ResearchSpace

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Welcome to ResearchSpace, the institutional repository of the CSIR. ResearchSpace is an open access electronic archive collecting, preserving and distributing scholarly digital materials created by the CSIR.

Recent Submissions

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The importance of data integrity to ensure the quality of address information in the master health facility list

(National Department of Health and CSIR, 2024-11) Maremi, Keneilwe J; Thulare, Tumiso; Botha, Adèle; Herselman , Martha e; Rousseau, P

The address information in the Master Health Facility List (MHFL) is key in identifying the location of facilities. The primary responsibility for adding, editing, and deactivating facilities in the MHFL is handled by many health facility representatives from various facilities in various organisations. Facility Representatives must solely ensure the address information they add to the MHFL is valid and the geocode identifies the correct location of the facility; however, this is not always the case. The address information is often inaccurate, which compelled the creation of a data cleaning team to verify these addresses. Thus, this chapter aims to discuss the importance of data integrity to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and quality of address information in the MHFL.

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Charting a course for freshwater biomonitoring: The grand challenges identified by the global scientific community

(2025-07) Yates, AG; Brua, RB; Culp, JM; Aguiar, FC; Ajayan, AP , AG Brua; Aspin, T; Bundschuh, M; Calderón, MR; Van Deventer, Heidi; Van Niekerk, Lara

The past 50 years have seen biomonitoring emerge as an essential means of generating the knowledge needed to inform protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems. Despite the successes of biomonitoring, most freshwater ecosystems remain unmonitored. Moreover, degradation of freshwaters continues at a rapid rate with new threats and novel stressors emerging that are difficult to assess using existing techniques. New technologies and techniques have been developed to improve biomonitoring, but application has been slow and integration with existing approaches is often problematic. Clearly, freshwater biomonitoring faces many important challenges that must be addressed to meet management needs of the coming decades. We identify Grand Challenges facing freshwater biomonitoring with the aim of encouraging research and practice to address these challenges. We asked 256 biomonitoring scientists from around the globe to identify what they considered the most important challenges. From their submissions we established five Grand Challenges and 18 associated subchallenges. For each Grand Challenge, we outline the current state of biomonitoring practice and suggest promising pathways and approaches to address them. By identifying and describing these challenges, we strive to position freshwater biomonitoring to take advantage of emerging opportunities and enhance its capacity to meet current and future management needs.

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Blockchain in manufacturing: A systematic literature review and, synthesizing framework

(2025-04) Nzima, G; Pretorius, J-H; Erasmus, Louwrence D

The research offers a systematic literature review of the adoption of blockchain technology in manufacturing. The systematic literature review (SLR) presented by this paper follows a method of creating clear research questions that probe the relevant studies available to extract and assess the synthesizing of the relevant data to answer the research questions. The review investigates articles that have enquired on the application of blockchain into the different industries and moreover whether their finds can apply in the use of blockchain into the manufacturing industry. The findings of this SLR show that blockchain has been implemented in different manufacturing sections owing to its characteristics in handling, sharing, and processing data and records. A framework that addresses significant areas of future research on the topic is presented. Finally, the literature review lays the foundation for further studies on investigates the application of blockchain technology in manufacturing.

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Piloting a culturally significant areas framework for spatial planning and management in the coastal environment of South Africa

(2025-10) Dunga, Loyiso V; Sink, KJ; Van der Bank, MG; Harris, LR; Van Niekerk, Lara; Perschke, M; Brand, R; Mann-Lang, J; Bruton, M , J Bruton; Strand, M

The identification and mapping of culturally significant areas are key inputs to Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and the design and implementation of protected and conserved areas or other place-based management measures. Despite the recognised importance of coastal and marine cultural values, they are often missing from MSP processes and management measures, leading to mistrust, biased trade-offs, and inequitable management outcomes, undermining cultural ecosystem benefits, ecosystem services and the people who rely upon them. There are few African examples where cultural heritage has been considered in coastal and marine spatial planning and management. This study pilots an existing Culturally Significant Areas (CSA) framework in a South African context to demonstrate proof of concept in a new setting and contributes to progress in identifying and including cultural heritage and values in MSP and coastal management. We identified eight categories of CSA, drawing from literature, orature and expert knowledge. These included tangible and intangible aspects of cultural heritage, including iconic seascapes, traditional fishing grounds, sites of spiritual and ceremonial importance and oral tradition. We assessed a range of sites (4−14) per category for relative importance at a national scale based on five established CSA criteria: 1) cultural uniqueness, 2) broad cultural reliance, 3) degree of tradition, 4) importance to the resilience of the social-ecological system, and 5) impact of dramatic cultural change. This facilitated national-scale mapping of a preliminary set of 60 CSA. Challenges included nation-wide participation, conceptual difficulties and terminology, spatialisation of intangible heritage, scale and implementation challenges. Key enabling factors and recommendations are distilled and discussed.

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Assessing the viability of using membrane distillation for the reclamation of clean water from nutrient-reduced municipal wastewater: A zero-liquid-discharge approach

(2025-07) Shingwenyana, R; Khalo, John; Sicwebu, Aphiwe; Lebepe, Emission; Mohasi, Ntelekoa; Baloyi, Siwela J; Mbhele, Nkhangweleni R; Magoba, Rembuluwani N; Muedi, Kathutshelo L; Masindi, Vhahangwele; Fonteinis, S

Here, membrane distillation (MD) was used to reclaim clean water from municipal wastewater after advanced nutrient removal process (struvite synthesis/recovery effluent). Two hydrophobic membranes, i.e., polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), were comprehensively compared. PTFE was more favorable, while the effect of lower permeate/distillate temperature was found marginal. Pre-treating (sand filtration, activated carbon adsorption, and acidification/neutralization) the struvite synthesis supernatant before membrane distillation grossly enhanced the flux of the membrane and minimized the permeation of ammonia, thus, to a great extent, preventing scaling, and aiding in an increase in pH of the solution. Furthermore, after pretreatment, the PTFE membranes achieved an average mass flux of 1.4 g/cm2/h over an extended and prolonged period, thus suggesting the durability of this type of membrane. A high quality product water (permeate/distillate) was reclaimed, which can be used in agriculture, industry, or even for drinking water, but remineralization is required. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that integrating nutrient recovery with clean water reclamation using membrane distillation can be a feasible option that not only valorises municipal wastewater but also partially addresses the water scarcity concerns in South Africa and further afield. This will go a long way in validating the applicability of this technology in clean water reclamation, thus, to a notable extent, demostrating the feasibility of bridging the gap between brine-rich technologies and the zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) systems.