A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master’s in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, 2015 / According to the Constitution, Act No.108 of 1996 of the Republic of South Africa, every person has the right to clean water. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s Community Water Supply Programme was established in 1994 to achieve this objective. Access to safe drinking water is the basic need to human life and wellbeing, and is a key to public health issues. The UGu District Municipality is the water distributor to the Umzumbe Local Municipality residents. The study area for this research is the Umzumbe Local Municipality, which is the second largest municipality under the UGu District Municipality. Communities, especially in rural areas under the Umzumbe Local Municipality, are still unable to access adequate safe drinking water which meets the national standards for protecting human health. The main concern of this research was to assess water access and provisioning in the Umzumbe Local Municipality, under the UGu District Municipality. The research assessed the water supply system in the UGu District Municipality by engaging with all the stakeholders involved in water provision to verify their roles in the water supply and development of water service delivery projects. The study was predicated on three theories which were assumed to explain water provisioning. The first theory is the top-down and bottom up approach to service delivery. The second approach is the privatisation concept which is based on neo-liberalism. This explains that buying what could hinder efficient delivery, mostly in poor environments. The final theory of the study deals with project management. This theory asserts that the way a project is packaged and commissioned will have implications in the delivery of services, in this case, water delivery. The research employed mixed a methods research design. The reason for employing both qualitative and quantitative methods is because the research sought to obtain a comprehensive interpretation of the occurrences in the research area. The adoption of qualitative data alone is likely to provide limited vision which would not be sufficient for the research without the inclusion of quantitative data. The population for the research consisted of the Umzumbe Local Municipality residents, both males and females from twenty one years of age, upwards. Seventy participants were chosen for the research. Interview schedules and survey questionnaires were used as data collection instruments. vii The findings showed that the UGu District Municipality infrastructure does have some challenges, which come in the form of skills challenges, and capacity challenges. Other challenges that the study identified include inability to access municipality’s infrastructure grant (M.I.G) and bulk infrastructure grant (B.I.G). The UGu District Municipality areas that are far inland are likely to have water, and also the problems because of the low capacity of engines that are used to pump water also the problem is exacerbated by power failures. The findings further indicated that unskilled contractors could be the cause of water outage in the Umzumbe Local Municipality. It has been established that contractors who are hired to run projects have a tendency of abandoning projects that have not been completed. The findings presented that the UGu District Municipality does not consider the involvement of community members when they take decisions on project matters. The research established that water tankers do not provide community with adequate water and the utilization of water tankers is an expensive option that can cause community not to be served. The findings also indicated that some of the water infrastructure is old and it can be the cause of water shortage. Lastly, the findings showed that the Umzumbe Local Municipality has low income opportunities, causing its inhabitants to be unable to pay for water services. On the basis of the findings the study recommends that the UGu District Municipality needs to adhere to the principles of monitoring and evaluation of all activities and projects that relate to water provisioning. At a broader scale the study suggests that further research be done to determine whether the Department of Water and Sanitation can consider the construction of water reservoir in UMzimkhulu River. The reservoir should be linked with the Umgeni Water Board to provide water to communities during water outage.

The UK has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. With the residential sector accounting for roughly a quarter of the UK's total carbon emissions, and with space heating accounting for roughly two thirds of residential energy consumption, addressing heating demand will prove instrumental for the UK to reach its targets. The large-scale deployment of low-carbon heating technologies, combined with signicant improvements in energy efficiency, is seen as the primary way of reducing both energy demandand carbon emissions. In this thesis, the technical potential for energy efficiency improvements in the UK's residential space heating sector is explored. Three areas of improvement are identied: the thermal performance of the building envelope, the efficiency of heating equipment, and the use of smartheating devices. In all three areas, signicant potential exists to further reduce energy demand for space heating, and the associated carbon emissions. To understand the effects of different technology adoption patterns on energy demand for spaceheating by 2050, a selectively disaggregated bottom-up model of the UK's building stock is developed. The model projects energy demand for space heating for four different technologyadoption scenarios, based on projections of future total heated oor area. In the `Minimal effort' scenario, which assumes that the least possible amount of effort is made to improve the effciency of the space heating sector, energy demand by 2050 increases slightly, by 4.3 %. In this scenario, the achieved minor effciency improvements are not able to offset the increase in the total heated oor area, leading to this small increase in space heating energydemand. In the `Efficiency focus' scenario, which assumes that signicant effort is made to improve the efficiency of the space heating sector, energy demand by 2050 decreases by 34.5 %. Despite these signicant efficiency improvements, fossil fuels still make up roughly three quarters of the fuel mix, as no major shift to cleaner energy sources has been achieved. In contrast, in the `Renewables focus' scenario, which focuses on shifting towards renewable heating options, energy demand decreases slightly less, by only 32 %, but fossil fuels make up only around 46% of the fuel mix, due to the uptake of low-carbon options such as heat pumps, district heat, and biomass. The analysis carried out in this thesis shows that the UK's residential sector consists of manyold and inefficient buildings, still heavily relies on fossil fuel-fired heating equipment, and makes nearly no use of smart heating devices to further reduce energy demand for space heating. Clearly, the technical potential for achieving energy eficiency improvements is signicant, in all three of the identified improvement areas. However, achieving the targets set forth by policymakers will require strong efforts, given the relatively bad current condition of the residential space heating sector. Existing barriers to achieving these improvements should be identifiedand addressed immediately, to ensure timely efforts are possible.

As inhabitants on the earth and as designers in societies, we always think and try to make the world better, to be sustainable. Regarding everyday life in city, to enhance social sustainability, it is revealed that walkability and diversity mean a lot to livability and lovability. Building façades affect peoples’ walking behavior (Choi, 2012), and an area has better be with a good mix of residence and commerce etc. So in this study, focusing on shops which everyone has access to, I tried to seek a hint how to encourage shop owners to make the façades lively by themselves. Why by themselves is related to the idea of bottom-up urbanism that came up from a people- first point of view. The main theory used is affordance theory, originally defined as “what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes” (Gibson, 1979, p.127). With this, the study considered three affording-afforded relationships, that is, architects-shop owners, shop owners-shop owners, and the whole environment around façades- pedestrians, only the former two were investigated this time though. Using pixel analysis with photos, arrangement of elements around façades, its tendency, and whether cluster by elements exists or not were studied. After the investigation done, the study was concluded suggesting to reflect the result of observation on peoples’ behavior with affordance, and perhaps to make a design guide as a feedback from the world of everyday tactics to that of strategy, that are supposed to be closer, to make them in a loop to go on.

Detta examensarbete syftar till att undersöka vilka strategier elever använder sig av vid text-, hör- och ordförståelse i franska. Jag har genom undervisningsförsök och elevenkäter undersökt vilka strategier elever i en niondeklass har när de arbetar med ovanstående moment där uppgifterna är hämtade utanför den ordinarie läroboken. Jag har därutöver intervjuat lärare på den skola jag gjort mina undervisningsförsök för att se om de ger eleverna strategier för arbete kring text-, hör- och ordförståelse. Projektet STRIMS och Tornbergs forskningsresultat har givit mig inspiration till arbetet. Eleverna använde sig huvudsakligen av framgångsrika strategier när de tog sig an de olika uppgifterna. De framgångsrika strategier eleverna i huvudsak använde sig av var att de drog slutsatser utifrån kontexten, de använde sina kunskaper i andra språk samt att de utbytte tankar och idéer vid samarbete i par eller i grupp.

Nanotechnology has reached the status of the 21st century's leading science and technology based on fundamental and applied research during the last two decades. An important feature of nanotechnology is to bridge the crucial dimensional gap between the atomic and molecular fundamental sciences and microstructural scale of engineering. Accordingly, it is very important to have an in-depth understanding of the synthesis of nanomaterials for the use of state-of-the-art high technological devices with enhanced properties. Recently, the 'bottom-up' approach for the fabrication of nanomaterials has received a great deal of attention for its simplicity and cost effectiveness. Tailoring the various parameters during synthesis of selected nanoparticles can be used to fabricate technologically important components. During the last decade, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been envisioned for a host of different new applications. Although carbon nanotubes can be synthesized using a variety of techniques, large-scale synthesis is still a great challenge to the researchers. Three methods are commonly used for commercial and bulk productions of carbon nanotubes: arc-discharge, chemical vapor deposition and laser ablation. However, low-cost, large-scale production of high-quality carbon nanotubes is yet to be reported. One of the objectives of the present research is to develop a simplified synthesis method for the production of large-scale, low-cost carbon nanotubes with functionality. Herein, a unique, simple, inexpensive and one-step synthesis route of CNTs and CNTs decorated with nanoparticles is reported. The method is simple arc-discharge in solution (ADS). For this new method, a full-fledged optoelectronically controlled instrumen is reported here to achieve high efficiency and continuous bulk production of CNTs. In this system, a constant gap between the two electrodes is maintained using a photosensor which allows a continuous synthesis of the carbon nanostructures. The system operates in a feedback loop consisting of an electrode-gap detector and an analogue electronic unit, as controller. This computerized feed system was also used in single process step to produce in situ-decorated CNTs with a variety of industrially important nanoparticles. To name a few, we have successfully synthesized CNTs decorated with 3-4 nm ceria, silica and palladium nanoparticles for many industrially relevant applications. This process can be extended to synthesize decorated CNTs with other oxide and metallic nanoparticles. Sixty experimental runs were carried out for parametric analysis varying process parameters including voltage, current and precursors. The amount of yield with time, rate of erosion of the anode, and rate of deposition of carbonaceous materials on the cathode electrode were investigated. Normalized kinetic parameters were evaluated for different amperes from the sets of runs. The production rate of pristine CNT at 75 A is as high as 5.89 ± 0.28 g.min-1. In this study, major emphasis was given on the characterizations of CNTs with and without nanoparticles using various techniques for surface and bulk analysis of the nanostructures. The nanostructures were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, x-ray photo electron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction studies, and surface area analysis. Electron microscopy investigations show that the CNTs, collected from the water and solutions, are highly pure except the presence of some amorphous carbon. Thermogravimetric analysis and chemical oxidation data of CNTs show the good agreement with electron microscopy analysis. The surface area analysis depicts very high surface area. For pristine multi-walled carbon nanotubes, the BET surface area is approximately 80 m2.g-1. X-ray diffraction studies on carbon nanotubes shows that the products are clean. Nano-sized palladium decorated carbon nanotubes are supposed to be very efficient for hydrogen storage. The synthesis for in-situ decoration of palladium nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes using the arc discharge in solution process has been extensively carried out for possible hydrogen storage applications and electronic device fabrication. Palladium nanoparticles were found to form during the reduction of palladium tetra-chloro-square planar complex. The formation of such a complex was investigated using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopic method. Pd-nanoparticles were simultaneously decorated on carbon nanotubes during the rolling of graphene sheets in the arc-discharge process. Zero-loss energy filtered transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy confirm the presence of 3 nm palladium nanoparticles. The deconvoluted X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy envelope shows the presence of palladium. Surface area measurements using BET method show a surface area of 28 m2.g-1. The discrepancy with pristine CNTs can be explained considering the density of palladium (12023 kg.m-3). Energy dispersive spectroscopy suggests no functionalization of chlorine to the sidewall of carbon nanotubes. The presence of dislodged graphene sheets with wavy morphology as observed with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy supports the formation of CNTs through the 'scroll mechanism'.

“We are neither living nor dying, we are something in between” Since the beginning of history, the living and the dead have been separated. This has made it almost im- possible to co-live together under one roof. We, ‘the living’, have even created “deathscapes” which have set a clear boundary between us and them, ‘the dead’. In every society, with its own cultural norms and rituals, they act with the dead in their own way - some are buried, others are burnt, but what is common across all societies is that they are not evident in our lives anymore. Looking at it from an urban perspective, the dead occupy a big patch of land in every city. This acts as a burden, as it makes “forbidden spaces” where the living is not able to be part of it. However, in each topic, there is a lesson that can be learned from it. In this case, it’s a 6km stretch informally and formally built, with a rich history and poor squatters who have no choice except to dwell with the dead. This is City of the Dead, located in Cairo, Egypt. The extreme lack of housing has pushed a part of society to live informally in cemeteries, where they have learned to co-live in the same room as the dead; they’ve embraced the idea of sleeping next to the dead, working and playing on those deathscapes. But ever since the government announced that they will demolish those deathscapes as a part of demolishing all informal settlements in Cairo, the time has come to make a stand against this decision, instead learning from their “life hack” and applying it throughout the City of the Dead – creating a society where the dead and living are not separated, maximizing the lost potentials in cases such as City of the Dead and making them not looked down upon and marginalized. This thesis aims to design the city and improve the lives of people living in these cemeteries, dealing with each case with care and compassion.

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