection, application and evaluation with full stakeholder participation. The findings suggest that: the sensitive and gradual application of this system is likely to guide land use towards sustainability, initially by non-statutory means. Later, as stakeholder knowledge and understanding increases, this system has the potential to fulfil a valuable statutory function. It is proposed that the practical application of this theoretical approach will facilitate the accurate evaluation and review of policy, plans and programmes during implementation, which will enhance the management and regulation of rural land use towards sustainability within the context of the social, economic and biophysical environment. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

The past centuries have been marked with massive land conversions from one land use category, usually natural vegetation, to another. The forces that drive these land use changes are complex and poorly understood. However, the study of land has been revolutionised by the introduction of spatial tools such as remote sensing and GIS that automate these complex issues and assist in the solutions of these geographic problems. Land use identification and classification techniques were used in conjunction with GIS to consistently and accurately extract and incorporate land use data from a series of remotely sensed images of Richards Bay Mineral's Zulti South Mineral lease. Eight land use types from Zulti South were identified and mapped from six different remotely sensed images taken at different time periods between the 21 st of September 1990 and the 1st of June 2001. This mapping technique was shown to have an accuracy of 87.6%. The data collated from this study enabled the monitoring and representation of the temporal and spatial differences in land use within a GIS. From the analysis carried in the GIS the land use dynamics within the lease could be quantified and modelled. The time series of the land use datasets indicated how much of the landscape is changing, what changes have occurred and where these changes are taking place. Accurate and timely mapping of land use provides vital information on the state of the mineral lease area and its environment, and facilitates the development of spatial trends from which predictions of land use and land use change can be made. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of spatial and categorical resolution of satellite images in landcover classification. Three images namely, SPOT 5, Landsat TM, and MODIS were used, each of varying spatial resolution. Landcover classes were chosen for each of the classifications, were placed into groups of 11, and then merged to 8. This was to evaluate the effect that the categorical resolution plays on the final classification algorithm. Three traditional classifiers were used to create landcover maps. It was found that the higher resolution imagery produced higher accuracies at the 11 class level and these accuracies were improved by reducing the number of classes to 8. The coarser resolution imagery was able to classify larger features more accurately than the smaller features. This allowed the conclusion to be drawn that, before classifications are to be done, the size of the features to be detected should be considered when deciding which imagery to use. To improve upon the accuracy of the maximum likelihood classifier, an Artificial Neural Network was trained using ancillary data and the SPOT 5 image. Results showed an increase of over 30% in the classification accuracy of the ANN. Specific classes were easily identified, showing the ability of the ANN to classify imagery from a complex savanna environment. Experiments with various parameters of the neural network confirmed that there are no general guidelines that can be applied to a neural network to obtain high classification accuracy. / Thesis (M.Sc.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.