All over the world, megaprojects have become entrenched and firmly positioned in the development of cities and have become instrumental and critical in their position and functioning. The need for sites to be developed encompassing mixed-use requirements, was soon to make its impact in developing countries. Investors and developers were considered the experts in urban development through these projects. The now notable effects from the surge in megaprojects in developing countries in the wake of decaying infrastructure and migration to cities and urban spaces, warrants analysing, studying and investigating existing, especially more current mixed-use megaprojects. Megaprojects built with the motivation of the criteria for "enhancing and developing" the urban space for its citizens that encourages economic, social and environmental growth would be alluring to any governing administration. This is because they can be considered as developments that will address the spatial patterns of apartheid, creating inclusive and integrated urban spaces. Considering these impacts, Century City, as a commercial mixed-use mega project development is a relevant case for study. My dissertation analyses and interrogates the factors that influenced and substantiated the development of Century City from its inception to the present. I will examine how the development coexists, and complements or not, Cape Town and its people and how it may or may not support the policy approaches toward a successful African city. I question whether megaproject developments in our cities, is development that transmits to the entire city and its community.

“Despite a significant reduction in the percentage of population living in informal settlements from 2000 to 2014, the absolute number of people living in deplorable conditions has increased from 689 to 880 million people over the same period. Current policy and planning practice in developing countries has not been able to cope with such pervasive rapid urbanisation. By 2050 the United Nations predicts two-thirds of the global population will live in cities. Of which as many as one-third of this population could be living in informal settlements (slums). To address these unsustainable and undesirable trends in support of the disadvantaged and maintaining environmental sustainability, this minor dissertation conducts comprehensive research of contemporary policy and planning work to seek alternatives. The purpose of the literature review is to identify commonalities, differences, gaps of knowledge and constraints of current policies and planning practice currently used to plan and manage growth of cities. Analysis and findings then inform and add value in exploring parameters for a 'liveable’ or improved urbanism from that currently experienced in informal settlements. Historic global policies focusing on government led top down approaches to provide large scale low cost housing have not kept up with demand, although they remain popular politically. From these policy and planning failures, it is evident that a more inclusive and incremental approach better utilizing available human capital should be considered. Critical analysis of literature with an alternative urbanism and planning paradigm in mind emerges in the findings and conclusion in the form of recommended parameters for a new inclusive and incremental urbanism. Such urbanism is entirely possible provided the critical issues identified such as lack of political will and good governance can be mitigated. To dramatically improve the lives of millions will require a compelling vision and collaborative effort seldom seen in current policy and planning of developing countries. Despite the daunting task, this paper seeks to define a conceptual framework drawn from findings to mitigate issues and guide an alternative vision of the future. The alternative urbanism that emerges from the conceptual framework may fall somewhere between that of current informal settlements and current discourse such as smart cities’’

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / A significant number of studies have documented illnesses that follow flooding as a result of people coming into contact with contaminated water. Floods cause health risks by exposing children to bacteria, protozoa, viruses and fungi through contaminated water, contaminated household items, dead animals and mould, as a result of inhalation, ingestion and wound infections. This study focuses on the impacts of flooding on child health in the informal settlement of Barcelona, Cape Town. The health outcomes of flooding are conceptualized within the vulnerability framework of Turner and colleagues (2003), which explores human vulnerability in terms of exposure, sensitivity and resilience. In addition, the framework reflects global environment change and it powerfully defines the term vulnerability. There were three main research objectives. Firstly, the research established factors and other stressors that determined the occurrence of water-related illnesses among children in informal settlements as a result of flooding. Secondly, the research explored and identified the flood-related childhood illnesses. Lastly, the research identified strategies households applied in order to protect their children from flood-related illnesses. The study was conducted through the administration of 45 questionnaires, 2 focus group interviews and personal observation. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in order to understand the perceptions of what flood-related illnesses were and what caused them. Results from the qualitative research were used to triangulate data from the quantitative research. The integration of both methodologies provided additional solutions to understanding the impacts of floods on child health in Barcelona. Ethics approval was granted by Ethics Committee of the Engineering and the Built Environment Faculty at the University of Cape Town. The research findings suggest that flood-related illnesses in Barcelona were a result of different and interlinking factors. The various factors included poor access to basic services, general poor urban health, and location of the settlement and household hygienic factors. In addition, children were more exposed to risks inside dwellings as compared to risks outside dwellings. Vector-borne illnesses were the least recorded cases. In order to mitigate child illnesses resulting from flooding the households applied both proactive and reactive strategies such as buying of medication before and during flooding, bathing their children after they finish playing, and sending children to relatives during the flooding period and cleaning dwellings after flooding. Research findings highlighted that there is a significant association between child health and flooding in Barcelona. The types of illnesses that were reported were mainly water-related illnesses, which included respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal illnesses, skin and ear infections and vector-borne illnesses.

In this thesis, I contribute to the emerging theoretical knowledge of and policy discourse on sustainable urban infrastructure, as a potential solution to the myriad of ecological and socioeconomic developmental challenges, for middle-income contexts of the global south. To understand this under-studied theme better, this dissertation uses three emblematic case studies of utility departments in the City of Cape Town (CCT) - an in-depth study of the Solid Waste Management Department and supporting studies of the Electricity Services Department, and the Water and Sanitation Department - to determine the prospects and relevance of sustainable infrastructure in such contexts. Through an analysis of urban networked infrastructure, I provide novel insight into the underpinning institutional dynamics that reproduce the service delivery model, and highlight how innovative activities that reflect the principles of sustainable urban infrastructure become embedded within institutional practice. Two conceptual frameworks, developed from the literature, have guided the empirical research and the analysis. The first is a heuristic device that enhances our understanding of sustainable urban infrastructure knowledge and discourse. The second offers a way to understand how it is institutionally mediated. Specifically, these conceptual frameworks are applied to the cases to reveal how the CCT's utility departments respond to an emergent crisis within a sector and how they pursue purposive interventions that reflect the sustainable urban infrastructure theory and discourse. The research was carried out over a period of two years and six months, during which I conducted semi-structured and informal interviews, and extensive document analysis.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of the implementation of the Alexandra Renewal Programme (ARP) on the lives of residents in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra, in South Africa. The urban renewal project was a government initiative in collaboration with the private sector and community-based organisations. The project aimed to improve the physical, social and economic environments of Alexandra, a densely-populated township whose history includes political resistance, poverty, high levels of crime and unemployment, and yet is located adjacent to South Africa's successful commercial capital, Sandton. The impact of urban renewal programmes such as the ARP has not been evaluated along every dimension, nor recently with concerns raised about the pace of government efforts to drive the change required. Hence, the objective of this study was to assess the impact of the Alexandra urban renewal programme on its residents. Alexandra typifies the socio-economic marginalisation of black urban neighbourhoods during the apartheid era. Nearly 500 000 people live in approximately 100 000 households in formal and informal housing; unemployment is estimated at 60%, and most household incomes fall below the extreme poverty line of less than USD1 per person per day. Hence the ARP was designed to boost job creation, promote a healthier environment, through provision of affordable and sustainable services, such as decent housing, roads, water supply, sanitation and other infrastructure, and to reduce crime. The case study was conducted using qualitative research techniques. Focus groups were conducted with 32 residents from formal and informal settlements in the township. Research data was analysed using thematic content analysis. As a former resident of Alexandra with a long family history in the township, the researcher could provide a grounded and corroborative insight into the phenomenon under study. The research findings indicate that the implementation of the ARP programme has been generally consistent with the designed outcomes. The respondents indicated that the programme had some positive impact on improved access to government facilities and services, and on some housing and infrastructure projects. However, the participants also expressed frustration, and indicated that they had not gained significant benefits, especially on job creation and business opportunities. In addition, the residents believed that more could be done on the provision of basic services such as housing, water and sanitation. The effectiveness of government officials responsible for the ARP was also a concern. The study recommends that the three spheres of government (national, provincial and local) should collaborate more to develop relevant policies which drive urgency and effectiveness into the implementation of the urban renewal programme (URP) in Alexandra, and in the Gauteng province in general. The findings of this study contribute to the broader review of URPs in South Africa, and can assist government's developmental structures in evaluating the impact of these and future programmes.

South Africa is undergoing a sustainability transition (ST) in its energy sector as part of its broader move towards a lowcarbon future. Past studies of the nascent ST using a multi-level approach have already proven obsolete after strong resistance from the incumbent energy regime almost derailed the fledgling renewable energy (RE) industry. After initially going to ground and contracting, the industry re-emerged strongly in South Africa’s cities, mostly in the form of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. This study applies an integrated approach utilizing the Multi-level Perspective (MLP) to trace the current ST trajectory, whilst employing the Technology Innovation Systems (TIS) framework as a focal lens, recently adapted to the follower country context, to empirically investigate system development in the solar PV TIS. A survey was conducted to assess the drivers and challenges facing consumers of solar PV technology in cities, the results indicating that the rapid growth in distributed embedded generation (EG) was sparked by recent tax incentives and not the introduction of Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) offered by city municipalities. Whilst the RE sector and solar PV market have grown through consumer demand for EG, they still face resistance from the existing energy regime, needing further development in policy and regulation in order for South Africa’s ST to support a more complex web of distributed and embedded generation, mostly underpinned by RE technologies.

Public participation has the potential to either enhance urban development outcomes or entrench disagreement and frustration. A major challenge for policy-makers is how to understand and then respond to the narratives, metaphors and arguments contributed by stakeholders. In analysing the public participation process for the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP) in Cape Town, this research applies argumentative discourse analysis to capture and analyse multiple dimensions of stakeholder contributions. Arguments, and other linguistic features, were linked to themes distilled from the data. Associating and matching these themes to stakeholder groups identified discourse coalitions. The analysis supports the claim that the development of TRUP involves more than merely a technical discussion. The metaphors, stories and arguments used by participants to discuss the development of TRUP refer to it as an emblematic issue for the development of the city, its history, the history of South Africa and globalisation across the world. The discourse coalitions identified illuminate diverging ideas of how cities ought to respond to the environment, the private sector and residents. Without this knowledge government cannot hope to respond to stakeholders in a manner they will find satisfactory.

Since 1994 the post-apartheid South African Government has recognized the importance of housing in improving the quality of life of its citizens. Following 10 years of a housing delivery model that saw the provision of nearly 1.6 million houses, the National Government introduced a new policy that sought to shift away from an emphasis on housing and rather a holistic focus on the quality of the settlement established. This new policy, Breaking New Ground (BNG) promoted the establishment of well-managed, liveable and equitable settlements incorporating social and economic infrastructure. The quality of the urban environment and the quality of public spaces within urban developments has been identified as contributing towards improving quality of life within these settlements. In mixedincome, integrated settlements - like those BNG claims to produce - the importance of public space is further emphasised because it compensates for limited space of the private home. However, these spaces are often considered as "nice-to-haves" and neglected in favour of basic services or housing. Despite the importance of public space and its contribution to the creation of sustainable human settlements, these spaces, although planned for in the initial phases of a development, still remain largely undeveloped. This research therefore questions whether public spaces within integrated housing developments are being used as intended. It also questions to what extent the necessity for increased urban densification has affected the provision of public space in integrated housing developments. This research attempts to answer the question from the perspective of professionals involved in the planning and implementation of integrated housing developments and not from the perspective of residents. A qualitative research approach has been adopted. Three settlements each representing an integrated housing development implemented in line with BNG principles and incorporating public spaces were selected as case studies and in-depth interviews with professionals involved in the planning and implementation of these developments were conducted. The research found that while public spaces are considered as beneficial and are included in the planning stages of a development, in reality the lived experience often differs. While the objectives of housing policies are to create sustainable human settlements, professionals still struggle to translate these objectives into practical guidelines and standards. Finally, it was observed that while public spaces do play a role in the shift from housing to human settlements, the process is one that occurs incrementally and over a period of time.

In South Africa, current urban planning models and traditional state-led urban interventions seem to have noticeably failed to sustainably address the integrated problems that are evident in informal settlements throughout the country. In the case of many current urban interventions, professionals give technocratic solutions to problems in informal communities with little to no consultation or engagement with the affected community. The result is often that community's needs are not sufficiently met and the community is not capacitated to take full ownership of the solution. More often than not the intervention (technocratic solution) becomes mismanaged, underutilised and inevitably the solution is proven to be unsustainable. This phenomenon has highlighted the need for a new approach to addressing the needs of informal settlement dwellers. In recognition of the need for a new approach, this case study of a partnership-based urban upgrading intervention is conducted in order to make realistic recommendations regarding the value of professionals in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions as opposed to top-down interventions. The primary research question of this case study is thus: what lessons can be learnt about the role of the professional in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions by gaining insight on a successful partnership-based intervention? The Genius of SPACE (GOS) partnership, based in the informal settlement of Langrug in the Stellenbosch Municipality is used as the topic of the case study to answer the research question. The GOS partnership was initially formed to address greywater management and stormwater drainage challenges in the settlement. A capability analysis approach is utilised as a theoretical tool to investigate all of the different assets which might be available to the professional to contribute to addressing the social as well as the technical challenges that the GOS partnership aims to address. This tool ultimately contributes to the development of clear guiding principles for technical professionals working in urban upgrading partnerships. Some key guidelines for technical professionals in partnerships emerge from the case study and clearly show that a developmentally aligned partnership should ultimately be able to utilise not only technical abilities and skills but also social expertise to facilitate community mobilisation strategies that allow for highly responsive upgrading processes to ensure long-lasting structural as well as social change.

Culture has been consistently underrepresented in the sustainability debate and often perceived as a constraining factor to modern-day advancement. However in recent years, the broadening development paradigm in the Global South is increasingly asserting culture's indispensable role in sustainable human development. This dominant cultural paradigm mainstreamed by UNESCO is subscribed to by government and other role-players within the domain of culture and urban development. Despite its significant achievements, it however comes with a specific heritage conceptualisation, which is disconnected from local reality and perpetuates a problematic theoretical construct of cultural legacy, which is steeped in a Eurocentric conservation bias with colonial undertones. The thesis argues that this model will not lead to transformative interventions in urban areas that harness the power of culture if its interpretation remains decontextualised and perpetuates an instrumentalised view of culture and cultural conservation practice, inherited from the past. The thesis explores how an alternative conceptualisation of culture, based on the concept of cultural ecologies, can be more meaningful and beneficial in contributing to the theoretical reassessment of the human settlements imaginary. This is achieved through an interdisciplinary literature review and a case study of Bagamoyo, a small urban settlement in Tanzania. Through a systematic diagnosis of this small scale locality, cultural ecologies are foregrounded through the primary lens of the urban public-private interface and framed within a context that is shaped by the dynamics of globalisation. Additionally, the study takes place against the backdrop of a failed UNESCO World Heritage application, which allows me to discuss the undercurrents and invested interests associated with cultural heritage politics and the traumatic impact global conventions can have on local sustainability. It concludes in a proposed approach that repositions culture at the core of social exchange and argues that cultural sensitive development is an ongoing socio-cultural production process. Its potential lies in capturing the layered 'ordinariness' of place and in harnessing the imaginative responses arising from local idioms, practices and traditions as the shared imaginary of tomorrow.