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A user needs assessment of the state of the environment (SOE) report for the City of Cape Town

Thesis (MTech( Environmental Health))-- Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 2004 / The City of Cape Town (CCT) produced its first State of Environment report in 1999 as
part of their Integrated Metropolitan Environmental Policy (IMEP) development process.
The first report was developed by the City's Environmental Management Department,
assisted by the Environmental Evaluation Unit at the University of Cape Town. It was
developed through a synthesis of the findings of specialist baseline studies, information
gathered from literature reviews, issues and indicators workshops and consultation with
other specialists and authorities in order to obtain a suitable reporting approach and
structure.
Every year, the progress in each theme is assessed in the SoE report through the
collection of information. This information is compared to the information in the previous
year's SoE report and long-term trends are identified.
The CCT has been producing the SoE report since 1999 and has to date produced five
full reports and four accompanying summary reports. There is however limited knowledge
of who the users of this report are as well as how they use the report in the future. This
study attempts to provide the CCT with a better indication of the answers to these
questions.
The sample group was limited to those users with e-mail addresses. The data for this
study were collected through a questionnaire sent to all the individuals and organisations
on the IMEP database who received the SoE report in the past five years. The questionnaire asked the users how they used the report, what they liked and didn't like
about the reports and how the report could be improved in order to meet their information
needs and requirements.
The report is used by a number of different sectors of society, especially individuals from
government departments. There is however a need to reassess a number of the aspects
of the report. These include the use of technical language in the summary report, the gap
between the full and summary reports, the needs of the different users, the use of different
products and which products are suitable for the different users, the need for a more
interactive website, the need for the information in the report to be up-to-date and the
assessment of the themes and indicators.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/798
Date January 2004
CreatorsJennings, Lize
ContributorsOdendaal, J.P., Dr, Haskins, C.I., Mr
PublisherCape Technikon
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Rightshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/

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