As greenhouse gas emissions drive anthropogenic climate change, flooding and flood related risk are likely to increase in frequency and intensity. The burden of these risks are expected to be concentrated in urban areas, particularly affecting highly vulnerable informal settlements. Adapting to these risks will largely fall under the responsibility of local governments. However local governments, in particular those in developing countries, often lack the capacity to implement effective adaptation strategies for long-term resilience. Drawing on social network analysis this research examines the role of social ties and social capital in facilitating knowledge sharing to improve the capacities of local governments to deal with flood-related risks. Using the case studies of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and Mossel Bay Local Municipality in South Africa, this research found that patterns of social interactions in the two local governments were largely a result of the size of structures of governance. The larger Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality network consisted of poorly connected sub-groups with poor knowledge dispersal. This led to poor adaptive and inclusive governance because poor levels of collaboration and social learning inhibited effective flood management. The smaller Mossel Bay Local Municipality network consisted of a bonded network with high knowledge transfers. These characteristics contributed to improved adaptive and inclusive governance because strong collaboration enabled informed and flexible flood management. The poor collaboration in NMBMM is likely to negatively affect the municipality's capacity to build resilience for informal settlements by negatively affecting coping, adaptive and transformative capacity. The strong collaboration in MBLM can foster coping and adaptive capacities, but may be hampering the transformative capacity of the municipality. Thus social networks have a considerable role to play in the governance of flooding, thereby influencing the ability of the two local governments to build resilience in informal settlements.

Seasonal climate forecasts (SCF) can play a crucial role in reducing vulnerability to climate variability, particularly for rural populations reliant on agriculture for their livelihood. The use of disseminated SCF by farmers in decision-making could reduce losses and maximise benefits in agriculture. Despite the potential usefulness of SCF, incorporating them into farming decisions is a complex process that navigates through several barriers which constrain their effective use. The first two barriers, namely credibility (trust on SCF) and scale (relevance of SCF in geographical space and time), originate from the limitations of SCF associated with the form in which they are produced. In this study, credibility and scale are investigated as limitations of SCF, which potentially bar the uptake and use of SCF in Bobirwa sub-district. The second group of barriers are beyond the SCF themselves but limit their effective use and emanate from biophysical, socio-cultural and economic factors. This study examines whether credibility and scale are barriers to the use of SCF in Bobirwa farmers' decision-making, investigates how SCF are used in decision-making, and seeks to find out how the barriers are overcome. To make these investigations, qualitative data was collected from subsistence agro-pastoral farmers in eight villages in Bobirwa sub-district of Botswana using semi-structured interviews. Data was collected considering gender to allow for gendered analysis. Themes related to the main study questions were identified from the data and analysed for the number of people who mentioned the themes. It was found that all 47 farmers interviewed coincidentally had access to SCF and the majority used SCF in their decision-making, while only a handful of farmers were non-users of SCF. The results show that scale (both temporal and spatial) is a barrier for users of SCF, whereas credibility is a major constraint for non-users of SCF in Bobirwa. To cope with the barriers, farmers mainly use local knowledge to complement SCF. Additionally, farmers apply advice from Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and use economic information in their decisions to deal with the barriers. Despite the barriers, some farmers indicated that using SCF was beneficial in increasing harvests, providing warnings and minimising losses of crops and livestock. However, disadvantages of using SCF were also highlighted, including lost crops, seeds and harvest, and missed opportunities to plant because of lack of temporal and geographical detail in the forecasts. The barrier of credibility has contributed to a few non-users resorting to using traditional planting, possibly making them vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability. A gendered analysis shows that almost equal proportions of both males and females use SCF. Moreover, women use SCF for crop farming while men use it for livestock management, which is aligned to traditional roles in Botswana. It is also revealed that, unlike women who only use local knowledge and MoA advice to overcome SCF limitations, a few men also use economic ventures, which could make men less vulnerable than women farmers. Strong networks between scientists and farmers can reduce the perceived credibility barrier, and innovative ways of reducing the scale barrier can be devised. Therefore, recommendations from the study include continuous engagement with farmers to understand their decisionmaking context in order to tailor the information to their local context as much as science permits. Government programmes should be designed to integrate SCF to build farmers' resilience to climate variabilities. The impacts on livestock farming, which is dominated by men, need to be given as much prominence in SCF information as arable farming. Forecasters should continue to improve credibility and scale without compromising either factor to avoid chances of contributing to the vulnerability of farmers particularly women, who mostly rely on SCF for crop production.

The scarcity of water and especially the lack of safe drinking water have been accepted as amongst the most serious challenges facing the twenty-first century. The lack of access to water is a global problem that faces between 460 million to more than 1 billion people as a result of an increasing demand for water as well as a diminishing supply of water resources. The lack of access to potable water poses a great constraint on the societal and individual well-being for the inhabitants of the semi-arid regions of southern Africa and the key area needed to improve the sustainable development of water resources and services has been identified as water governance. The aim of this research is, therefore, to understand how access to potable water affects the well-being of communities living in the Cuvelai-Etosha basin in Namibia and to understand how these communities participate in water governance. The Okalonga B and Onandjandja villages were used as case studies.The objectives of this study are to examine how water is accessed and determine what the barriers are in accessing potable water, to examine how the well-being of the communities in the two villages is affected by water access and to explore how communities are engaged in water governance. The overall methodology of the study was based on a qualitative approach to case study research. Interviews were conducted at the household level, the constituency and regional levels using semi-structured interview guides. The study found that the communities of Okalonga B and Onandjandja access water through hand-dug wells, private and communal taps, Etaka dam and Oshana, and boreholes. A total of 6 barriers to accessing potable water were identified. These included distance to communal taps, amount of water one can carry, administration of water infrastructure, maintenance of water infrastructure, ability to pay the set water fees and specific times allocated for collecting water. The barriers to accessing potable water negatively affect the well-being of communities. Communities felt that they would have better economic opportunities if they had access to potable water which would in turn improve their well-being and livelihood opportunities. Furthermore, the study found that community participation in water governance was poor.

No description available.

Despite the increasing availability of scientific information to support climate change decisionmaking for farmers' resilience to the global challenge, a persistent gap exists between knowledge development and its application in decision-making. This is exerting pressure on science to develop more actionable or decision-relevant scientific information to support planning, and climate change decision-making. In the context of communicating climate change adaptation information, this study examined the usefulness of the Credibility, Salience, and Legitimacy (CSL) framework, otherwise known as the knowledge system framework (Cash et al., 2003), in bridging the disconnect between information production and its use in decision-making by commercial farmers in South Africa's Western Cape Province. The study was underpinned by Cash et al.'s 2003 boundary work theory, which argues that there are boundaries at the science and farmer interface which can be managed by knowledge systems employing the CSL framework in knowledge production. As such, the researcher undertook and examined the Western Cape's agricultural climate change response strategy known as the "SmartAgri" Plan, wherein scientists and agricultural experts developed case studies and regional commodity briefs, a proxy of climate adaptation information, to support farmers' resilience to climate change. The research looked at how these communication outputs are actionable in connection to users' perceptions of the credibility, salience, and legitimacy of this knowledge. The research consisted of an online focus group discussion with four SmartAgri scientists and agricultural experts as the producers of the information, as well as semistructured telephone interviews with 11 Western Cape commercial farmers, as users of climate change adaptation information. Findings from the interviews suggest that while there have been efforts to produce credible knowledge for enhanced awareness of climate change and its impacts on the Western Cape province's agricultural sector, availability of salient and legitimate climate change adaptation information remains a challenge at the science-farmer interface. Factors such as, limited experiential evidence, disparities in the scale and resolution of climate projections, the absence of financial support to commercial farmers and limited involvement of farmers in the development of climate change adaptation information, continue to undermine the actionability of climate change adaptation information in the areas studied. As a result, spanning the boundary between knowledge and action has been a challenge. Nevertheless, despite these limitations, commercial farmers consider climate adaptation information potentially useful. Increased engagement with farmers, demonstrations and trials with farmers, documentation and sharing of local best practices will be some of the key steps towards developing more actionable knowledge for farmers' use in climate change decisionmaking.

South Africa is grappling with persistently high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, while at the same time being one of the top twenty greenhouse gas emitters in the world. While calls have been made for South Africa to embark on a just transition to a lowcarbon society, a better understanding is needed of the factors that have led to the country's current unsustainability. Drawing on the concept of the minerals-energy complex, this thesis presents an historical political economy analysis of South Africa's industrialisation process in order to (1) identify the key factors that have contributed to the country's high emissions and low employment; and (2) to determine the role of industrial policy in shaping this unsustainable development pathway. The analysis shows that the capital- and energy-intensive characteristics of South Africa's industrial structure have contributed to the country's high unemployment and high emissions. While industrial policy has been instrumental in shaping this industrial structure, its role in the post-apartheid era has been complicated by the existence of a ‘hidden' industrial policy in conflict with official objectives as well as implementation challenges which together have constrained the effectiveness of policies aimed at inclusive decarbonisation. From these results, it is argued that the adoption of an integrated green industrial policy has an important role to play in enabling South Africa to embark on a just transition to an inclusive low-carbon society.

The new sustainable development agenda for 2030 was adopted in 2015 with implementation now in progress. This ambitious agenda proposed 17 goals and 169 targets in areas of significance: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. Goal 11 of the 17 Goals strive to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. With people continuously choosing to live and work in cities despite the congestion and pollution that result from the high concentration of people, due to the economic growth, innovation and opportunities offered by cities. Hence, it is important to acknowledge that without well-managed urban transition the success of the SDGs will be difficult in developing countries. In the context of this research, it was important and applicable to look at how the ambitious global agenda like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), more specifically Goal 11 on cities is being implemented by local government for cities. The research focus on City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) as a case study for implementing SDG 11. The appropriate research methodology, based on an interpretivist paradigm coupled with the phenomenological constructivism nature of this research, is qualitative. The goal was to combine document analysis and semi-structured interviews to provide the researcher with a more complex understanding of the role of local government, and thereby help the researcher answer the research questions. The research shows that the national, provincial, and local priorities in policy and programmes in South Africa have a high overlap with the SDGs. It is well recognized that development in South Africa can only take place through collaboration between citizens and government, thus policies and their implementation will have to recognize the importance of collaboration. Strategic partnerships between different sectors; government, private sector, civil society and international organisations will bring a strong blend to different strengths and has proved to have means for knowledge sharing. Thus, for CTMM to reach its goal of adequately implementing SDG 11 they would have to leverage on strategic partnerships, develop a framework for implementation and monitoring progress as a way of focusing on implementing the objectives of the Urban Goal while ensuring that there is integration between its national agenda and the global goals. / Mini Dissertation (MA (Environment and Society))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA (Environment and Society) / Unrestricted

Planning in the context of urban sustainability is very challenging as it requires simultaneous integration of a large number of conflicting objectives pertaining to economic, environmental and social dimensions. It also involves multiple stakeholders with opposing views, and a high level of uncertainty. In addition, the process should be transparent, participatory and understandable by all participants. Existing literature has called for exploring new analytical methods to support decision-making for urban sustainability. This research introduces a structured decision support framework underpinned by Multi-objective Decision-Making (MODM) and Multi-attribute Decision Making (MADM). The framework provides systematic guidance to decision-making starting from problem structuring to generating a wide range of alternatives until the selection of the final solution. The developed framework is tested in two different decision-making situations pertaining to real urban problems. In the first case study, the framework is examined in the situation where the decision-maker is available to interact with the planner at the design stage. The framework is used to find a sustainable distribution of healthcare centers taking into consideration conflicting objectives including cost, efficiency of service and accessibility. The optimal solution is reached through an interactive process with stakeholders. In the second case study, the framework is examined in the situation where the decision-maker is unavailable for interaction at the design stage. The framework is used to develop planning scenarios for transit-oriented development (TOD) around a transit station. The optimal intensification of land use and land use mix is achieved taking into consideration the conflicting objectives of various stakeholders. Large number of non-dominated alternative solutions has been generated. An interactive tool has been developed by which the stakeholders can identify the alternative that best reflects their preference. The quality of the outputs for both case studies has shown that the developed planning methodology outperforms conventional approaches. The developed framework has proved to be a flexible and practical approach to assist decision-making in the context of urban sustainability / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Achieving sustainable urban development is a very challenging task for planners. It requires simultaneous integration of a large number of conflicting objectives pertaining to economic, environmental and social dimensions. It also involves multiple stakeholders with opposing views, and a high level of uncertainty. In addition, the decision-making process should be transparent, participatory and understandable by all participants. This research introduces a decision-support framework, underpinned by mathematical modeling techniques, to assist in achieving sustainable solutions for urban development problems. The framework is examined through two case studies. First, it is used to find a sustainable distribution of healthcare centers taking into consideration conflicting objectives including cost, efficiency of service and accessibility. Second, the framework is used to develop planning scenarios for transit-oriented development (TOD) around a transit station. The developed framework has proved to be a flexible and practical approach to assist decision-making in the context of urban sustainability

The relation between water and sugarcane is a topic that has been greatly discussed, but on which there are few theoretical writings. To try to help with the small existing literature, this work presents a series of four studies. The first study researches the beginnings of the activity of sugarcane in Brazil and its dependence on water resources, for, without water, the plant could not live, neither the wheels of the royal mills, the first units of sugar production in the country, moved byhydraulic power, could work. The second study describes the effects of changes in the industrial production system of sugarcane by-products on the banks of the rivers where the first plants were installed, which followed the trends of the Industrial Revolution. The third study examines the technical changes that took place in the agricultural techniques of the sugarcane agribusiness as a result of the industrialization of agriculture, and its impacts on the bodies of water. The fourth study discusses the problems related to water availability and water use by the sugarcane agribusiness in São Paulo, currently the largest State producer of sugarcane and its by-products in Brazil. The objective of the work is to study the way in which water resources are being used by the sugarcane agribusiness over the years and to evaluate the quality of the relationship between water and sugarcane. The conclusion of the study indicates that water is being used carelesly by the sector, being consumed excessively in the stages of industrial processes and contaminated by effluents and agricultural waste.

Universities are seen to have a central role in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), partly through their teaching and research activities. However, the critique of Higher Education's (HE) contribution to sustainable development thus far points to the limitations of a discipline driven, curriculum content and solely student focused response. Within this context, extra-curricular interventions, for example, running awareness campaigns, creating groups and organising events, appear to have potential to advance ESD in HE. However, there has been little investigation or published work in this area. Ideas of non formal and informal education; constructivist theories of learning; concepts of free choice, tacit and social learning, and the notions of whole systems thinking and sustainable education all point to roles for interventions in the extra-curricular sphere. This thesis explores the use of extra-curricular interventions in HE through an empirical investigation in the UK. A 2006 postal survey of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) records the extent and type of interventions in use and opinions about their utility. A case study, developed through action research, reports the use and impact of extra-curricular ESD-related interventions at one HEI over an academic year (2006-07). In this case study, regular contact with a group of staff and students over the year is used to map changes in their thoughts and actions relating to sustainable development, and to record the influences attributed to these changes. Importantly, extra-curricular ESD-related interventions are found to be commonly used in UK HE, and to have a prominent position in ESD work despite their limited visibility in the literature. Their utility is confirmed as they are seen to provide experiences that contribute to student and staff learning, as well as institutional change. The evidence collected supports their roles as: disciplinary bridge', community bridge; socialisation scaffold, and social learning arena. They appear to have a useful developmental role in mobilising and motivating members of the campus community. As peripheral activities, however, extra-curricular interventions may be prone to erratic implementation through being under-resourced. They can extend participation in BSD although will not reach everyone. They are best viewed as a complementary part of BSD and linked to a process of curricular and pedagogic renewal. In addition to confirming the extent, utility and limitations of extra-curricular ESD practice, the research contributes a model to map understandings of sustainable development. This model points to a core environmental understanding to which extra layers and strands of thinking can be added. It also confirms the importance of non formal and informal influences in shaping people's conceptions of sustainable development.