Arts festivals form a large part of the South African culture originally as many local communities began to share their culture with visitors by means of arts festivals. This has grown into a large industry that has tremendous financial gain for the hosting communities. With over 500 arts festivals each year in South Africa alone, visitors are certain to find a festival to satisfy their specific needs and wants. Therefore, with so many genres available, each festival has created its own niche market and loyal customer base. An extensive literature study was conducted for the purpose of this thesis and it was found that research of small to medium arts festivals has been neglected. This finding motivated the main theme of this research. As mentioned earlier, there are so many genres available that the festival organisers may experience difficulty when deciding what to offer and how many genres to offer in order to still be sustainable and attract a sufficient number of visitors. Furthermore, the large number of arts festivals organised each year makes it increasingly difficult for festivals to build a loyal client base. First-time visitors can be converted into repeat visitors if the marketing strategy is precise. Repeat visitors, as stated in the literature, results in a sustainable income for each festival. Another question that motivated the research was the location of the three arts festivals (Innibos, Vryfees, and Kierieklapper). Three arts festivals in three provinces makes an interesting study to determine whether there is a difference in the three types of visitors that they attract and the spending patterns at each festival. While addressing the problems stated above, this study produced the following three articles: * Article 1: ―Determinants of spending at Vryfees with a focus on genres‖. * Article 2: ―First-time versus repeat visitors at Innibos Arts Festival‖. * Article 3: ―Role of location in the attendance and spending of festinos‖. Article 1 investigates spending determinants that influence visitor expenditure on the different genres offered at the Vryfees Festival in Bloemfontein, based on a survey conducted in 2011. The research is based on the notion that different genres have different spending patterns. Article 2 focuses on the differences and/or similarities between first-time and repeat visitors at the Innibos Arts Festival as an alternative approach to market segmentation. Lastly, the third article focuses on three different arts festivals in three different locations in South Africa. The research was conducted by means of a visitor survey at the three arts festivals during the same year with questionnaires administered at Innibos (428), Vryfees (336), and Kierieklapper (202) respectively. The most significant contributions of this study can be summarised as follows: * the tourist spending behaviour in regards to the difference between first-time and repeat visitors is significant and can be considered an important spending determinant; * the tourist spending behaviour in terms of length of stay between first-time visitors and repeat visitors is significantly different, suggesting that familiarity with the destination (as the repeat visitors are) has an important impact; * different locations attract their own type of tourists and certain locations receive a higher economic injection than other provinces do because of the type of festival held. All three arts festivals attract mainly Afrikaans speaking attendees; and for the first time, a comparative study has been conducted on three arts festivals targeting the Afrikaans speaking community. Additionally, this is the first time a comparative study was conducted on three small to medium arts festivals located in three different provinces; and * the developed spending model described in the last chapter of this thesis can assist the festival organisers with future festival marketing to improve their income and marketing strategy. / PhD (Tourism Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The majority of people in the mining areas in Limpopo, South Africa, depend on agriculture to sustain their livelihoods; however, the mines have also become important because they create better employment opportunities. The purpose of the study was to analyse the impact of mining on agriculture and socio-economic aspects in the rural communities of the Greater Tubatse Local Municipality. The objectives were to profile the socio-demographic characteristics of the community members surrounding a chrome mine; to determine the impact of mining activities on agricultural production (crop and livestock production); to determine factors influencing farmers’ perceived impact of mining activities on agricultural production; and to ascertain the socio-economic (natural capital, financial capital, social capital, human capital, physical capital) impact of mining activities on the local communities. A quantitative research approach was used to conduct the study using a survey design. Six villages surrounding a chrome mine in the Greater Tubatse Local Municipality in Limpopo participated in the study. Stratified and random sampling approaches were used to select participants from each village to constitute a sample of 347. A total of 347 survey questionnaires were administered through face-to-face interviews but only 309 were correctly and fully completed. SPSS version 24 was used to analyse the data. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the ordered logistic regression model, Wilcoxon signed ranks test and binomial test. The majority (50.8%) of the respondents were male. Sepedi was the most spoken language (97.7%). Most (63.3%) of the respondents were in the age range of 18-30, and 76.4% were single in terms of marital status. A large proportion of the respondents (70.6%) could read and write because they had secondary education. Land ownership findings show that more than half (58.1%) of the respondents had farm plot sizes between 4.6 and 10.5 ha. Average farm plot size was 4.1 ha, and only a few (1.3%) of the plots were above 9 ha. The average family size was about 7 people (actual 6.7). A large proportion (77.7%) of the respondents were dependent on government social grants (pensioners, disability and orphans) as the main source of income. Regarding the impact of mines on agriculture, the study found that in general, the mines did not have a negative impact on the production of livestock and crops, except for donkeys and groundnuts, which were negatively affected. In addition, the findings also show that a large proportion (92.6%) of the respondents lost their agricultural land (mainly grazing land) because of increased mining activities, although the loss of land did not affect production. With regard to the socioeconomic impact of mining activities on the surrounding communities, the study found that the mines had a negative impact on natural capital, physical capital, financial capital and social capital. However, the impact on human capital was positive. It is recommended that mining companies in the study area provide the necessary support to improve the socioeconomic status of the rural communities surrounding the mines in Greater Tubatse Local Municipality. / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / M. Sc. (Agriculture)

From the Proceedings of the 1971 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 22-23, 1971, Tempe, Arizona / As a result of continually lowering water tables in the arid regions of the west, many people are beginning to realize that water should be treated like any other rare resource, letting supply and demand factors regulate its distribution. Three types of price structures are used by water agencies: (1) the flat rate system (2) the step rate system and (3) the block rate system. Each of these structures may be progressive or regressive. At present, Tucson's only source of water lies underground and will presumably decrease as the population increases. To optimize the benefits to the community, it may be necessary to decrease not only average consumption but also summertime peak consumption for swimming pools, evaporative coolers and lawn sprinkling. Currently, Tucson uses a regressive block rate pricing structure. Using the theory of collective utility, a model is developed for use in comparing 2 price structures in an effort to define a monetary value for water conservation. It is concluded that the change in collective utility, du, which is a measure of the worth of change from economic state 1 to 2, is the best measure of price changes in arid areas. The model shows that Tucson water consumption would be lowered and money would be lost with either price structure, but with the permanent change, monetary flow of goods would be greater than under the seasonal structure.

Thesis (M. of Military Art and Science)--U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2007. / The original document contains color images. Also available via the Internet.

Over the course of the last three decades, it has become popular practice to evaluate tourism events like cultural festivals in financial terms, through the use of economic impact studies. This can be attributed at least in part to the notable growth in the number of festivals being held globally and, as such, a higher level of competition between festivals for the limited funding which is available. Economic impact studies, and the resultant findings, have thus become powerful tools for the lobbying of sponsorship, and it has become increasingly important that the impact calculations be as accurate as possible, so as to effectively allocate both government and private resources to projects which will be of the greatest benefit to the host region. The allocation of funding is especially vital in an area like the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, which is faced with many financial difficulties. The allocation of public funds to an event like the National Arts Festival, which is hosted in a relatively wealthy part of the province, might be weighed against initiatives which directly benefit the poorer parts of the region. Although it is acknowledged that the benefits which are felt by the host community of a cultural event go beyond that of the financial, it is often on this basis that festivals are most easily compared. The primary goal of the thesis was to analyse the various forms of methodological bias which can exist in the economic impact analyses (EIA) associated with cultural events. Theoretical considerations were discussed, specifically regarding economic impact as a method of measuring value. Various forms of bias (including data collection, the calculation of visitor numbers, multipliers, defining the area of interest, inclusion of visitor spending, and accounting for benefits only, not costs) are put into a real-life context, through the investigation of economic impact studies conducted on three selected South African festivals (the Volksblad, the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstfees, and the National Arts Festival), and one international festival (the Edinburgh Festival). An in-depth comparison of two separate studies conducted at the National Arts Festival (NAF) in 2004 (by Antrobus and Snowball) and 2005 (by Saayman et al.) was made, focussing on the manner in which the economic impact was calculated. Having considered the common forms of bias, and assessing several possible reasons for the difference of approximately twenty million Rand in the advertised economic impacts, it was concluded that, most likely, the miscalculation of visitor numbers was the cause. This was confirmed when the Antrobus and Saayman methods were applied to the 2006 NAF data, and noting that the economic impact figures arrived at were strikingly similar. As such, it is advisable that extreme caution be taken when calculating visitor numbers, as they can significantly influence the outcome of an economic impact study. It is recommended that each study should also have transparent checks in place, regarding the key calculation figures, to ensure that less scrupulous researchers are not as easily able to succumb to the pressure event sponsors might impose to produce inflated impact values.

MESHWR / Department of Hydrology and Water Resources / See the attached abstract below

Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) has been talked about since the introduction of fiberin the 1970s. It is nowadays shaping up to be the foundation of our newdigital society, bringing economic prosperity and a multitude of business,social, and entertainment opportunities to its users. The increased consumerdemand for high-speed network accessibility is being taken more and moreseriously and a fiber-based network is able to cope with these growing demandsdue to its wide bandwidth and reliability. Today there is a practical need forquantitative analysis regarding the socio-economic impacts of fiber-basedaccess networks. This analysis could be used as an indicator/reference for allthe stakeholder entities as they consider future investments anddevelopments. Sweden is a suitable target country for this analysis since ithas adopted fiber for some years and the benefits that FTTH has brought seemto already be tangible. The primary value of this thesis lies ininvestigation of its quantified evidence of the socio-economic impacts of FTTHdeployment in Sweden. This has been achieved based on data from the SwedishPost and Telecommunications Authority (PTS), Statistics Sweden (SCB), previousrelated studies, and information collected on-line from operators involved inthe fiber market, along with empirical analysis based on multivariateregression models. The results of the study show that fiber penetrationhas had a significant impact on the population’s evolution, specially the netamount of migration into a municipality, which indicates the attractiveness ofmunicipalities per se. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that localgovernment and local authorities take fiber deployment into consideration, ifthey want to attract people to stay for further local development. The studyalso analyzed the competition in fiber-based open networks and the prices ofsubscribing for 10/10 Mbps symmetrical Internet Service. Study findingsrevealed that networks with multiple competing service providers have a widerrange of services and a lower price: the more ISPs competing in a fibernetwork, the lower consumer prices. Specifically, for each new serviceprovider present in the network, there will be 5 SEK per month decrease of theaverage price of the Internet services, and an approximately 7 SEK per monthreduction in the lowest price. Nevertheless, a number of socio-economicimpacts remain unquantifiable as of the current time and due to the limitedavailable data. It is recommended to incorporate more socio-economic effectsin future research in order to draw a more complete picture for all theinterested sectors, and to supplement the data with recent figures for 2012and 2013. / Fiber till hemmet (Fiber-to-the-Home, FTTH) har talats om sedan fiberintroducerades på 1970-talet. Det håller numera på att bli grunden för vårtnya digitala samhälle, och bidra till ekonomiskt välstånd och medföra en mängdaffärsmässiga, sociala och underhållningsmässiga möjligheter tillslutanvändare. Den ökade efterfrågan på höghastighetsnät tas mer och mer påallvar och ett fiberbaserat nät kan hantera dessa ökade krav på grund av dessbreda bandbredd och tillförlitlighet. Idag finns ett praktiskt behov avkvantitativ analys av de socioekonomiska effekterna av fiberbaseradeaccessnät. Denna analys kan användas som en indikator och referens för allaintressenter när de överväger framtida investeringar. Sverige är ett lämpligtmålland för denna analys eftersom den har antagit fiber i några år och defördelar som FTTH har fört verkar redan vara synliga. Det huvudsakligavärdet av denna avhandling ligger i utredningen av kvantifierade bevis för desocioekonomiska effekterna av FTTH utbyggnad i Sverige. Detta har uppnåtts pågrundval av uppgifter från den Post- och telestyrelsen (PTS), Statistiskacentralbyrån (SCB), tidigare liknande studier och information som samlats inpå nätet från aktörer inom fiber, tillsammans med empirisk analys baserad påmultivariate regressionsmodeller. Resultatet visat att fiber har haft enbetydande inverkan på befolkningens utveckling, speciellt netto in- ochutflyttning till en kommun, vilket indikerar attraktionskraft kommunerna isig. Det är därför rimligt att föreslå att kommunerna och de lokalamyndigheterna överväger fiber driftsättning på allvar om de vill lockainvånare att stanna för ytterligare lokal utveckling. Studien analyserar ocksåkonkurrensen på fiberbaserade öppna nät och priserna på 10/10 Mbps symmetriskInternet-tjänst. Resultaten visar att nätverk med flera konkurrerandetjänsteleverantörer har ett bredare utbud av tjänster och ett lägre pris: jufler Internetleverantörer i ett fibernät, desto lägre konsumentpriser. Merspecifikt, för varje ny tjänsteleverantör som finns i nätverket, minskar detgenomsnittliga priset med 5 kronor per månad, och det lägsta priset med cirka7 kronor per månad. Ändå förblir ett antal socioekonomiska effekteromätbara på grund av begränsade tillgängliga data. Rekommendationen är attinförliva fler socioekonomiska effekter i framtida forskning för att dra enmer komplett bild för alla berörda sektorer, och att komplettera data medfärska siffror för 2012 och 2013.

From the Proceedings of the 1972 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 5-6, 1972, Prescott, Arizona / Experimental and historical development of the systematic study of water is briefly reviewed to prove hydrology a science. The hydrology program at the university of Arizona is outlined, and details of the course 'water and the environment' are expounded. This introductory course is intended for non-scientific oriented students at this southwestern university. A reading list is provided for the class, and scientifically designed laboratory experiments are developed. The first semester includes discussion of world water inventory; occurrence of water; hydrologic cycle; interaction of oceanography, meteorology, geology, biology, glaciology, geomorphology and soils; properties of water (physical, biological, chemical), and resources development. The second semester discusses municipal, industrial and agricultural water requirements, surface, ground, imported and effluent water resources management; water law; economic, legal, political, and social water resource planning; ecological impact; patterns of use; and survival of man. Mathematical problems are reviewed along with ecological orientation of students.

Thesis (MA (Geography and Environmental Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / The problem addressed in this research is that large-scale estate developments in the Western Cape generally have, up to now, apparently not fulfilled their potential as primary economic drivers, thus, failing to contribute in a significant manner to addressing the primary challenges facing the present-day South Africa, namely poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. This research focused on the recently-formulated project-based Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI) approach as a strategy to optimally unlock the potential benefits of largescale development as a primary economic driver. In the research, the potential of the SDI approach in this regard was tested by comparing the envisaged performance of an SDI to be implemented in the Hoogekraal area near George in the South Cape with the performance of five selected large-scale estate developments that have been planned and developed in terms of the ‘conventional’ approach as it was defined for this research. The over-arching purpose of the research was to determine whether the project-based SDI approach, as demonstrated by the pre-development condition of the proposed Hoogekraal SDI, could make a meaningful contribution to the alleviation of poverty, inequality and environmental degradation and whether it presents an improvement in this regard on the ‘conventional’ planning, implementation and management approach for large-scale estate developments. The SDI approach, in its current, conceptual format, does not profess to be flawless. The research has left a number of questions unanswered pertaining to, in particular, the mobilisation, involvement, and required participation capacity of the communities that would be affected by an SDI. The research has indicated that the proponents of the SDI approach still have a long way to go to bridge the divergent views and evident opposition against large-scale estate development of conservation-orientated NGOs and community groups, and factions within government departments. However, the research has indicated that the SDI approach holds the promise to be an innovative strategy through which the benefits of large-scale development could be optimised for both people and the environment. The SDI approach, at least, represents an honest response to the national goals for sustainable development put forward in, amongst others, the South African Constitution. It is therefore concluded that there is merit in the claim of the SDI proponents that the SDI approach to large-scale development presents, to a larger extent than the ‘conventional’ approach, a mechanism through which this development typology can contribute to the eradication of poverty, inequality and environmental rehabilitation in partnership with local communities and other stakeholders. It is believed that this research can contribute as: a) an input in the drafting of regional and municipal development policy aimed at promoting sustainable development, for example, the spatial development frameworks prepared by municipalities in terms of the Local Government Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 (South Africa 2000); b) a basis for the planning and implementation of large-scale estate developments in a manner that would, on balance, improve the state of any given condition in a sustainable, integrated, holistic and practical manner and in partnership with those who would be affected by the developments and those who support the ethos of sustainable development; and c) a basis for further research pertaining to the implementation and long-term management of the SDI approach at the project level, the objective being to promote the continual improvement of the approach.