School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies (ETDs)

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Start date: 2020Subject: search.filters.subject.South Africa

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    Pandemics and Heritage: understanding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Archaeotourism in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Eswaran, Nithya
    The project explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on archaeotourism at three public visitation sites in South Africa. According to the 2021 UNESCO report on the impact of Covid- 19 on heritage tourism, visitors to Africa decreased by 71% in 2020. The drop significantly impacted the revenue of the continent (UNESCO 2021). This research focuses on assessing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic locally by examining two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Sterkfontein Caves in the Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng Province, and Main Caves in Giant’s Castle Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal Province. The third study site is the Origins Centre Museum at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. These sites are open to tourists for guided tours. Quantitative data from Kruger National Park is collated to analyse the pandemic's influence on public, nature-based sites for comparison to culture sites
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    An integrated approach for detecting and monitoring the Campuloclinium macrocephalum (Less) DC using the MaxEnt and machine learning models in the Cradle Nature Reserve, South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Makobe, Benjamin; Mhangara, Paidamoyo
    The invasion of ecosystems by invasive plants is considered as one of the major human- induced global environmental change. The uncontrolled expansion of invasive alien plants is gaining international attention, and remote sensing technology is adopted to accurately detect and monitor the spread of invasive plants locally and globally. The Greater Cradle nature reserve is a world heritage site and intense research site for archaeology and paleontology.It was accorded the world status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) in 1991 due to its variety of biodiversity present and carries information of significance about the evolution of mankind. The invasion of Campuloclinium macrocephalum (pompom weed) at the Cradle nature reserve is downgrading the world status accorded to the site, lowers the grazing capacity for game animals and replaces the native vegetation. This research study explored the capability of Sentinel-2A multispectral imagery in mapping the spatial distribution of pompom weed at the nature reserve between 2019 and 2024. The non-parametric classification models, support vector machine (SVM) and random forests (RF) were evaluated to accurately detect, and discriminate pompom weed against the co-existing land cover types. Additionally, the species distribution modelling MaxEnt Entropy was incorporated to model spatial distribution and pompom weed habitat suitability. The findings indicates that SVM yielded 44% and 50.7% spatial coverage of pompom weed at the nature reserve in 2019 and 2024, respectively. Whereas, the RF model indicates that the spatial coverage of pompom weed was 31.1% and 39.3% in 2019 and 2024, respectively. The MaxEnt model identified both soil and rainfall as the most important environmental factors in fostering the aggressive proliferation of pompom weed at nature reserves. The MaxEnt predictive model obtained an area under curve score of 0.94, indicating outstanding prediction model performance. SVM and RF models had classification accuracy above 75%, indicating that they could distinguish pompom weeds from existing land cover types. The preliminary results of this study call for attention in using predictive models in predicting current and future spatial distribution of invasive weeds, for effective eradication control and environmental management.
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    The holiday climate index: applicability and suitability for the South African context
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Kristensen, Daniella; Fitchett, Jennifer
    Tourism is one of the largest economic sectors and continues to grow at a rapid pace. This sector is under threat by climate change, with Africa deemed to be most vulnerable to these changes. The projected climatic changes and increase in occurrence and intensity of extreme events over South Africa has an impact on overall tourism comfortability. Quantifying the climatic suitability of tourist destinations has been achieved through tourism climate indices. Some of these indices cover all tourism activities and some are specific to a tourism type (e.g., snow tourism). The Holiday Climate Index (HCI) was developed to determine climactic comfortability of beach and urban destinations and to address the limitations of previous indices. This study will provide the first determination of the appropriateness of the HCI for the South African context and calculations of the HCI for destinations across South Africa. The mean annual HCIurban and HCIbeach scores for the longest continuous period of each destination reveal that the majority of destinations demonstrate HCIurban and HCIbeach scores between 70 and 79 and are considered to have ‘very good’ climatic conditions for tourism. An exception is the HCIurban result for Durban which is scored as ‘good’. Generally, the highest HCI scores were calculated for Cape Town on the west coast, while the lowest HCI scores were calculated for Durban on the east coast. It was determined that McBoyle’s (2001) winter season peak distribution is applicable to seven of the 13 HCIurban and three of the five HCIbeach destinations. This indicates that the winter season is most suitable for tourism for most destinations. In comparing the results of destinations where both the HCIurban and HCIbeach are applicable, it was determined that all destinations, with the exception of Durban, have a minimal difference in the average annual HCI scores. Durban recorded a notable difference which demonstrated that the destination would be more suitable for beach tourism. The results of this study can be used to quantify the impacts of climate change on the tourism sector and assist tourism stakeholders in developing the capacity to adapt to the projected changes.
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    The Role of Social Impact Assessments in Skills Development and Sustainable Communities in South Africa’s Just Energy Transition from Coal: A Study of Carolina and Kriel Mining Communities in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Chidzungu, Thandiwe; Wafer, Alex
    The study investigated the role of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in addressing skill development needs and community sustainability issues in relation to a Just Energy Transition (JET) away from coal to the renewable energy sector in the Kriel and Carolina coal mining communities in Mpumalanga, South Africa. It had the following objectives: To explore the sustainability perspectives in the energy transition from coal to a low-carbon economy. Secondly, to examine the skill development needs within the energy transition from coal to the renewable energy sector in the coal industry in the two coal mining communities under study. Thirdly, to evaluate the potential of SIA as a strategy for assessing and addressing the social impacts of an energy transition from coal to the renewable energy sector on the two affected communities. Lastly, to recommend SIA as a policy entry point that the government can leverage in the Just Energy Transition policy framework in South Africa. A qualitative research approach, including quantitative techniques, was adopted. The primary data was collected through online and physical, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. A desktop study was used to collect secondary data. 230 participants, comprised of 60 experts and 170 community members, were engaged in the study. The participants were sampled using systematic, purposeful, random, and convenient sampling techniques. The researcher attended six webinars, two conferences, and two community forums on coal mining and renewable energy, where she gleaned some of her data and met some of the study participants. The Theory of Change was used as the theoretical framework. Findings on community sustainability issues in the two study areas reveal a lack of public participation, an increase in unemployment, and poor policy enforcement in land reform, affecting agriculture as the energy shift from coal to the low-carbon economy unfolds. They also point to cultural disruptions linked to possible internal relocations to make way for Renewable Energy (RE) infrastructure and gender disparities in economic participation that can threaten community sustainability. On a positive note, findings alongside the reviewed literature point to the growth of new economic opportunities linked to JET both in the affected regions and elsewhere, further creating employment opportunities. However, jobs created elsewhere may see relocations of the active group, affecting community stability and hence sustainability in the sending coal areas. Findings also highlight the perceived improvement in environmental sustainability linked to a reduction in pollution as clean RE technology is introduced, which improves health and agricultural yields as water, air, and soil quality are improved, thereby impacting community sustainability positively. With regards to skills development needs, the findings show low levels of educational attainment among the youth, a high rate of school dropouts coupled with poor school attendance, and a poor establishment of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, all of which will impact skill development during the energy transition. The study submits that the advocacy role of SIA can influence a rethink of curriculum design and fuel the creation of a skills needs assessment in line with the vocational system and Renewable Energy (RE) sector labour market demand. Moreover, it advocates for local action plans to support skills development through adult literacy centres for school dropouts and Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) to promote school attendance and the taking of STEM subjects targeted at females in schools and vocational colleges, who are disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts. With regards to the potential of SIA as an effective tool for addressing the social impacts of an energy transition, the study demonstrates that SIA can facilitate the identification of the social impacts and promote a deeper understanding of these impacts through its grassroot-level engagements. As well as facilitate the addressing of these social costs through sector-literate SIA teams, multi stakeholder collaborations, and community engagements. Furthermore, in the evaluation of developmental projects, SIA highlights the gender and age constraints of the social change process that need to be considered in JET’s socio-economic impact mitigation efforts. The findings further point to the consistency of SIA with the Grassroots Theory of Change, which articulates that change is made through collective action by communities regarding a problem or problems affecting their lives (Stachowiack, 2013). SIA is also demonstrated as a potential tool for strategic planning to identify current needs and opportunities that resonate with the "Policy Windows Theory of Change" by John Kingdon, which involves launching in-depth investigations of problems and providing constituent feedback as one application technique for advocacy (Coffman, 2007). All these attributes afford SIA the opportunity to fuel distributive, procedural, and rectificatory justice as the JET unfolds, making it better placed as an entry point to socially oriented policies. This positions SIA as a strategic tool that can assist with impact mitigation for JET-related social costs associated with skill development needs and community sustainability issues. The study, however, condemns the once-off process accorded to SIA and advocates for its use as an ongoing process as the JET unfolds to allow for continued monitoring and assessments and, hence, effective impact mitigation.
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    Exploring Spatio-Temporal Climate Dynamics over Central Southern Africa: A Cross Border Analysis
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-07) Welff, Megan; Fitchett, Jennifer; Esterhuysen, Amanda
    Understanding the diverse nature of climate dynamics in southern Africa is imperative in the face of climate change. Ground-based meteorological stations provide high-resolution climate data that can be used to investigate and analyse climate in detail. However, southern African countries monitor and manage meteorological stations independently which presents various challenges when attempting cross-border studies. While there are many meteorological-station-based climate studies conducted for South Africa or Botswana, there are few that combine meteorological datasets from both these countries to investigate climate dynamics across political boundaries. In this study, meteorological data from Botswana Meteorological Services and the South African Weather Service spanning 1912-2019 is pre-processed, cleaned and combined to produce a cross-border dataset. A total of 44 stations covers the Gauteng and North West provinces in South Africa and the southern, Kweneng, Kgatleng, South-east and Kgalagadi districts of Botswana. The combined cross-border dataset includes the average monthly summer, winter and annual rainfall (RS, RW and RA respectively) and the average monthly minimum and maximum summer, winter and annual temperatures (TSmin, TSmax, TWmin, TWmax, TAmin and TAmax respectively). From the linear regression analysis, an overall increasing trend for temperature is identified barring two stations (TSmin and TAmin for Mahalapye Met station, and TWmin for Vaalharts). Additionally, for rainfall there is a significant decreasing trend identified. Lastly, the spatial variability of the region is determined using an Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation in the GIS Software, ArcMap, to interpolate between stations. From this a west to east reduction in rainfall and a north-western to south-eastern decreasing temperature gradient is identified across the study region.
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    The political geography of hemp Cannabis in South Africa: A development critique
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Moore, Wendell; Wafer, A; Mnwana, S
    The discourse on Cannabis that is generally understood in the public domain, revolves mostly around its recreational uses and more recently its medicinal potential. The plants industrial usages and overall worth to society are often framed in relation to these more popular parts of Cannabis. The study focuses its attention on hemp Cannabis to tell a different story but acknowledges that all the uses of Cannabis are interlinked. Using an extensive desktop analysis, Cannabis webinars and conferences, as well as autoethnography, the thesis shows that there is in fact more to the plant than what first meets the eye. It especially illuminates two important dimensions of Cannabis that are often overlooked when discussing the plant. Firstly, by its nature Cannabis is political, which is deeply embedded in how the plant is understood in the geographic diaspora of the Global South. Secondly, it shows that any serious social scientific analysis of contemporary Cannabis development must think through how the ways of knowing, Produced during prohibition, will become a part of the plant’s future. This thesis therefore argues for an appraisal and maintenance of the historical resistances of Cannabis used prior to legalization, if its development in the legal era is to be successful. To be sure, such innovative and alternative models of practical development should become a standard part of the geographies of all work economies. Moreover, making use of these forms of resistance is not about Cannabis gaining the approval from ‘the market’. In fact, the skills learnt while labouring for Cannabis, when it was prohibited, has become such a permanent feature of its development that liberal democratic consent is not an option. Therefore, the thesis proposes that Cannabis development delink from the prohibition narratives inscribed onto the plant. It continues by showing that the current medicalisation of Cannabis only updates gatekeeping models. Hence, an agrarian alternative was suggested that consolidates all the uses of Cannabis without undermining any one part of the plant. Lastly, the thesis documents the possibilities of gaining access into the industry for black people, the poor working class and women. What it argues is that ownership, just employment and leadership of Cannabis industries in South Africa must be repurposed so that ordinary people can also play a part in making sure the plants contemporary development is truly sustainable. Taken together, this is the critique of development that the political geography of hemp Cannabis in South Africa reveals.