Theses and Dissertationshttp://hdl.handle.net/11602/21502024-03-29T09:24:33Z2024-03-29T09:24:33ZAn urban planning perspective on the readiness of Thohoyandou CBD public spaces in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of Thohoyandou CBDRatshilingana, Mudanalwo Marylinehttp://hdl.handle.net/11602/26682024-03-24T08:04:38Z2023-10-05T00:00:00ZAn urban planning perspective on the readiness of Thohoyandou CBD public spaces in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of Thohoyandou CBD
Ratshilingana, Mudanalwo Maryline
Thohoyandou CBD public spaces need to be ready in the future to urgently react to pandemics. This study aims to introduce urban planning measures that must be taken into consideration to improve the current performance of public spaces in reducing the spread of COVID-19. The study is guided by four research objectives which are as follows, (i) To analyse urban planning and urban management attributes that are critical in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in public spaces. (ii) To identify and categorize public spaces that are likely to pose a threat to limiting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thohoyandou CBD. (iii)To determine urban management factors that are significant to COVID- 19 in public spaces of Thohoyandou CBD and (iv) To come up with an urban planning-based resilience framework that will boost the ability of public spaces to respond to the challenges of a pandemic. Twenty-five public spaces were analysed based using five study constructs, which included waste management attributes, water provision attributes, ecological/environmental attributes, demographic attributes, and public space management and behaviours. Data was analysed using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), Multiple regression Analysis (MRA) and analysis of standardised mean score z-values. Data screening procedures were employed using normality test measures of skewness and kurtosis. Results revealed that there are five critical issues that need to be addressed if we are to limit the spread of COVID-19 in public spaces. These include waste management, water provision, public space user demographics, public space management behaviors and environment integrity issues. HCA results revealed two unique categories of public spaces based on their responsiveness to the spread of COVID -19. Cluster 1(one) is made up of 10 public spaces accounting for 40 % of the total and Cluster 2 is made up of 15 public spaces accounting for 60 %. Cluster 2 type of public spaces are generally performing relatively well in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as evidenced by positive and high standardized mean score z values when compared to cluster 1 (one) type of public spaces. MRA results revealed that the most significant (P value <0.05) attribute capable of reducing the spread of COVID-19 is water provision. The study concluded by recommending a resilience framework aimed at reducing the risk and exposure to COVID- 19 as well as building public pace capacity to withstand challenges posed by future pandemics. Critical interventions for building resilience should focus on such issues as building functional waste management and water facilities, redesigning of some public spaces, deployment of smart technologies, improved infrastructure maintenance and public space monitoring as well as rolling out of education campaigns. More
intervention efforts should be directed to 40 % of public spaces belonging to cluster 1 as they were found to be severely compromised.
MURP; Department of Urban and Regional Planning
2023-10-05T00:00:00ZApplication of smart value chain logistics for the small-medium brick manufacturing enterprises of Thohoyandou Town, South AfricaMawelewele, Lutendohttp://hdl.handle.net/11602/26442023-11-16T19:07:45Z2023-10-05T00:00:00ZApplication of smart value chain logistics for the small-medium brick manufacturing enterprises of Thohoyandou Town, South Africa
Mawelewele, Lutendo
The study investigated the smart value chain logistics system application within the domain of the brick-making sector of Thohoyandou town, South Africa. The investigation has revealed new ways of re-imagining the operation of process inventory for produced and finished brick products from the supply chain to the distribution centers within rural towns through the utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platforms applied within the Small-Medium Brick Logistics enterprises. The Small-Medium Brick Enterprises (SMBEs) of Thohoyandou town consist of unlicensed small-scale enterprises and medium-scale enterprises. Little formal documented information was known about these enterprises in terms of the operational mode, production procedures, transportation, and socio-economic impacts on the host communities. The study aimed to demonstrate the application of the Smart Value Chain Logistics approach that could be applied to improve the transportation process in Small-Medium Brick Manufacturing Enterprises in Thohoyandou Town. The main objective was to recommend a smart value chain logistics framework. To analyze the value chain system that seeks to support the Small-Medium Brick Manufacturing Enterprises’ development in the brick-making sector of Thohoyandou town. The study analysis was conducted, where the sample size of the brick manufacturing enterprises in Thohoyandou town was 7 with (100%) responses. The sample size of the key informants from the local municipality and district municipality within the transport and housing departments was 5 with (100%) responses that were analyzed using the SPSS spatial analytical tool. The total sample size of all key respondents was 12. The research methodology selected for the study was the mixed method approach using qualitative and quantitative analysis approaches. The results revealed that the application of the smart value chain logistics framework approach could be adopted to improve the brick-making enterprise’s transport logistics in terms of operational efficiency, and effectiveness of the manufacturing activities.
MURP; Department of Urban and Regional Planning
2023-10-05T00:00:00ZExploring access to basic services to support local economic development: a case study of Mahwelereng, Mogalakwena Local MunicipalityNemakhavhani, Tshilidzihttp://hdl.handle.net/11602/24932023-06-08T13:42:23Z2023-05-19T00:00:00ZExploring access to basic services to support local economic development: a case study of Mahwelereng, Mogalakwena Local Municipality
Nemakhavhani, Tshilidzi
The study focuses on exploring access to basic services to support local economic development in Mahwelereng area, Mogalakwena Local Municipality. Provision of basic services has been a challenge in most of the local municipalities in South Africa. In most of these municipalities, the basic service delivery challenges have resulted in public protests. It is in this context that several regions within South Africa have experienced service delivery protests since 1994, which are characterised by increased violence and local governance system inefficiency debates.
The Mogalakwena Local Municipality as part of local government is mandated to fulfil constitutional obligations to ensure that provision of sustainable, effective, and efficient basic services (such as water, sanitation, electricity, refuse removal and roads networks) to the communities, while promoting social and local economic development in the area that they serve. The supply of basic services in Mokgalakwena Local Municipality has over the years experienced severe infrastructural and delivery challenges which involve poor capacity, electricity blackouts and disruptions, poor sanitation, rapid loss of water supply due to leaks, and service provision management challenges.
A qualitative research approach was employed in this study because the study was explanatory and descriptive in nature. This approach assisted in investigating the study problem, its nature, magnitude, and severity within the specific social and or geographic settings rather than broader populations. The primary data source were interviews, while the secondary sources was documents reviews, Integrated Development Plan (IDP), Spatial Development Framework (SDF) and Integrated Transport Plan (ITP), which included books, journals, dissertations, and reports. The sampled key informant population or target groups in the study area included community members, ward committee members or councillors, managers, and technicians of the Mogalakwena municipal area.
The findings are expressed by means of discussing the extent of the provision of basic services to support local economic development in communities. Furthermore, they were determined by the impacts of poor service delivery on supporting local economic development and challenges experienced by the local municipalities in terms of basic service delivery.
Based on the findings and analyses, the study recommended a raft of strategies that can be used by the Municipalities in improving basic service delivery to the residents; those strategies include Performance Measurement, Motivation, Capacity building within municipalities. Strengthening
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and better aligning the IDP, SDF and ITP is one way through which the systems of planning at local government level can be improved to better support sustainable access to basic services, local economic growth and development. However, implementing these study findings must be done in adherence and compliance to existing legislative and policy frameworks.
Furthermore, the study concluded that Mogalakwena Municipality should further streamline and strengthen the effective and efficient legislative and policy framework that underpin the adequate provision of basic services to the residents of Mahwelereng. In addition, the implementation and updating of local economic growth and development policies, strategies and ancillary programmatic action coupled with implementing new and amending existing by-laws that support satisfactory basic service delivery to the residents of Mahwelereng should be a top development priority in local government areas such as typified by the study area.
MURP; Department of Urban and Regional Planning
2023-05-19T00:00:00ZUrban Households' Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Mopani District, Limpopo Province, South AfricaYusuf, Jimoh Musahttp://hdl.handle.net/11602/24682023-06-08T14:32:26Z2023-05-19T00:00:00ZUrban Households' Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Mopani District, Limpopo Province, South Africa
Yusuf, Jimoh Musa
The surreptitious impact of climate change on human society is a recurrent issue among scholars and policy makers in the 21st century. While the literature is replete with theoretical discussion and empirical analysis, particularly studies focusing on the major cities of developed economies, there is dearth of empirical studies on the cities of developing economies generally, and South Africa in particular where current dimension of human vulnerability, adaptation and response pattern are very abnormal and pathetically problematic. This thesis therefore examines Urban Households' Vulnerability, adaptation and response to Climate Change in Mopani District, Limpopo Province, South Africa. It assesses the households', communities‘ and spatial planning coping strategies in response to extreme climate change events in both spatial planning policies and households' practices. Purposive method was used to select six towns (Giyani, Hoedspruit, ModjadjisKloof, Nkowankowa, Phalaborwa, and Tzaneen) in the Mopani District as case studies. Using Multistage sampling techniques, 500 respondents, proportionally distributed among the selected towns were randomly chosen for the purpose of questionnaire administration to elicit information on socioeconomic characteristics and adaptation strategies. 60 years records (1958 to 2017) of rainfall and Temperature were obtained from monthly gridded and high-resolution satellite dataset from the global data to detect climatic trends and cycles in annual and monthly Temperatures and Rainfall during the period. Google earth pro and ‗gps visualizer‘ are used to conduct topographical analysis to assess the influence of terrain on the occurrence of climate related disasters. The use of geospatial analysis of available LandSat imageries was adopted for the examination of Land use and Land Cover Changes to monitor the trend in land and land resources consumption as an influencer of exposure to rainfall and temperature. Household Vulnerability Index (HVI) developed by United Nations (UN) Habitat was used to examine Households‘ and communities‘ degrees of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Ordered Logit Regression Model was used to examine the contributions of factors to HVI and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed in weight assignments. Pearson‘s Correlation Coefficient was used to measure the strength of association that exists between the Households vulnerability Index and some selected socioeconomic attributes (such as age, gender, income, highest qualification) in the selected towns. Livelihood Diversification Index (LDI) was calculated, using the Herfindahl index of diversification to scrutinise the influence of diversification of households‘ Livelihood on their overall vulnerability level in Mopani. A mobile x
application and web-based technology and tools are employed to design and develop the Disaster Hotspot Reporting and Monitoring System, for timely reporting and record keeping of climate related incidences. The results reveal that the selected towns across the Mopani District have exhibited increasing warm Temperature (with varying heat waves) throughout the period under examination. Upward correlations that imply increase in the variations in both mean minimum and mean maximum Temperatures are observed over the period, with seasonal variations recorded from year to year. However, the trend in rainfall shows a reducing trend during the same period with yearly seasonal variations in precipitation. Most towns are characterised by gentle slopes, thus flash floods occur in varying intensities and frequencies across the selected towns. Developments (buildings, roads, asphalts, floor tiles etc) consistently invade vegetation, water bodies and bare land. Household exposure and adaptive capacity are observed to be high in the district with about 92% households in exposed category; Nkowankowa town claims the highest proportion (96.58%), while ModjadjisKloof town accounted for 60%, being the least. The HVI is equally high in these towns with Tzaneen being the town with the highest (over 78%) Community Vulnerability Index (CVI), while Hoedspruit town is the most resilient, with the least CVI of 55.56%. The high vulnerability levels observed in these towns were attributed to poor housing conditions, lack of access to essential services, and lack of insurance cover (of any form) among the households, among other factors. However, a point increase in LDI instigates a reduction of HVI by 0.729 points. A point increase in household age has increased HVI by 0.333, while that of educational qualifications significantly decreases the impacts on HVI by -0.0706. Other factors such as physical, statutory, and system failures contributed to high HVI in the study area. The result further reveals that tree planting and fans/air conditioners were the most popular with adoption by 100% respondents as coping strategies to deal with increasing Temperature in the District. In contrast, water treatment and storage tanks in homes were the most commonly embraced adaptation strategies for changes in water levels by 100% and 81% respondents respectively. The findings further show that, local municipalities' plans and policies recognised the impacts of climate change on urban households and the roles urban planning plays a central role in responding to climate change impacts. However, there is little evidence to indicate substantial efforts to pragmatically and coherently address the problems; the municipalities still rely on the national government for urban-related and climate change disaster response policies and strategies.
While emphasising greening (in homes and at the city centres) to reduce heat waves and curtail surface runoff, the study led to the development of a framework with an incorporated disaster hotspot reporting and monitoring system for sustainable adaptation planning in the district.
PhDURP; Department of Urban and Regional Planning
2023-05-19T00:00:00Z