Sustainability analysis of human settelements in South Africa

Abstract

The report is divided into four parts which consist of seven chapters. Within human settlement context the report’s understanding of sustainable development is one of an integrative and holistic process of maintaining a dynamic balance between the conflicting needs of creating a fair and equal society, achieving an equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, and sustaining the biophysical environment’s ability to support an acceptable quality of life for this and future generations. South Africa provides a particular context to the study of human settlements, which adds to the complexity of sustainability analysis. Its history has left not only negative social and economic impacts, but also a particular spatial legacy. The great diversity in settlement types, cultures, biophysical environments, and socio-economic development levels creates further complexity to what is already a multidimensional problem. Taking into account all these different inputs into human settlement development, a study such as this can only be conducted from a “systemic” understanding.