With the Paris Agreement calling for climate change to be held "well below" 2oC, and the release of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the international community has reaffirmed its commitment to enabling human progress within the constraints of the biosphere. In major assessments, a common approach is to examine climate and development trade-offs under a framework of economic costs, rather than human well-being, despite the latter being a potentially more accurate way to portray real development outcomes. This thesis elaborates on these links between well-being, carbon emissions and climate change mitigation; it identifies the implications of this new framework, and examines whether it is possible to achieve both low-emissions and high well-being within the limitations of society, economy and the climate. A fundamental issue is whether minimum thresholds of energy consumption necessary for satisfying human needs can be extended to all without exceeding the 2oC goal and further endangering well-being. This is found to be a key trade-off that requires either a deep commitment to emissions reductions in Northern countries, or the avoidance of carbon-intensive infrastructures in the South. Nonetheless, there are already examples of countries that have attained high levels of well-being in multiple dimensions of human need at little cumulative emissions cost, and according to current growth trends will continue to do so with a minimal impact on the shared carbon space. These nations are also diverse in terms of their underlying drivers of carbon emissions (and thus challenges in mitigation), and may provide a rich source of climate-development policy for emerging countries in the global South. However, it is understood that systematic political-economic constraints are preventing a convergence of well-being outcomes and emissions impact across the development hierarchy, highlighting the social and political (rather than technical) issues that must be addressed in order to safely transition society towards a low-carbon future.

It has become increasingly clear that dealing with present day environmental crises requires a holistic view that takes into account the interactions of social and ecological factors across multiple spatial and temporal scales. An example of where this new paradigm is being operationalized is the study of social-ecological systems. A substantial aspect of this growing research area aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the links between social-ecological systems, the ecosystem services they generate, and human well-being. This thesis summarizes the first part of a PhD project with the overall objective of unravelling some of these linkages using a mapping approach in South Africa, a country with high levels of social and ecological diversity. In the first paper, I present an approach to mapping social-ecological systems based on different bundles of ecosystem services. Mapping social-ecological systems has so far mainly been achieved by the overlay of separate social and ecological data. Here, I identify characteristic bundles of ecosystem services and use these bundle types as a proxy for different social-ecological systems in South Africa. The emergent pattern shows three distinct and spatially coherent systems that represent an overall low, medium and high level of ecosystem service use amongst households, and differs markedly from maps based on the overlay of social and ecological datasets. This approach not only identifies areas within South Africa where people are especially vulnerable to environmental changes that negatively affect ecosystem services, but also highlights areas in which distinctly different system dynamics operate in close proximity. It is especially in those areas where systems characterized by high and low dependence on ecosystem services lie side by side that nuanced and differentiated decision-making is required to sustainably manage ecosystem services in support of human well-being across all sectors of society. In the second paper I expand on the approach pioneered in Paper I by mapping human well-being bundles in South Africa. Mapping human well-being as bundles allows us to interrogate the trade-offs between different constituents of well-being at the sub-national scale, something that is not possible when measuring human well-being based on indicators or indices that reduce well-being to a single number. This approach also enables us to perform a spatial comparison between the levels of ecosystem service use (identified in Paper I) and human well-being, which signifies an important step forward in the development of quantitative tools for the analysis of the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being at scales between the local and the national. / Governance of ecosystem services under scenarios of change in southern and eastern Africa

Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst / Diante da crise ambiental global, os ecossistemas tornam-se cada vez mais vulnerÃveis, e consequentemente os benefÃcios por eles ofertados, conhecidos como serviÃos ecossistÃmicos. Os ServiÃos EcossistÃmicos influenciam de maneira direta e indireta a promoÃÃo de bem-estar humano. Seus benefÃcios atravessam fronteiras, mas a sua produÃÃo pode acontecer de maneira local, cujo processo ainda à pouco entendido pelos cientistas. Durante anos, tÃm sido negligenciados, principalmente pelos paÃses com pouco conhecimento e interesse sobre sua prÃpria biodiversidade. PorÃm, o desafio de se conviver em um planeta finito e com uma populaÃÃo mundial cada vez maior anuncia um cenÃrio em que o impacto crescente sobre o uso dos recursos naturais impulsionarà a necessidade de se investir em uma gestÃo eficiente sobre sua alocaÃÃo. O presente trabalho parte da hipÃtese de a mensuraÃÃo do bem-estar, pela perspectiva do desenvolvimento sustentÃvel, deve ser composta por indicadores que contemplem a integraÃÃo entre o bem-estar humano e os serviÃos ecossistÃmicos. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi propor um conjunto de indicadores que retrate, pela perspectiva do desenvolvimento sustentÃvel, a importÃncia da inserÃÃo dos serviÃos ecossistÃmicos de provisÃo na mensuraÃÃo do bem-estar em Ãreas degradadas. Essa relaÃÃo traz em si o Ãbvio: a importÃncia dos serviÃos ecossistÃmicos para o bem-estar humano. Baseando-se em uma releitura de Prescott-Allen (2001) e adaptando para a realidade local, foi desenvolvido um conjunto de Ãndices e indicadores, em diferentes dimensÃes, que resultaram em dois Ãndices: Ãndice de Bem-Estar Humano (IBEH) e Ãndice de Bem-Estar EcossistÃmico (IBEE). O IBEH à composto por cinco dimensÃes (SaÃde e PopulaÃÃo, Riqueza das FamÃlias, Conhecimento e Cultura, Comunidade e Equidade) e quinze indicadores, enquanto o IBEE à constituÃdo por cinco dimensÃes (Terra, Ãgua, Ar, Biodiversidade e Uso dos Recursos) e sete indicadores gerando assim um framework que reproduz o seu estado e suas inter-relaÃÃes. A validaÃÃo do IBEH e do IBEE foi realizada na comunidade do SÃtio do Brum localizado no bioma Caatinga no estado do CearÃ, Brasil. Desconhecido para muitos, a Caatinga està em acelerado processo de degradaÃÃo intensificado pela mà gestÃo dos recursos ambientais bem como pelas condiÃÃes climÃticas da regiÃo. Como principais resultados o uso de Ãndices e indicadores em serviÃos ecossistÃmicos conseguiu capturar a relaÃÃo entre os serviÃos ecossistÃmicos e o bem-estar humano, alÃm de validar a capacidade dos indicadores escolhidos descreverem os sistemas sÃcio-ecossistÃmicos e a sua interaÃÃo. A escolha da aplicaÃÃo dos Ãndices em um bioma degradado e por diversas vezes pouco valorizado, como a Caatinga, revelou nÃo somente a importÃncia do impacto das aÃÃes antrÃpicas neste tipo de bioma, mas o vÃu que os cobre. Identificou-se uma comunidade que compreende sua realidade, almeja mudanÃas, possui visÃo de futuro coletiva, mas nÃo possui capacidade de provocar mudanÃas. Embora nÃo seja fÃcil agir em funÃÃo das preocupaÃÃes intergeracionais, mudanÃas somente ocorrerÃo quando as avaliaÃÃes de serviÃos ecossistÃmicos englobarem tambÃm as pessoas, algo que por sua vez envolve motivaÃÃes e limites cognitivos na aquisiÃÃo e processamento de informaÃÃes, essencial para garantir o bem-estar das geraÃÃes presentes e futuras, abordagem sugerida pelo framework em questÃo apresentado. / Given the global environmental crisis, ecosystems become increasingly vulnerable and therefore the benefits offered by them, known as ecosystem service. The ecosystem services influence directly and indirectly the promotion of human well-being. Its benefits cross borders, but its production can happen in a local way, which process is still poorly understood by scientists. For years, the ecosystem services have been neglected, especially by countries with little knowledge and interest about their own biodiversity. However, the challenge to live in a finite planet with a growing world population announce a scenario where increasing impact on the use of natural resources will drive the need to invest in efficient management of its allocation . This study starts from the hypothesis that the measurement of well-being by the sustainable developmentâs approach would include indicators that address the integration of human well-being and ecosystem services. The main goal of this research is present indices that portray, in a sustainable developmentâs approach, the importance of integrating provisioning ecosystem services in measuring of well-being in degraded areas. This interaction brings with it the obvious: the relevance of ecosystem services for human well-being. Taking into account the literature review, we adapted the Prescott-Allen model to make it appropriate for our study area. A set of indices and indicators were developed in different dimensions resulting in two indices: the Human Well-Being Index (HWBI) and the Ecosystem Well-Being Index (EWBI).The HWBI consists of five dimensions: Health and Population, Household Wealth, Knowledge and Culture, Community and Equity, and fifteen indicators. The EWBI also consists of five dimensions: Land, Water, Air, Biodiversity and Resource Use; and seven indicators. The interaction between these two indices generated a framework that shows the dependence between each of the variables analyzed. The proposed set of indicators was tested in Sitio do Brum community, located in the Caatinga biome in the state of CearÃ, Brazil. Unknown to many, the Caatinga is in a rapid degradation process due to mismanagement of environmental resources and the climatic conditions of the region. The main results of the use of indices and indicators for ecosystem services managed to capture the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being, and to validate the ability of the chosen indicators to describe the socio-ecosystems and their interaction. The choice of application of the parameters in a degraded and often undervalued biome, such as the Caatinga, revealed not only the importance of the impact of human actions in this type of biome, but the veil that covers them. A community was identified, which understands its reality, craves for changes, has its own collective vision of the future, but has no ability to bring about change. Although it is not easy to act on the basis of intergenerational concerns, changes only occur when the assessments of ecosystem services also encompass people, which in turn involves motivations and cognitive limitations in acquiring and processing information, essential to ensure the well-being of current and next generations, approach suggested by the framework in question.

This treatise presents a transcendental argument for corporate social responsibility. The argument is that corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is best understood as a collective moral practice that is a precondition for sustainable business. There are a number of theories and definitions of CSR in the contemporary business literature. These theories include considerations of economic, legal, social, and environmental notions of what a corporation ought to take responsibility for based on either motives or concerns of accountability for corporate acts. This work focuses on economic theories. I analyze the distinction between the technical terms "responsibility" and "accountability" found in these theories. This enables me to explicate the meaning of corporate responsibility as it relates to the conditions of sustainable business activity. These conditions necessarily include moral content. In other words, this is an applied ethics project. First, I inquire into the intellectual history of the broader sense of corporate responsibility and review various contemporary notions of corporate social responsibility. My concern is whether these notions presuppose broader forms of moral responsibility to others as an obligation, moral responsibility for acts, or to be held morally responsible (i.e., accountable) based on moral tendencies, particular motives, or resulting outcomes. This concern forms the basis of my consideration of the notions of individual and collective responsibility. The following work includes an analysis of the notion of human choice as a collective endeavor of institutional relationships and practice in the economic market system. I argue that corporate motives for moral interrelationships are necessarily implicit in biosocioeconomic multinational market enterprise. I conclude that an analysis of corporate community involvement may be found in a case study of Starbucks Coffee Company's efforts to practice CSR in particular coffee bean farming communities in developing countries.

Magister Scientiae (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) / This thesis looks at aspects relating to vegetated open space in the quaternary catchment of the Lourens River, Cape Town, South Africa in 2005 and at GoogleEarth as a source of imagery for research. The research questions were: “Is GoogleEarth a suitable source of imagery for spatial analysis of landscapes?”; “What was the potential access (proximity) to vegetated open space of at least 900 m2 in the Lourens River quaternary catchment in 2005?”; “How many vegetated open spaces with an area of at least 900 m2 were present in the Lourens River quaternary catchment in 2005?” and “What spaces within the urban edge in the Lourens River quaternary catchment can be said to have some protection from development?” Open space has multiple benefits for humans in terms of health and social interaction.In urban areas, it is also important for biodiversity conservation. In Cape Town, this is critical since the city has critically endangered national vegetation types that only occur within its boundaries and 319 IUCN Red List species within its boundaries.Proximity does not reflect use of open space which is affected by the size of the open space, quality of the open space, neighbourhood attributes and individual and collective perceptions of the open space. Quality of vegetated open space is dependent on its facilities and maintenance which are largely determined by its management. In Cape Town, open space management is mainly mowing/brush cutting all spaces which has a negative impact on biodiversity retention. Mowing is continued because of popular demand so action needs to be taken to change popular perceptions.Google Earth is readily available and widely used. It is used for research in diverse disciplines. Local Internet connection problems complicated this study. Alignment and projection problems were encountered in this study. Thus Google Earth geospatial issues make it a poor choice of imagery source for large scale spatial analysis of landscapes.Open space was digitized in Google Earth and transferred to a propriety GIS for editing. Vegetated spaces with a minimum of 900 m2 and a width of at least 15 m were selected from the approximately 1025 digitised spaces. Google Earth imagery was used because it is readily available. Euclidean distances of 300 m, 500 m, 800 m and 900 m (taken from literature) were used to buffer the digitized vegetated open spaces and other data on schools, train stations, bus routes and taxi routes in and within 900 m of the catchment. Buffer analysis was carried out. Data from the City of Cape Town and a schools layer were used to determine the number of cemeteries,community parks, nature reserves and school grounds – space regarded as having some protection from development - within the urban edge of the city and what area they covered.Within or partially within the Lourens River quaternary catchment, 593 vegetated open spaces of at least 900 m2 were identified. The analysis showed that only two houses were beyond 300 m from a vegetated open space. There was vegetated open space within 300 m of all the schools, stations, bus and taxi routes within the catchment and in close proximity to the catchment. Within the urban edge, only 124 spaces were found to be protected, of which only one was a nature reserve.Most of the open spaces are not formally designated as open space and are vulnerable to development. Much development has taken place since 2005 in the Lourens River quaternary catchment so action is needed to ensure proximity to vegetated open space remains a positive feature of the area.Expanding the present research to cover a larger area would provide additional baseline data. Further research could consider the loss of open space over time and the impact of management on the quality of designated open space.

The study explores the possibility that a transition zone can become a ‘filter’ that surrounds an urban core. As a filter, the transition zone can regulate and rehabilitate ecosystem services to support human well-being. The main research question focusses on how eco-systemic development can act as a filter while supporting human well-being. The two sub-questions concern (a) how architecture can become a buffer between urban and suburban areas in Pretoria, and (b) how architecture can aid in ecosystem rehabilitation to regenerate urban and human well-being. Through the research done in this study, it is evident that transitional zones around city centres are commonly derelict and unsafe. Human well-being is under pressure as a result of the increasing degradation of ecosystem services, which is brought about by human misuse and urban densification. As cities and human populations grow, urban cores expand. This expansion results in constant re-zoning as well as the demolition and degradation of existing spaces (Preston, 1966:240). Basic human well-being is dependent on successful ecosystem services and the biodiversity of urban environments (Bolund & Hunhammar, 1999:299). This study aims to identify, reintroduce and rehabilitate ecosystem services on an urban edge to facilitate the health and well-being of the community living there. The study addresses three main themes, namely: (1) urban zoning and development, (2) human well-being, and (3) ecosystem-service rehabilitation and reintroduction. By analysing the themes of urban development, well-being as well as social sustainability and ecosystem services, different theories and principles are identified to provide lenses through which the dissertation will be approached. The main lens is that of Vitruvius and the principles he sets out in Ten books on architecture, which relates all design decisions back to nature. Other theories, such as Ernest Burgess’ concentric circle model and the circular economy theory, and the guidelines of the Living Building Institute led to the selection of the site, the development of the urban framework and the design of the intervention. By combining these theories with a programmatic intervention, which was derived from the site and themes, the end result aims to revive the community, the well-being of its members and to reinforce the existing development while ensuring ongoing rehabilitation of the ecosystem services. This intervention aspires to become a catalyst according to which all transition zones in urban environments can be transformed from eye sores and barriers to filters and activators. / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

Previous research from environmental psychology shows that human well-being suffers in windowless environments in many ways and a window view of nature is psychologically and physiologically beneficial to humans. Current window substitutes, still images and video, lack three dimensional properties necessary for a realistic viewing experience – primarily motion parallax. We present a new system using a head-coupled display and image-based rendering to simulate a photorealistic artificial window view of nature with motion parallax. Evaluation data obtained from human subjects suggest that the system prototype is a better window substitute than a static image and has significantly more positive effects on observers’ moods. The test subjects judged the system prototype as a good simulation of, and acceptable replacement for, a real window, and accorded it much higher ratings for realism and preference than a static image.

Previous research from environmental psychology shows that human well-being suffers in windowless environments in many ways and a window view of nature is psychologically and physiologically beneficial to humans. Current window substitutes, still images and video, lack three dimensional properties necessary for a realistic viewing experience – primarily motion parallax. We present a new system using a head-coupled display and image-based rendering to simulate a photorealistic artificial window view of nature with motion parallax. Evaluation data obtained from human subjects suggest that the system prototype is a better window substitute than a static image and has significantly more positive effects on observers’ moods. The test subjects judged the system prototype as a good simulation of, and acceptable replacement for, a real window, and accorded it much higher ratings for realism and preference than a static image.

Urban green space has been proven by the field of environmental psychology to have high value for human well-being. Green space is also important for biodiversity. However, the management of urban green space is commonly focused on present aesthetic values and not on the level of naturalness and its consequences for humans and biodiversity. This study compares the green space situation in relation to human well-being and biodiversity in Lviv, Ukraine and Stockholm, Sweden. By sampling urban green space gradients, from unnatural to natural, as well as collecting data about visiting people and bird taxa in those areas, comparisons between these two response variables and the level of naturalness were made. The results show correlations between the level of naturalness and the social structure of human visitors as well as to the bird taxa present. The results thus indicate that both human well-being and biodiversity is positively related to the level of naturalness of green space. Since more and more people live in urban areas decision-makers should leave sufficient amounts of green space, for the inhabitants’ well-being, both people and other species, in physical planning. Given generally low levels of green space in urban settings, areas for recreation and rehabilitation should be enhanced further.

This study had two main objectives. The first objective was to determine the factors that influence rural households’ labour allocation and supply decisions for competing livelihood activities, including wetland activities. The second objective was to: develop an ecological-economic model establishing the linkages between the economic and ecological components in a wetland system and apply the model to evaluate the impacts of alternative wetland management and policy regimes on wetland functioning; and supply ecosystem services and economic well-being. To achieve the first objective an agricultural household framework was used. The reduced form labour use and supply equations for wetland products and agricultural grain, derived from optimising the agricultural household model, were estimated jointly using a seemingly unrelated regression model. The model was fitted to data collected from a survey of 143 households in a wetland system in the Limpopo basin of South Africa. Results showed that poor households, most of whom are female-headed households, have less capacity to participate in off-farm employment and rely heavily on farm and wetland activities for their livelihood. This implies that environmental protection policies that limit access to the wetland resources will deepen poverty as the poor will suffer more from deprivation of resources, which play a key role as a livelihoods safety net for the poor. This suggests that in order to enhance the sustainable management of wetlands there is need to identify and promote local level wetland management practices that allow the poor to use wetlands to enhance their economic well-being with minimum adverse effects on wetland ecological conditions instead of adopting strict wetland protection measures. In addition, there is also a need to broaden the opportunities for the poor to diversify into off-farm livelihood activities. This minimises the risks of income fluctuations associated with farm and natural resource-base livelihood sources and therefore provides the necessary positive incentives for wetland conservation and sustainable use. Better access to education is an important instrument for enhancing the poor’s ability to diversify into off-farm livelihood options. These results suggest that wetland conservation and sustainable use has to be integrated with the broader rural poverty reduction initiatives such as: improved access to education; investment in irrigation infrastructure; and improving access to markets. Results also indicate that a household’s exogenous income and wealth status (asset endowment) enhance farm production whilst reducing dependence on wetland products for livelihood. The government should pursue policy measures that reduce rural household liquidity constraints and enhance investment in productive assets (e.g. improving rural household access to credit and off-farm income opportunities) to boost farm production and enhance wetland conservation and sustainable use. To achieve the second objective the study developed a dynamic ecological-economic model. The model is based on the system dynamics framework to capture the multiple interactions and feedback effects between ecological and economic systems. The application of the model in simulating policy scenarios suggests that wetland ecosystem services (crop production and natural resource harvesting) are interlinked with trade-offs involved through their competition for labour, water and land resources. Policy scenario simulation results showed that diversifying livelihoods out of agriculture simultaneously improves economic well-being and enhances wetland conservation. Pure conservation strategies impose significant losses in the economic welfare of the local population unless supported by diversification of livelihood sources. The simulation results also show that the development of a competitive marketing system for harvested biomass products increases returns to wetland biomass products relative to that of wetland grain and it reduces conversion of wetlands to agriculture. Simulation of the predicted reduction in annual precipitation due to climate change in southern Africa showed that climate change is likely to accelerate the conversion of wetlands to agriculture, confirming the important role wetlands play in managing climate variability in smallholder agricultural systems. Government policies that support livelihood diversification into off-farm livelihood opportunities and improve the capacity of the rural poor to adapt to climate change, especially droughts, are critical for wetland conservation and sustainable use. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted