It is important for health planners to provide health services as effectively and equitably as possible for the development of quality living environments. The provision of adequate healthcare services, particularly in metropolitan areas, is becoming more difficult because of three developments: slow economic growth; the rapid growth of metropolitan areas and their subsequent increases in population. It is thus a challenge to provide what is considered a fair or socially just distribution of healthcare services to a population with changing healthcare needs. The spatial distribution of people and their varying need for healthcare services is a long-standing interest in the field of service planning, and provides a classic issue well suited for Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyse. Access is an important aspect in healthcare service planning. GIS-based accessibility analysis is a logical method that can be applied to test the degree to which access is obtained. Such successful applications of GIS-based analysis have been useful in indicating the accessibility of an existing or potential service. This has provided a good basis for the planning of healthcare services. However, it has been increasingly realised that there is a growing need for a paradigm shift in the planning process. In South Africa, primary healthcare (PHC) is a dual system made up of private and public healthcare facilities. Private PHC is expensive and only affordable to people with medical insurance. These people, most currently belonging to the middle and high income brackets, are theoretically also healthier than the rest of the population. But a small proportion of the population in the low income bracket also has medical aid or insurance. Hence, it is quite difficult to make a clear distinction of the low, middle and high income uninsured population when measuring access to public primary healthcare services. In this study, three different scenarios to calculate the uninsured population were generated and tested using a GIS-based form of catchment area analysis. The results from the catchment area analysis were compared with actual public PHC demand in the form of headcounts and further analysis of the origins of the patients was undertaken using a patient register. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in the spatial extent of the catchment areas of the facilities across the three demand scenarios but that there are significant differences in demand visits per scenario. A patient register and facility headcounts, both based on actual visits to public PHC facilities, were compared to the results of the catchment area analysis. The comparison results show that almost 45% of the patients did not use their closest facility as a first point of contact. The total allocated demand visits in scenario 3 was strongly in line with the total number of headcounts of the area, and thus is considered the most suitable calculation of uninsured population for implementation in a GIS-based accessibility analysis.

Bibliography: leaves 170-182. / This dissertation deals with the development and implementation aspects of a semi-automated shack reconstruction strategy for informal settlement GIS (ISGIS) data collection. The main features of this stratedy include: (1) the use of color orthoimagery and digital surface model (DSM) generated from high-resoltion small-format digitial aerial imagery, (2) the separation of the shack reconstruction task into automated shack detection and interactive shack delineation, (3) the integration of multiple cues in a desktop GIS environment, and (4) the 2.5D shack modeling and the three-dimensional (3D) realistic visualization. In accordance with this strategy an informal settlement modeling system (IS-Modeler) prototype has been developed. IS-Modeler is comprised of three software components: digital photogrammetry, image analysis and GIS. The former two are used to generate multiple cues, primarily DSM blobs, shadows and attributed edge contours, the latter is used to implement shack detection, delineation and visualization.

Bibliography : leaves 74-77. / This thesis investigates how GIS can be used in the planning process of informal settlements. Tables, maps and models were created to demonstrate how these data sources could be used to assist in the planning process. Three environmental factors namely, slope, soil and drainage were analysed, reclassified, weighted and computed to create the site suitability map.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Customary tenure is the predominant land tenure system in Ghana. It has been practiced for many years. Customary land tenure is built on the foundations of an African concept of land, distinguished by centrality of community, spirituality, and mutual dependence of the individual and the community. Colonization, increased population, rapid urbanisation has placed enormous pressure on customary tenure, especially in peri-urban areas. This study investigates customary administration in peri-urban Ghana. Using critical realism and multimethodology, peri-urban customary tenure in Accra and Kumasi, the fastest growing cities in Ghana, are assessed. A model for assessing functionality for peri-urban customary systems has been developed. The results indicate that functional customary systems adhere to the principles of good governance in customary land administration, although a lot needs to be done to improve accountability, transparency and land rights of women. It was also observed that whether the system has patrilineal or matrilineal inheritance does not have any significant influence on functionality. Further research is recommended to investigate best practices from other tenure systems to improve peri-urban customary tenure without compromising good aspects of customary systems.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-232).

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The case study applies a GIS-based methodology to assess the vulnerability of Masiphumelele, to both wetland flooding and coastal storm surges. This informal settlement, south of Cape Town has rapidly expanded since its inception 20 years ago, and large numbers of economic migrants largely from the Eastern Cape have swelled the population and over-whelmed the local infrastructure. The settlement is now expanding northwards in a largely uncontrolled fashion into an ecologically important wetland.

Includes bibliographical references. / Public Transport has played a fundamental part in my personal life as it was the mode of transport used to get to friends, part-time work and ultimately university campus over the span of eleven years. Using the South African public railway service on a daily basis for the past six years, it has made me aware of many fundamental architectural problems within this arena, with the biggest concern lying within the public transport interchange precinct; at the coming together of the different modes of public transport. Staying in the Northern Suburbs my entire life, attending Bellville High school and later the University of Cape Town, meant that the Bellville Public Transport Interchange has had a big impact on my idea and conceptions on the functioning of a public transport interchange. Subconsciously studying the Bellville Public Transport Interchange and understanding its functioning over the past eleven years has made me aware of the absence of architectural contribution within its current operational system and has lead me to the investigation of the relationship between architecture and the Bellville public Transport Interchange. The dissertation document that follows seeks to improve the current relationship between architecture and the Bellville Public Transport Interchange through the use of vertical and horizontal architectural layering systems.

Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation emerged from a fascination with the rich urban and architectural fabric of dense inner-cities, the layered palimpsest, and strong sense of character as a result of the piecemeal evolution of the city over time. Retaining this character is at odds with the phenomenon of a market-driven, developer-led method of place ‘un-making’ within the city which aims to maximise utility and scale, removes large portions of the existing urban fabric in the process, but adds much needed density to the city. The dissertation attempts to understand the paradox between the positive addition of density, and the nega- tive destruction of good urban fabric and character. While vacant erven within the city are scarce, the city’s density is far less than is planned due to many existing buildings having a lower bulk than is allowed. Simply put, there is a vast amount of airspace above the existing city which is being underutilised and underdeveloped. This dissertation explores a method of placemaking less dependent on the ground plane, and able to occupy the underutilised airspace above existing blocks and erven; densifying the city, and expanding its capacity, while maintaining the unique sense of character and rich urban fabric which is a product of generations of small steps in development. The dissertation attempts to cover, as a narrative, the process of unpacking ideas as pragmatic as zoning and as poetic as what it means to contribute to the rich architectural palimpsest, and everything in between.

Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation is inspired by the age of digital media as a mode of cultural production. This project aims to uncover how social interaction is shaped by digital space and its effects on physical space. This is an exploration of an architecture which mediates between the tensions and contradictions that exist between a digital and physical dimension. I believe today's culture is largely driven by the use of digital and social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, etc. Through the use of digital media, people are able to consume and produce material (online) simultaneously and collaboratively. I believe this has transformed the manner in which people communicate and establish their sense of identity. Digital media has also made way for the concept of globalisation, where people are brought closer through instant and rapid forms of network communication, thus contesting and collapsing the reality of distance and physical boundaries. According to Virilio (2012:73), “...we must at least resolve ourselves to losing the sense of our senses, common sense and certainties, in the material of representation. We must be ready to lose our morphological illusions about physical dimensions...". This indicates that there is a tension between the formal environment and digital space. In this age of digitalisation, the human artefact and its mode of communication is changing: with it, so will our physical environments. This dissertation seeks to negotiate between these two dimensions, through the architecture and its programmatic response in relation to the urban context of Cape Town city centre.

The intention of this thesis was to challenge how we, as architects are appropriating new formations of space within the city. The research began as an exploration into how a contemporary African city space could be envisioned, a future trajectory of design thinking that challenges normative systems of design. The diverse nature of South African cities should have an architecture that responds to its lived reality and one that reflects cultural difference. This exploration was narrowed down to view a need that ran across cultural lines. I chose to do this through looking at various health systems that prevail in our current society. The challenge was to critically seek out new ways that one could accommodate for various cultural beliefs while viewing these various health practices. These explorations were carried out in two sections - the first section looks at our current condition and what the prevailing health systems are in our society, as well as the challenges these various views on health pose. The second section focuses on a spatial understanding of how these systems are carried out in our city and seeks to analyse the various spatiality's of healing practices. The idea is to search for how new spaces of healthcare could be realised that reflect cultural difference, rituals and practices and which respond to a South African condition.