ResearchSpace :: Browsing by Author "Pieterse, Amy"

Browsing by Author "Pieterse, Amy"

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A methodological framework for transdisciplinary urban planning
(Springer, 2025) Du Toit, J; Pieterse, Amy; Mbatha, S
Urban planning research is challenged by combining scientific rigour with societal relevance, especially in terms of urban sustainability at local government level. Transdisciplinarity aims to combine rigour with relevance. But how should urban planning researchers, practitioners and other stakeholders collaborate and conduct transdisciplinary research? This chapter reviews the literature on transdisciplinarity for urban sustainability and, instead of advocating specific methods, presents a holistic and flexible methodological framework. The heuristic framework serves to help stakeholders navigate transdisciplinarity and make more considered decisions when conducting transdisciplinary research for urban planning. Practitioner reflections on the framework are provided using the example of Planning Support Science and a customised Planning Support System for climate resilient planning at the local government level in South Africa.
Are we achieving spatial transformation In South Africa? Can sub-city spatial indicators make a contribution?
(stepsa.org, 2016-06) Maritz, Johan; Van Huyssteen, Elsona; Le Roux, Alize; Pieterse, Amy; Ndaba, Dumisani; Mans, Gerbrand G; Ngidi, Mawande
With the advent of a democratic order in South Africa in 1994 a number of policy frameworks have seen the light. All of these have indicated the need to spatially transform cities and settlements – to break from the pre-1994 apartheid city. Over time these frameworks change, new ones are developed which often state the same objectives. A major focus has also been placed on tracking their impact through spatial outcomes as set out in the Spatial Planning and Land Use Managemnet Act (SPLUMA), Act 16 of 2013 (Republic of South Africa, 2013) and also internationally through the recently introduced UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2016). A key question that remains is whether cities are succeeding in reinventing and restructuring the past. Vital in exploring progress regarding spatial transformation is investigating how the landscape within cities has changed spatially. To assess the progress made by South African cities in the last 20 years, the CSIR has embarked on developing a number of standardised repeatable sub-city level spatial indicators and/or indices to illustrate specific components of spatial change or transformation. This paper provides an overview of some of the innovations in spatially and temporally aligned sub-city indicator development within a data-scarce context. It also reflects on lessons learned, in the process providing some examples of spatial transformation analyses for a number of cities using the indicators developed. These Indicators have been developed partly in collaboration with the South African Cities Network (SACN) to support the 2016 State of Cities Report’s (SACN, 2016) theme on spatial transformation.
The bright lights of city regions - Assumptions, realities and implications of changing population dynamics: Zooming in on the Gauteng city region
(2014-09) Pieterse, Amy
It is well known that the city regions attract migrants from across the country because of their roles as economic engines and job baskets in South Africa. To address urbanisation implications it is imperative to better understand some of the assumptions about the nature and dynamics of population growth and internal migration across the South African landscape, and in particular within the Gauteng city region as the largest of the city regions. Three key issues emerged that are related to assumptions of migration and urbanisation. Firstly, even though poverty has been perceived as largely a rural issue, the urbanisation of poverty is in fact occurring at a large scale and city regions, particularly the Gauteng city region, is dealing with an enormous, and increasing number of poor people. Secondly, the attractiveness of city regions has caused a great increase in the proportion of young people and young work seekers. And lastly, that the biggest proportion of migration flows is occurring between metropolitan areas and that migration is not only a rural-urban process as generally believed. The other issues that emerged and that need further investigation is the reality of circular migration, the effect of changing household sizes and the ability of city regions and other settlements to absorb newcomers.
Compound flooding due to interaction of waves and river discharge at Breede Estuary, South Africa
(2022-05) Kupfer, S; Santamaria-Aguilar, S; Pieterse, Amy; Lück-Vogel, Melanie; Vafeidis, AT
Recent studies on compound flooding have considered the interaction of storm-tide and fluvial or pluvial flood drivers, whereas the contribution of waves to compound flooding so far has been neglected. In this study, we investigate compound flooding from waves, tides and river discharge at Breede Estuary, South Africa, using a hydrodynamic model. We estimate the contribution of extreme waves to compound flooding by analysing the driver interaction and by quantifying vertical and horizontal differences of flood characteristics. We further consider the additional effect of waves on flood timing and compare results of compound flood scenarios to scenarios in which single drivers are omitted. We find that flood characteristics are more sensitive to river discharge than to waves, particularly when the latter only coincide with high spring tides. When interacting with river discharge however, the contribution of waves is high, causing larger flood extents and higher water depths. With high wave intensities the first flooding can begin up to 12 hours earlier. Our findings provide insights on the magnitude and timing of compound flooding in an open South African estuary and demonstrate the need to account for the effects of waves during compound flooding in future flood impact assessments of similar coastal settings.
CSIR launches novel online climate risk profiling and adaptation tool: The Green Book
(South African Association for the Advancement Of Science, 2019-05) Van Niekerk, Cornelia W; Le Roux, Alize; Pieterse, Amy
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has recently launched a state-of-the-art online climate risk profiling and adaptation tool to assist municipalities across South Africa to assess their risk and vulnerabilities, and respond by adapting settlements to climate change. The Green Book looks forwards to the year 2050 by projecting settlement growth combined with quantitative, scientific evidence of the likely impacts that climate change will have on South African towns and cities and its key resources. The tool provides appropriate adaptation measures to be considered for implementation towards the development of climate resilient settlements. The ultimate goal of the Green Book is to contribute to resilient, sustainable and liveable South African settlements through climate change adaptation. Co-funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre and the CSIR and produced in collaboration with South Africa’s National Disaster Management Centre, the Green Book is the result of a 3-year initiative. More than 50 researchers and numerous stakeholders and reviewers were involved in producing the Green Book and reviewing its findings. There has been a proliferation of weather-related disasters globally and an increase in associated damage in terms of geographical extent, size of affected population and economic costs.1 The rapidly changing climate is a key global challenge that needs action from all spheres of society. Environmental risks – namely extreme weather events, climate change mitigation and adaptation policy failure, and natural and anthropogenic environmental disasters – are currently ranked among the top ten global risks in terms of likelihood and impact.2 South Africa has not been spared from the impacts of climate-related disasters in recent years (Figure 1). Extreme weather events observed over the region have resulted in increased frequency and intensity of fires, floods, hailstorms and droughts.3 The severe drought that threatened to leave more than 4.2 million residents and businesses in Cape Town without water between April and June 2018 is an indication of the vulnerability of the country to climate change. The economic cost associated with the drought for the 5-month period from January to May 2018 was in excess of ZAR1.2 billion,4 while damages from the Knysna fires and storm-related flooding in Cape Town in the 5-month period from June to October 2017 is estimated to have cost more than ZAR4 billion. Other parts of South Africa were also gripped by the multi-year drought between 2015 and 2018. Vegetation greenness indices derived from satellite data revealed that six of the nine provinces were experiencing drought conditions in 2015.
The Green Book online tool: Towards climate resilient settlements
(2022-09) Lück-Vogel, Melanie; Pieterse, Amy; Van Niekerk, Cornelia W
The Green Book is as an open-access online planning tool to support local government towards climate-resilient cities and towns in South Africa (www.greenbook.co.za). It was launched in 2019. Extensive research and development took place to establish future trends in climate change projection downscaling, hydro-meteorological hazard modelling, population growth modelling, and adaptation action development. The evidence produced was packaged into a Risk Profile Tool, an Adaptation Actions Tool and Story Maps. The Risk Profile Tool provides temporally dynamic risk profiles for each municipality in the country and covers the socio-economic vulnerability of settlements and neighbourhoods, expected development trajectories, changes in climate, and the impacts thereof on the intensity and magnitude of a number of hydro-meteorological hazards as well as important resources. The Adaptation Actions Tool offers detail on local adaptation actions relevant to settlement planning that can be implemented in response to the risks and vulnerabilities identified in risk profiles. Story Maps are used to relay the main findings and methodologies in a concise and interactive way. Together these components offer access to rigorous scientific evidence in a coherent and interactive system. The power of the Green Book lies in the distillation and communication of complex scientific evidence of climate change and its impact at locally relevant scale together with the provision of applicable adaption options. More recently, metropolitan profiles have been added to the suite of GreenBook tools. The MetroView offers nuanced, downscaled climate risk profiles for some metropolitan cities together with identifying climate risk zones.
Introducing the Green Book: A practical planning tool for adapting South African settlements to climate change
(2020-01) Van Niekerk, Cornelia W; Pieterse, Amy; Le Roux, Alize
The Green Book is not a book, but a novel, practical online planning tool to support the adaptation of South African settlements to the impacts of climatic changes and severe events. It provides evidence of current and future (2050) climate risks and vulnerability for every local municipality in South Africa (including settlements) in the form of climate-change projections, multidimensional vulnerability indicators, population-growth projections, and climate hazard and impact modelling. Based on this evidence, the Green Book developed a menu of planning-related adaptation actions and offers support in the selection of appropriate actions from this menu to be integrated into local development strategies and plans. The second half of this article describes the steps involved in the process of developing and structuring this menu of actions and explains how the information contained in the Green Book can be used to promote the planning of climate-resilient settlements in South Africa.
Local responses to climate change: Navigating mainstreaming and transformative adaptation
(2024-11) Pieterse, Amy; Du Toit, J
This article is based on the study done to explore the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into municipal planning The study used the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality and Thulamela Local Municipality as comparative case studies in South Africa. It identified six key factors that influenced the effectiveness of adaptation mainstreaming: leadership arrangements; networks and knowledge-sharing; information access and use; capacity, resources, and skills; institutional coordination structure and process; and intergovernmental relations and coordination. The study showed how organisational dynamics and institutional arrangements impacted on the integration of climate change adaptation into planning processes, and it indicated that balancing long-term transformative objectives with immediate concerns required a dual approach that strategically embedded transformational goals within existing systems. The study offered insights into the complexity of reconciling transformative adaptation and development priorities through mainstreaming and it expanded the current understanding of how municipalities could navigate effective mainstreaming within the context of practical governance.
Revising the South African guidelines for human settlement planning and design (the red book)
(2015-11) Van Niekerk, Cornelia W; Petzer, Engela; Ndaba, D; Pieterse, Amy; Raja, A; Kruger, Daniel M
The Guidelines for Human Settlement Planning and Design, commonly known as the Red Book, is a South African publication aimed at providing practical guidance to built environment professionals in support of the creation of sustainable and vibrant human settlements. The most recent set of guidelines, published in 2000, are currently in the process of being updated and revised. This revision has been necessitated by a range of factors, including the need to align the guidelines with recent policies and strategies and with current thinking regarding sustainable and resilient human settlements. Also, socio-political changes and global challenges, especially climate change and its impact on the built environment, need to be acknowledged, while new technological innovation in materials and processes should be incorporated. This paper presents the background to the current Red Book, including its nature, purpose and how it is being applied. The reasons why a revision of the guidelines is required are described, and the process and method to be followed in updating and revising the Red Book presented. This is followed by a discussion of the progress made with this initiative and a summary of preliminary findings, including those related to possible enhancements to existing content, new themes that may have to be addressed and potential structuring elements. The paper concludes with an outline of the remaining components of this process to revise and update the Red Book.
Spatial Change as Drivers of Risk and Vulnerability in South Africa: Spatial trends in the 3 metropolitan cities of Gauteng
(stepsa.org, 2016-07) Pieterse, Amy; Van Niekerk, Cornelia W; Le Roux, Alize; Van Huyssteen, Elsona; Mans, Gerbrand G; Maritz, Johan
Urban spatial change trends manifest most noticeably in Gauteng. This not only confirms perceptions about metros as increasingly being the spaces where the future of South Africa's youth will be determined, but also once again rings the alarm bells for urgent, focused and innovative government support to address urban risks and service delivery implications.
Spatial change as drivers of risk and vulnerability in South African cities: Spatial trends in the three metropolitan cities of Gauteng
(2016-07) Pieterse, Amy; Van Niekerk, Cornelia W; Van Huyssteen, Elsona; Maritz, Johan; Le Roux, Alize; Mans, Gerbrand G
Since 1994 the South African urban landscape has been changing as a result of fundamental social, economic and political transformations. Metropolitan cities, especially, face unique challenges because of the dynamism of urban populations. South African metros are characterised by significant inequalities across population groups and across space and the spatial isolation of vulnerable groups have been continuing rather than easing. Making use of a set of recently developed indicators for change, developed by the CSIR in collaboration with SACN, spatial change as drivers of risk and vulnerabilities for three metropolitan cities are explored. These three cities are the City of Tshwane, the City of Johannesburg and the Metropolitan Municipality of Ekurhuleni. Evidence from the analysis has shown that whilst illustrating major strides in service delivery within former disadvantaged townships, spatial patterns, as expected; confirm the embedded vulnerabilities associated with socio-economic and institutional exclusion, long travel distances and limited access to urban opportunities in former so-called ‘black’ townships on the urban periphery. However, in addition to the spatial legacies associated with apartheid cities, the analyses also points out new patterns of exclusion and spatial injustice, contributing to the already complex challenge of addressing spatial specific inequalities and transformation.
The bright lights of city regions: Assumptions, realities and implications of changing population dynamics: Zooming in on the Gauteng city region
(CSIR, 2014-10) Pieterse, Amy
It is well known that the city regions attract migrants from across the country because of their roles as economic engines and job baskets in South Africa. To address urbanisation implications it is imperative to better understand some of the assumptions about the nature and dynamics of population growth and internal migration across the South African landscape, and in particular within the Gauteng city region as the largest of the city regions. Three key issues emerged that are related to assumptions of migration and urbanisation. Firstly, even though poverty has been perceived as largely a rural issue, the urbanisation of poverty is in fact occurring at a large scale and city regions, particularly the Gauteng city region, is dealing with an enormous, and increasing number of poor people. Secondly, the attractiveness of city regions has caused a great increase in the proportion of young people and young work seekers. And lastly, that the biggest proportion of migration flows is occurring between metropolitan areas and that migration is not only a rural-urban process as generally believed. The other issues that emerged and that need further investigation is the reality of circular migration, the effect of changing household sizes and the ability of city regions and other settlements to absorb newcomers.
Water sensitive urban planning as adaptation strategy
(2018-10) Van Niekerk, Cornelia W; Duncker, Louiza C; Maditse, Kea; Davis, Claire; Pieterse, Amy
Cities in areas getting hotter and drier have to find alternative approaches to manage the increased demand for water versus the shrinking supply, while also climate proofing their cities. Water sensitive urban design as an adaptation strategy integrates the management of urban water resources with urban planning.
What to adapt for? Climate change risk profiles for South African cities
(2018-03) Le Roux, Alize; Van Niekerk, Cornelia W; Arnold, Kathryn A; Pieterse, Amy; Davis, Claire L
Climate change adaptation has increasingly been included in national policies because of the far-reaching effects climatic changes have on places and people.

Browsing by Author "Pieterse, Amy"

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