Necropolis is a proposal for a public burial and memorial park in Cape Town for obliterated (cremated, aquamated etc) and bone remains. It explores an architecture for the final farewell to the body and spirit of the deceased, and for personal and collective remembrance. In contrast to other South African Cities, Cape Town is unique for the popularity of cremation, which accounted for 40% of recorded burials in 2019. Architectural responses however are often piecemeal. Burial places were once part of cities' symbolic centres, and mortality understood as an inevitable spiritual journey. During modernisation however, they were exiled to cities' peripheries, far from people's everyday lives. The chosen site is in Deer Park, at the edge of the City Bowl, through which runs a perennial stream linked to the city's historical centre. The Park has a varied heritage landscape which the design situates itself beside, together constituting a landscape of remembrance. The programme explores a secular spiritual and sacred response to burial, grief and memory. The architectural language explores a stereotomics of brick, stone and rubble in dialogue with the ground and Earth. The primary methodology is speculative design, through hand sketching, photographing, mapping, collaging, modelling, digital modelling and rendering. Design thinking is supported by a varied literature review: firstly a collection of Cape Town and colonial European burial histories and practices. Secondly, a phenomenology of the ground, geology, and stone and rubble building. Thirdly, precedent studies of sacred and burial architecture, supported by analysis through drawing.

Through a case study of the Military Hospital Complex in Port Louis, Mauritius, the influence of the World Heritage Program of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisiation (UNESCO), in Mauritius is analysed. The new Intercontinental Slavery Museum, a destination on the UNESCO Slave Route, is housed in the Military Hospital Complex. The museum's stated intention is to narrate the shared history of all Mauritians, regardless of their provenance. It aims to explain the role played by the island as a pivotal connection point in the Indian Ocean slave trade from the 18th Century. The Military Hospital Complex is the oldest surviving building on the island (completed 1740). It was built by the French colonists, Mauritius' first permanent inhabitants. The building has a multi-layered history as it has been integral to life on the island, through changing administrations for more than 280 years. The role of the building has adapted over its life span, reflecting the changing political and social dynamics of the country. Responding to the forces of globalisation in the 1990s the Government of Mauritius engaged with the UNESCO World Heritage Program. The focus of this analysis is on how this Government engagement with UNESCO has affected the creation of modern heritage resources within the country through this case study of the Military Hospital Complex as the Intercontinental Slavery Museum. Methods employed have been to obtain a biographical understanding of the building through archival research, site visits and relevant literature. The historical, political, social, and legislative context of the building over its life, and relating to its transformation into a modern heritage resource have been investigated through relevant literature. Theoretical frameworks of heritage construction in multi-cultural societies have been employed in guiding this research. The UNESCO World Heritage Conventions are discussed, in addition to the various UNESCO treaties, declarations and programs that cumulatively influenced the realisation of Mauritius' World Heritage Sites. The social processes within the country that led to the Truth and Justice Commission in 2010 are investigated. One of the principal recommendations of the Truth and Justice Commission of Mauritius was the creation of a new Intercontinental Slavery Museum in Port Louis. The political ramifications of Mauritius' two World Heritage Sites within the local and global contexts are discussed. The Mauritian political construct that defines the population into groups based on the places of origin of their forebears is at the heart of the way modern heritage has been constructed in the country in association with UNESCO to date. Heritage remains contested and highly politicised in the country. This study has been limited by the politically sensitive nature of heritage within the country and interviews were difficult to secure. The difficulties encountered in conducting research for this analysis has affirmed that these sensitivities prevail. Almost without exception, government officials, heritage professionals and academics were reluctant to discuss the heritage program of the country on or off the record. The researcher was denied access to the case study building. This research concludes that although the vison of Mauritius' new Intercontinental Slavery Museum (housed in the Military Hospital Complex), is comprehensive and inclusive, the political construct of the country remains an impediment to the narration of Mauritian heritage. The heritages of the different groups of people who collectively comprise the Mauritian population have, to date, been separately told. The new museum has a role to pay in narrating the role played by Mauritius within the Indian Ocean slave trade, a story that has relevance to all Mauritians regardless of their population group.

This research investigates the impact of course design and delivery methods on student outcomes in the Foundation Surveying-Geomatics (FSG) course. As indicated from current literature, fewer civil engineering students are taking surveying-geomatics courses, fewer students are pursuing surveying-geomatics as a career, practicing surveying professionals are retiring at an increasing rate and recently, surveyors are leaving the profession due to poor job opportunities & advancement resulting from poor economic conditions. These occurrences provide a mandate to encourage more students, traditional & non-traditional, and mobile & place-bound, to pursue surveying-geomatics education. Additionally, in order to make their required educational experience successful, educators must make surveying-geomatics coursework both effective & efficient as they train a new generation of surveyors. This research focuses on students taking the FSG course in an online platform. The importance of these students is highlighted by the knowledge that very few new surveying licenses are being issued. Further, in order to improve the success of these students in their subsequent college coursework and licensure exam performance, student outcomes in the FSG course were examined. In summary, this research was designed to fill some of the gaps in the understanding of how course design and delivery methods impact student outcomes and in the characterization of todayﾒs surveying-geomatics students. The identified objectives of this research included the following: ﾕ To design an assessment plan for the online foundation surveying-geomatics course that optimizes the application of the concept of ﾓassessment for learningﾔ including assessments and supporting applications. ﾕ To develop a data driven model to measure and validate student learning in the online foundation surveying-geomatics course. ﾕ To estimate the effectiveness of the proposed assessment plan using an experimental design that utilizes data from foundation surveying-geomatics course offerings and student input. ﾕ To propose a method based on pre-course student data and academic performance indicators to characterize online surveying-geomatics students and to predict the future performance of the students in the foundation surveying-geomatics course. To facilitate this investigation, an assessment plan including new course design and delivery methods was developed and applied. Additionally, a method to characterize online surveying-geomatics students and to predict their future performance in the FSG course was developed. This method was based on pre-course student data and pre-course academic performance metrics and predicted student performance in the FSG course. The results of this research indicate that student learning can be improved in the FSG course through the application of an assessment plan that includes course design and delivery tools that best match the student needs. Further, FSG students can be characterized to improve the understanding of the relationship between pre-course student data & pre-course academic performance metrics and the predicted student performance in the FSG course. This research is intended for civil engineering and surveying-geomatics educators and as such has provided knowledge of the impact of a viable assessment plan. In addition, it is hoped that these educators will find the methodology usable, illustrative and applicable to their coursework.

Includes bibliographical references / Despite the abundance of fresh water produced in the mountains surrounding Cape Town, a range of factors contribute towards the imminent water crisis felt locally and internationally. While governing bodies have management strategies and infra structural upgrades planned, these interventions address issues of water quantity only. Steadily declining water quality is an equally important issue which will continue to impact on available fresh water quantities if action is not taken. The threats on water availability in cities stem from growing urbanization itself. The question this dissertation poses is how architecture can encourage a symbiotic relationship between built and natural environments, with special regard for urban water systems. The answer is found in the balance of quantity management, quality improvement and long-term protection of water - a symbiosis between city and urban hydrology. This dissertation documents the research and design of a speculative architectural proposition to embody such a symbiosis. It is hypothesized that the design must address quantity and quality issues simultaneously by coupling infrastructure with community facilities. This will ensure immediate remediation of a water system and encourage a long-lasting protection of water quality through passive education and public conscientizing. The research identifies the Lotus River, located near the Philippi Horticultural Area in Cape Town, as an appropriate representative of the urban hydrological cycle in Cape Town. Through an understanding of the major pollutants in the river and a study of current technology, an industrial process which recycles pollution into fertilizer is proposed as the major programme of the project. This programme is overlaid with an agricultural training center and public amenities which encourage and incentivise environmental awareness among the community. The architectural theories of symbiosis and the social' condenser are proposed as precedent for the way in which architecture has, through the creation of transitional spaces, attempted to usher society into a new way of living. This project explores the creation of a transitional space between building and nature to encourage a symbiotic relationship between urbanity and water, where the Lotus meets the Machine.

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No description available.

A private telecom carrier partnered with the University of Waterloo to examine opportunities to improve their asset management processes. A reliance on traditional CAD technology made it difficult to generate an enterprise view of operational assets, such as poles and cables, since CAD documents were limited to neighbourhood scale coverage. The CAD documents had to communicate logical and locational properties of these assets. These requirements were often at odds since the elements in these CAD documents were occasionally moved to clarify logical aspects, the most common being connectivity with other telecommunications hardware. Elements within the drawings were also restricted to two dimensions, a legacy of early adoption of CAD technology within the telecom carrier. Developments in GIS and architectural technology that have occurred since the introduction of CAD offer opportunities to manage assets using enterprise geospatial systems with three dimensional content. Prominent technologies and standards, such as CityGML and Oracle, will be examined to develop a model to support requirements related to service location. A service location for this paper is a site that requires the deployment of specific resources to meet the needs of a service request. Additionally, as location displacement is an issue that needs to be addressed, an evaluation of data quality processes related to location will be presented. The results from this evaluation will then be used to construct a final standards based 3D geospatial service location model, one that should address the needs of the partner carrier.

A private telecom carrier partnered with the University of Waterloo to examine opportunities to improve their asset management processes. A reliance on traditional CAD technology made it difficult to generate an enterprise view of operational assets, such as poles and cables, since CAD documents were limited to neighbourhood scale coverage. The CAD documents had to communicate logical and locational properties of these assets. These requirements were often at odds since the elements in these CAD documents were occasionally moved to clarify logical aspects, the most common being connectivity with other telecommunications hardware. Elements within the drawings were also restricted to two dimensions, a legacy of early adoption of CAD technology within the telecom carrier. Developments in GIS and architectural technology that have occurred since the introduction of CAD offer opportunities to manage assets using enterprise geospatial systems with three dimensional content. Prominent technologies and standards, such as CityGML and Oracle, will be examined to develop a model to support requirements related to service location. A service location for this paper is a site that requires the deployment of specific resources to meet the needs of a service request. Additionally, as location displacement is an issue that needs to be addressed, an evaluation of data quality processes related to location will be presented. The results from this evaluation will then be used to construct a final standards based 3D geospatial service location model, one that should address the needs of the partner carrier.

As the largest carbon reservoir in ecosystems, soil accounts for more than twice as much carbon storage as that of vegetation biomass or the atmosphere. The goal of this study is to examine spatial patterns of soil organic carbon (SOC) in Canadian forest area at an eco-region scale and to explore its relationship with different ecological variables. In this study, the first Canadian forest soil database published in 1997 by the Canada Forest Service was analyzed along with other long-term eco-climatic data (1961 to 1991) including precipitation, air temperature, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), slope, aspect, and elevation. Additionally, an eco-region framework established by the Environment Canada was adopted in this study for SOC distribution assessment. Exploratory spatial data analysis techniques, with an emphasis on spatial autocorrelation analysis, were employed to explore how forest SOC was spatially distributed in Canada. Correlation analysis and spatial regression analysis were applied to determine the most dominant ecological factors influencing SOC distribution in different eco-regions. At the national scale, a spatial error model was built up to adjust for spatial effects and to estimate SOC patterns based on ecological and ecosystem property factors. Using the significant variables derived in the spatial error model, a predictive SOC map in Canadian forest area was generated. Findings from this study suggest that high SOC clusters tend to occur in coastal areas, while low SOC clusters occur in western boreal eco-region. In Canadian forest area, SOC patterns are strongly related to precipitation regimes. Although overall SOC distribution is influenced by both climatic and topographic variables, distribution patterns are shown to differ significantly among eco-regions, thus verifying the eco-region classification framework for SOC zonation mapping in Canada.

In today's digital era, cartography has changed its role, from that of a pure visual model of the Earth's surface, to an interface to other spatial and aspatial information. Along with this, representationa nd manipulation of graphical information in three-dimensional space is required for many applications. Problems and difficulties must be overcome in order to facilitate the move to three-dimensional models, multimedia, and distributed data. Can accurate measurements, at sufficient resolution, and using affordable resources be obtained? Will application software usefully process, in all aspects, models of the real world, sounds, and videos? Combined with this, the workplace is becoming distributed, requiring applications and data that can be used across the globe as easily as in the office. A distributed, three-dimensional, GIS is required with all the procedural and recording functionality of current two-dimensional systems. Such a GIS would maintain a model, typically comprised of solids of individual buildings, roads, utilities etc. with both external and internal detail, represented on a suitable digital terrain model. This research examines virtual reality software as part of an answer. Alternatively, can technologies such as HTML, VRML, and scripting, along with object-orientation and open systems, allow for the display and interrogation of networked data sets? The particular application of this technology, considered during this research, is the need for accurate reconstruction of historical urban monuments. The construction, manipulation, and exploration of these models is often referred to as virtual heritage. This research constructs an innovative and resource effective methodology, the Phoenix algorithm, which requires only a single image for creating three-dimensional models of buildings at large scale. The development of this algorithm is discussed and the results obtained from it are compared with those obtained using traditional three-dimensional capture techniques. Furthermore, possible solutions to the earlier questions are given and discussed.