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Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Technology: Public Management in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / The focus of the study is the Eden District, George municipal area, Western Cape Province, South Africa, which was severely affected by the worst ever drought in 132 years from 2009-2011 (Bamford, 2009). The reduced rainfall impacted negatively on urban water supplies for the area. In 2009 the Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for Local Government in the province requested that George Municipality draw up specific measures to be implemented when water resources (in dams and rivers) dropped to certain levels. Plans for possible future drought situations, periods of low rainfall, or insufficient raw water resources, have been done put in place for the needs of the residents of the focus area. The research problem of this study encompasses the assessment of the interventions put in place to address the shortage of water, particularly the implementation thereof, and the strategies and mitigations that contributed to the alleviation of the water shortage. The core objective of the research was to investigate the implementation of the water interventions (water restrictions) authorised to address the water shortages in George, in November 2009. This study employed a qualitative research approach where in-depth interviews were conducted with purposely selected individuals employed in the George Municipality Civil Engineering Services Department, and its Water Services and Disaster Department sections as they could provide first-hand information on the measures implemented to alleviate the problem and on the water shortage status. The research findings indicate that many short-term strategies provided a substantial reduction in overall water usage. The implementation of the strategies and mitigation measures were useful to the various departments in the George Municipality in tangible ways to help manage the water shortages. George Municipality should continue to market water restriction awareness to the public even though the George is no longer experiencing water shortages. The Municipality should adapt to deal with longer and more frequent periods of water shortages. Available tools (e.g. drought policy and by-laws) should be revised and adapted to establish appropriate measures under changing conditions.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Ecosystem service research has grown significantly in recent years, highlighting links between ecosystem services and human well-being. Few studies are however, geared towards providing user-friendly, user-useful and user-relevant information suitable for implementing effective local management of areas that deliver ecosystem services, resulting in a gap between ecosystem service research and management. In response to this challenge, it has been argued that in order to safeguard the benefit flows provided by ecosystems, the concept of ecosystem services should be mainstreamed into land-use (and water-use) planning and management processes. As the conservation of ecosystem services is ultimately a social process operating in a social context, understanding the complexity of the research-management interface demands input from a range of stakeholders. Thus, mainstreaming the environment into decision making requires multi-stakeholder engagement processes that facilitate the co-production and exchange of knowledge. Accordingly, through the use of a transdisciplinary, mixed method approach, this dissertation contributes to a better understanding of some of the opportunities and challenges for mainstreaming ecosystem services in development planning at a local level, using a case study in the Eden District (Eden) of South Africa. Through an extensive stakeholder engagement process which explored what the information needs, responsibilities and capacities of decision makers in Eden are, both opportunities that facilitate the integration of ecosystem service information in decision making, and challenges impeding integration, have been identified. This research found that despite a history of ecosystem service research in Eden, there has been limited integration of the concept of ecosystem services into decision-making processes driving development. Insufficient capacity, limited resources, minimal proactive planning, a weak regulatory environment, entrenched disciplinary thinking and insufficient communication amongst diverse stakeholders on the benefits of using an ecosystem-based approach remain as challenges for the mainstreaming of ecosystem services in decision making. However, strategic opportunities for mainstreaming ecosystem services into decisions regarding current and future development trajectories were also found. It was found that the development, and nurturing of transdisciplinary learning networks that are problem driven, and action oriented, using a communities of practice model of engagement, can facilitate legitimate knowledge exchange processes. In this regard, the role of individual and institutional knowledge brokers was found to be critical. It was also found that the concept of risk was useful as a mainstreaming tool in bridging the gaps between different disciplines, and between science, policy and practice. A frame of risk enabled different disciplinary and knowledge communities to participate in joint activities and discussions during which information was co-produced and exchanged. Through this work, new relationships were built that facilitated both learning and action with regards to the importance of ecosystem services for mitigating risk. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ekosisteemdiens-navorsing het aansienlik gegroei in die afgelope jare, met ‘n klem op die verband tussen ekosisteemdienste en menslike welsyn. Min ondersoeke is egter gerig op die verskaffing van gebruikersvriendelike, -nuttige en -relevante inligting wat geskik is vir die implementering van doeltreffende plaaslike bestuur van die gebiede wat ekosisteemdienste lewer, en dit lei tot 'n gaping tussen ekosisteemdiens-navorsing en -bestuur. In reaksie op hierdie uitdaging word aangevoer dat ekosisteemdienste gehoofstroom moet word in prosesses ter beplanning en bestuur van grond- en watergebruik, ten einde die voordele wat deur ekosisteme gebied word, te beskerm. Omdat die behoud van ekosisteemdienste per slot van rekening `n sosiale proses is wat in `n sosiale konteks in werking is, word insette van 'n verskeidenheid van belanghebbendes vereis, om die ingewikkelde aard van die koppelvlak tussen navorsing en bestuur te verstaan. Dus, om die omgewing in besluitneming te hoofstroom, vereis prosesse van betrokkenheid van veelvuldige belanghebbendes, wat die medevervaardiging en uitruil van kennis fasiliteer. Gevolglik, deur die toepassing van `n transdissiplinêre, gemengde metode benadering in `n gevallestudie in die Eden Distrik (Eden) van Suid-Afrika, dra hierdie verhandeling by tot `n beter begrip van sommige van die geleenthede en uitdagings verbonde aan die hoofstroming van ekosisteemdienste in ontwikkelingsbeplanning op 'n plaaslike vlak. Deur `n uitvoerige proses van deelname met belanghebbendes is inligting benodig deur besluitnemers in Eden, sowel as hul verantwoordelikhede en vermoëns, verken, en sodoende is beide die geleenthede wat die integrasie van ekosisteemdiens-inligting in besluiteming fasiliteer, en uitdagings wat integrasie belemmer, geïdentifiseer. Hierdie navorsing het bevind dat, ten spyte van `n geskiedenis van ekosisteemdiens-navorsing in Eden, is daar beperkte integrasie van die konsep van ekosisteemdiens in besluitnemingsprosesse wat ontwikkeling dryf. Onvoldoende kapasiteit, beperkte hulpbronne, minimale proaktiewe beplanning, 'n swak reguleringsomgewing, verskanste dissiplinêre denkwyses en onvoldoende kommunikasie tussen uiteenlopende belanghebbendes oor die voordele verbonde aan die gebruik van 'n ekosisteembenadering, bly uitdagings vir die hoofstroming van ekosisteemdienste in besluitneming. Maar strategiese geleenthede vir die hoofstroming van ekosisteemdienste in besluitneming in verband met huidige en toekomstige ontwikkelingsbane is ook aangetref. Daar is bevind dat, deur transdissiplinêre leernetwerke wat probleemgedrewe en aksie-georiënteerd is, te ontwikkel en koester met behulp van 'n praktykgemeenskappemodel van betrokkenheid, legitieme kennisuitruilingsprosesse gefasiliteer kan word. In hierdie verband is die rol van individuele en institusionele kennismakelaars as krities bevind. Daar is ook bevind dat die konsep van risiko nuttig is as 'n hoofstromings-instrument in die oorbrugging van die gaping tussen die verskillende dissiplines, en tussen wetenskap, beleid en praktyk. `n Raamwerk van risiko het verskillende dissiplinêre en kennisgemeenskappe in staat gestel om deel te neem aan gesamentlike aktiwiteite en besprekings, waartydens inligting saam geproduseer en uitgeruil is. Deur hierdie werk is nuwe verhoudings gevestig, wat beide leer en optrede rakende die belang van ekosisteemdienste vir risikotempering gefasiliteer het.

Local governments are under tremendous pressure to control their costs and improve their services. Managing quality at local government level implies an enormous upheaval in organisational culture. The changing environment calls for new approaches to meeting the organisation’s mission. Total quality management is one of the tools, which government organisations are embracing to meet the growing demand of a changing environment. This paper will discuss the quest for service excellence and continuous improvement and the role of employees in total quality management and how this can be maximized by managers. It will also focus on cultural transformation principles that are useful in promoting quality processes and output and consequently service excellence in an organisation. The main objective of this research study is to investigate how a total quality management organisational culture can be developed at Eden District Municipality. To realize it, the current organisational culture at Eden District Municipality was analysed to determine what should be done. A literature review was conducted to determine the components of a total quality management organisational culture. All this information was used to formulate an approach for the development of a total quality management organisational culture. The empirical study involved a questionnaire, a sample and statistical analysis adapted to solve the main and sub-problems of the study. The research data indicated that Eden District Municipality does not support a total quality management organisational culture.

Garden of Eden imagery is ubiquitous in contemporary print advertising in North America, especially in advertisements directed at women. Three telling characteristics emerge in characterizations of Eve in these advertising reconstructions. In the first place, Eve is consistently hypersexualized and over-eroticized. Secondly, such Garden of Eden images often conflate the Eve figure with that of the Serpent. Thirdly, the highly eroticized Eve-Serpent figures also commonly suffer further conflation with the Garden of Eden itself. Like Eve, nature becomes eroticized. In the Eve-Serpent-Eden conflation, woman becomes nature, nature becomes woman, and both perform a single narrative plot function, in tandem with the Serpent. The erotic and tempting Eve-Serpent-Eden character is both protagonist and antagonist, seducer and seduced. In this dissertation, I engage in an ecofeminist narratological analysis of the Genesis/Fall myth, as it is retold in contemporary fashion magazine advertisements. My analysis examines how reconstructions of this myth in advertisements construct the reader, the narrator, and the primary characters of the story (Eve, Adam, the Serpent, and Eden). I then further explore the ways in which these characterizations inform our perceptions of woman, nature, and environmentalism. Using a narratological methodology, and through a poststructuralist ecofeminist lens, I examine which plot and character elements have been kept, which have been discarded, and how certain erasures impact the narrative characterizations of the story. In addition to what is being told, I further analyze how and where it is told. How is the basic plot being storied in these reconstructions, and what are the effects of this version on the archetypal characterizations of Eve and the Garden of Eden? What are the cultural and literary contexts of the reconstructed narrative and the characters within it? How do these contexts inform how we read the characters within the story? Finally, I examine the cultural effects of these narrative reconstructions, exploring their influence on our gendered relationships with each other and with the natural world around us.

The Garden Of Eden is a ballet for four instrumental quintets: brass, woodwind, string, and percussion. Each ensemble is associated with one of four dancers: God, Adam, Eve, -and the Serpent, respectively. The duration of this ballet is approximately sixteen minutes and is divided into three parts depicting (1) the creation of the world and Adam; (2) the creation of Eve-and the warning about the tree of knowledge; and (3) the Serpent's temptation of the main characters, as well as their subsequent banishment from the garden by God. One of my reasons for composing this work was to answer an important question: how to control musical motion and emotion. Since ballet incorporates both motion in its choreography and emotion in its program, it provided a perfect medium in which to work.

No description available.

No description available.

Garden of Eden imagery is ubiquitous in contemporary print advertising in North America, especially in advertisements directed at women. Three telling characteristics emerge in characterizations of Eve in these advertising reconstructions. In the first place, Eve is consistently hypersexualized and over-eroticized. Secondly, such Garden of Eden images often conflate the Eve figure with that of the Serpent. Thirdly, the highly eroticized Eve-Serpent figures also commonly suffer further conflation with the Garden of Eden itself. Like Eve, nature becomes eroticized. In the Eve-Serpent-Eden conflation, woman becomes nature, nature becomes woman, and both perform a single narrative plot function, in tandem with the Serpent. The erotic and tempting Eve-Serpent-Eden character is both protagonist and antagonist, seducer and seduced. In this dissertation, I engage in an ecofeminist narratological analysis of the Genesis/Fall myth, as it is retold in contemporary fashion magazine advertisements. My analysis examines how reconstructions of this myth in advertisements construct the reader, the narrator, and the primary characters of the story (Eve, Adam, the Serpent, and Eden). I then further explore the ways in which these characterizations inform our perceptions of woman, nature, and environmentalism. Using a narratological methodology, and through a poststructuralist ecofeminist lens, I examine which plot and character elements have been kept, which have been discarded, and how certain erasures impact the narrative characterizations of the story. In addition to what is being told, I further analyze how and where it is told. How is the basic plot being storied in these reconstructions, and what are the effects of this version on the archetypal characterizations of Eve and the Garden of Eden? What are the cultural and literary contexts of the reconstructed narrative and the characters within it? How do these contexts inform how we read the characters within the story? Finally, I examine the cultural effects of these narrative reconstructions, exploring their influence on our gendered relationships with each other and with the natural world around us.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1924. / "A complete list of Eden Phillpotts' plays": p. 99-101. "A typical list of modern English peasant drama": p. 102-105. "A typical list of modern English village drama": p. 106-112.