Machine learning methods for calibrating radio interferometric data
- Authors: Zitha, Simphiwe Nhlanhla
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Calibration , Radio astronomy -- Data processing , Radio astronomy -- South Africa , Karoo Array Telescope (South Africa) , Radio telescopes -- South Africa , Common Astronomy Software Application (Computer software)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/97096 , vital:31398
- Description: The applications of machine learning have created an opportunity to deal with complex problems currently encountered in radio astronomy data processing. Calibration is one of the most important data processing steps required to produce high dynamic range images. This process involves the determination of calibration parameters, both instrumental and astronomical, to correct the collected data. Typically, astronomers use a package such as Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) to compute the gain solutions based on regular observations of a known calibrator source. In this work we present applications of machine learning to first generation calibration (1GC), using the KAT-7 telescope environmental and pointing sensor data recorded during observations. Applying machine learning to 1GC, as opposed to calculating the gain solutions in CASA, has shown evidence of reducing computation, as well as accurately predict the 1GC gain solutions representing the behaviour of the antenna during an observation. These methods are computationally less expensive, however they have not fully learned to generalise in predicting accurate 1GC solutions by looking at environmental and pointing sensors. We call this multi-output regression model ZCal, which is based on random forest, decision trees, extremely randomized trees and K-nearest neighbor algorithms. The prediction error obtained during the testing of our model on testing data is ≈ 0.01 < rmse < 0.09 for gain amplitude per antenna, and 0.2 rad < rmse <0.5 rad for gain phase. This shows that the instrumental parameters used to train our model more strongly correlate with gain amplitude effects than phase.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Zitha, Simphiwe Nhlanhla
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Calibration , Radio astronomy -- Data processing , Radio astronomy -- South Africa , Karoo Array Telescope (South Africa) , Radio telescopes -- South Africa , Common Astronomy Software Application (Computer software)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/97096 , vital:31398
- Description: The applications of machine learning have created an opportunity to deal with complex problems currently encountered in radio astronomy data processing. Calibration is one of the most important data processing steps required to produce high dynamic range images. This process involves the determination of calibration parameters, both instrumental and astronomical, to correct the collected data. Typically, astronomers use a package such as Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) to compute the gain solutions based on regular observations of a known calibrator source. In this work we present applications of machine learning to first generation calibration (1GC), using the KAT-7 telescope environmental and pointing sensor data recorded during observations. Applying machine learning to 1GC, as opposed to calculating the gain solutions in CASA, has shown evidence of reducing computation, as well as accurately predict the 1GC gain solutions representing the behaviour of the antenna during an observation. These methods are computationally less expensive, however they have not fully learned to generalise in predicting accurate 1GC solutions by looking at environmental and pointing sensors. We call this multi-output regression model ZCal, which is based on random forest, decision trees, extremely randomized trees and K-nearest neighbor algorithms. The prediction error obtained during the testing of our model on testing data is ≈ 0.01 < rmse < 0.09 for gain amplitude per antenna, and 0.2 rad < rmse <0.5 rad for gain phase. This shows that the instrumental parameters used to train our model more strongly correlate with gain amplitude effects than phase.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Synthesis and properties of chiral amide-bonded porphyrin dimers with various functional bridging blocks
- Zhu, Weihua, Haider, Syed Najeeb-uz-Zaman, Zhang, Honglin, Attatsi, Isaac K, Mack, John, Dingiswayo, Somila, Nyokong, Tebello, Song, Yuting, Xu, Haijun, Liang, Xu
- Authors: Zhu, Weihua , Haider, Syed Najeeb-uz-Zaman , Zhang, Honglin , Attatsi, Isaac K , Mack, John , Dingiswayo, Somila , Nyokong, Tebello , Song, Yuting , Xu, Haijun , Liang, Xu
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186791 , vital:44534 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dyepig.2019.107740"
- Description: Eight porphyrin dimers with various functional bridging blocks and chiral amide-bonds were synthesized and characterized. An analysis of the spectroscopy and electrochemistry has been carried out to demonstrate that the chiral properties can be modified by changing the interchromophoric through-space coupling distance between the two porphyrin chromophores by introducing various bonding and bridging blocks.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Zhu, Weihua , Haider, Syed Najeeb-uz-Zaman , Zhang, Honglin , Attatsi, Isaac K , Mack, John , Dingiswayo, Somila , Nyokong, Tebello , Song, Yuting , Xu, Haijun , Liang, Xu
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186791 , vital:44534 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dyepig.2019.107740"
- Description: Eight porphyrin dimers with various functional bridging blocks and chiral amide-bonds were synthesized and characterized. An analysis of the spectroscopy and electrochemistry has been carried out to demonstrate that the chiral properties can be modified by changing the interchromophoric through-space coupling distance between the two porphyrin chromophores by introducing various bonding and bridging blocks.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Cordidepsine is A Potential New Anti-HIV Depsidone from Cordia millenii
- Zeukang, Rostanie D, Siwe-Noundou, Xavier, Fotsing, Maurice T, Mbafor, Joseph T, Krause, Rui W M, Choudhary, Muhammad I, Atchade, Alex de Theodore
- Authors: Zeukang, Rostanie D , Siwe-Noundou, Xavier , Fotsing, Maurice T , Mbafor, Joseph T , Krause, Rui W M , Choudhary, Muhammad I , Atchade, Alex de Theodore
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193988 , vital:45413 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24173202"
- Description: Chemical investigation of Cordia millenii, Baker resulted in the isolation of a new depsidone, cordidepsine (1), along with twelve known compounds including cyclooctasulfur (2), lup-20(29)-en-3-triacontanoate (3), 1-(26-hydroxyhexacosanoyl)glycerol (4), glyceryl-1-hexacosanoate (5) betulinic acid (6), lupenone (7), β-amyrone (8), lupeol (9), β-amyrin (10), allantoin (11), 2′-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethylpropanoate (12) and stigmasterol glycoside (13). Hemi-synthetic reactions were carried out on two isolated compounds (5 and 6) to afford two new derivatives, that is, cordicerol A (14) and cordicerol B (15), respectively. The chemical structures of all the compounds were established based on analysis and interpretation of spectroscopic data such as electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI–MS), high resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESI–MS), fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB–MS), one dimension and two dimension nuclear magnetic resonance (1D and 2D-NMR) spectral data as well as X-ray crystallography (XRC). Lupeol ester derivatives [Lup-20(29)-en-3-triacontanoate (3)], monoglycerol derivatives [1-(26-hydroxyhexacosanoyl)glycerol (4) and glyceryl-1 hexacosanoate (5)] were isolated for the first time from Cordia genus while sulfur allotrope [cyclooctasulfur (2)] was isolated for the first time from plant origin. Biological assays cordidepsine (1) exhibited significant anti-HIV integrase activity with IC50 = 4.65 μM; EtOAc extract of stem barks, EtOAc fraction of roots and leaves were not toxic against 3T3 cells.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Zeukang, Rostanie D , Siwe-Noundou, Xavier , Fotsing, Maurice T , Mbafor, Joseph T , Krause, Rui W M , Choudhary, Muhammad I , Atchade, Alex de Theodore
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193988 , vital:45413 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24173202"
- Description: Chemical investigation of Cordia millenii, Baker resulted in the isolation of a new depsidone, cordidepsine (1), along with twelve known compounds including cyclooctasulfur (2), lup-20(29)-en-3-triacontanoate (3), 1-(26-hydroxyhexacosanoyl)glycerol (4), glyceryl-1-hexacosanoate (5) betulinic acid (6), lupenone (7), β-amyrone (8), lupeol (9), β-amyrin (10), allantoin (11), 2′-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethylpropanoate (12) and stigmasterol glycoside (13). Hemi-synthetic reactions were carried out on two isolated compounds (5 and 6) to afford two new derivatives, that is, cordicerol A (14) and cordicerol B (15), respectively. The chemical structures of all the compounds were established based on analysis and interpretation of spectroscopic data such as electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI–MS), high resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESI–MS), fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB–MS), one dimension and two dimension nuclear magnetic resonance (1D and 2D-NMR) spectral data as well as X-ray crystallography (XRC). Lupeol ester derivatives [Lup-20(29)-en-3-triacontanoate (3)], monoglycerol derivatives [1-(26-hydroxyhexacosanoyl)glycerol (4) and glyceryl-1 hexacosanoate (5)] were isolated for the first time from Cordia genus while sulfur allotrope [cyclooctasulfur (2)] was isolated for the first time from plant origin. Biological assays cordidepsine (1) exhibited significant anti-HIV integrase activity with IC50 = 4.65 μM; EtOAc extract of stem barks, EtOAc fraction of roots and leaves were not toxic against 3T3 cells.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The impact of land restitution and resettlement in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: restoring dignity without strengthening livelihoods?
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Reparations for historic injustices -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96336 , vital:31264
- Description: Land reform in South Africa, which is comprised of land redistribution, land tenure reform, and land restitution, continues to be an emotive subject and has largely racially polarised South Africa. The slow pace of land reform, expropriation, the amount of land to be returned to black people, debates around the role of the Constitution in land reform, the market-based approach and the perceived negative attitude of white farmers have dominated the debates on land reform. There is, therefore, a huge chorus on the struggles for land acquisition and less on what happens when people are given land. A few studies on post-settlement livelihoods experience have managed to close this gap slightly in the literature by showing that land reform has contributed little or no material and livelihood benefits to beneficiaries and that many farms are lying idle after land reform, especially land restitution, projects. These studies on post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land reform beneficiaries have not managed to capture fully the “voices” of beneficiaries on land and livelihoods. This dissertation seeks to provide a sociological documentation of the post-settlement livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries. It does this by primarily tracing the ability and/or the inability of land restitution beneficiaries of Macleantown, about 40 kilometres northwest of East London, in the Eastern Cape to reconstruct livelihoods after resettlement, bearing in mind that these land restitution beneficiaries have been resettled twice, during forced removals in the 1970s and after land restitution, post-1994. Therefore, the study engages with questions of whether or in what ways land compensated restitution beneficiaries have managed to reconstruct livelihoods after land transfer. To capture the livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries fully, I also studied the Salem restitution case, which is 20km away from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Because land restitution involves resettlement, I decided to use two resettlement theories, namely Thayer Scudder’s four stages model and Michael Cernea’s Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR), to understand risks associated with resettlement. Additionally, since this dissertation seeks to understand and document livelihood reconstruction and poverty reduction within the context of restitution resettlement, I also utilised the Sustainable Livelihoods approach and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. This thesis is based on multiple research methods that include documentary study, focus group discussions, conversations, archival research, in-depth interviews, transect walks, participant observation and life histories. My findings show that land transfer under the land restitution programme has largely not enabled land beneficiaries in Macleantown and Salem to reconstruct land-based livelihoods after settlement. I also established that land restitution beneficiaries face risks that are identified by resettlement theorists such as lack of proper planning, resettling trauma, struggles in community reconstruction and poverty. Beneficiaries have not managed to reap any meaningful benefits from the land, meaning that restitution has not led to self-sufficiency for these beneficiaries because all land beneficiaries are heavily dependent on social grants. However, one needs to emphasize that land restitution has restored the dignity of beneficiaries because beneficiaries have accessed their forefathers’ land that they fought for. This is because beneficiaries believed that it was their duty to fight for their land on behalf of their ancestors. I reach the conclusion that the whole idea that restitution claimants who are scattered all over can be grouped into a Community Property Association (CPA) and farm collectively as a ‘community’ to improve livelihoods is a misleading romanticisation of the envisaged outcomes of the land restitution project. Time has passed after land dispossession and land claimants are different human beings to what they were before land dispossession, i.e. far from the agrarian society they were before land dispossession. Group dynamics, lack of adequate post-settlement support (PSS), land reform designs, lack of commercial agricultural skills, as well as entitlement syndrome, old age of beneficiaries, infighting and marginality of agricultural business has made it nearly impossible for restitution beneficiaries to reconstruct land-based livelihoods. Additionally, the government appears to be more interested in ‘correcting apartheid’ rather than creating viable farms. It is important to state that this thesis does not advocate for the erasure of the restitution programme or to belittle land beneficiaries but argues for the rethinking of the restitution model in the context of massive failures, as well as coming up with a new and flexible model of land restitution that will meet the modern needs of beneficiaries. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the risks and the challenges of livelihoods reconstruction faced by resettling communities through an investigation into the post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land restitution beneficiaries through ‘thick descriptions’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Reparations for historic injustices -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96336 , vital:31264
- Description: Land reform in South Africa, which is comprised of land redistribution, land tenure reform, and land restitution, continues to be an emotive subject and has largely racially polarised South Africa. The slow pace of land reform, expropriation, the amount of land to be returned to black people, debates around the role of the Constitution in land reform, the market-based approach and the perceived negative attitude of white farmers have dominated the debates on land reform. There is, therefore, a huge chorus on the struggles for land acquisition and less on what happens when people are given land. A few studies on post-settlement livelihoods experience have managed to close this gap slightly in the literature by showing that land reform has contributed little or no material and livelihood benefits to beneficiaries and that many farms are lying idle after land reform, especially land restitution, projects. These studies on post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land reform beneficiaries have not managed to capture fully the “voices” of beneficiaries on land and livelihoods. This dissertation seeks to provide a sociological documentation of the post-settlement livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries. It does this by primarily tracing the ability and/or the inability of land restitution beneficiaries of Macleantown, about 40 kilometres northwest of East London, in the Eastern Cape to reconstruct livelihoods after resettlement, bearing in mind that these land restitution beneficiaries have been resettled twice, during forced removals in the 1970s and after land restitution, post-1994. Therefore, the study engages with questions of whether or in what ways land compensated restitution beneficiaries have managed to reconstruct livelihoods after land transfer. To capture the livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries fully, I also studied the Salem restitution case, which is 20km away from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Because land restitution involves resettlement, I decided to use two resettlement theories, namely Thayer Scudder’s four stages model and Michael Cernea’s Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR), to understand risks associated with resettlement. Additionally, since this dissertation seeks to understand and document livelihood reconstruction and poverty reduction within the context of restitution resettlement, I also utilised the Sustainable Livelihoods approach and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. This thesis is based on multiple research methods that include documentary study, focus group discussions, conversations, archival research, in-depth interviews, transect walks, participant observation and life histories. My findings show that land transfer under the land restitution programme has largely not enabled land beneficiaries in Macleantown and Salem to reconstruct land-based livelihoods after settlement. I also established that land restitution beneficiaries face risks that are identified by resettlement theorists such as lack of proper planning, resettling trauma, struggles in community reconstruction and poverty. Beneficiaries have not managed to reap any meaningful benefits from the land, meaning that restitution has not led to self-sufficiency for these beneficiaries because all land beneficiaries are heavily dependent on social grants. However, one needs to emphasize that land restitution has restored the dignity of beneficiaries because beneficiaries have accessed their forefathers’ land that they fought for. This is because beneficiaries believed that it was their duty to fight for their land on behalf of their ancestors. I reach the conclusion that the whole idea that restitution claimants who are scattered all over can be grouped into a Community Property Association (CPA) and farm collectively as a ‘community’ to improve livelihoods is a misleading romanticisation of the envisaged outcomes of the land restitution project. Time has passed after land dispossession and land claimants are different human beings to what they were before land dispossession, i.e. far from the agrarian society they were before land dispossession. Group dynamics, lack of adequate post-settlement support (PSS), land reform designs, lack of commercial agricultural skills, as well as entitlement syndrome, old age of beneficiaries, infighting and marginality of agricultural business has made it nearly impossible for restitution beneficiaries to reconstruct land-based livelihoods. Additionally, the government appears to be more interested in ‘correcting apartheid’ rather than creating viable farms. It is important to state that this thesis does not advocate for the erasure of the restitution programme or to belittle land beneficiaries but argues for the rethinking of the restitution model in the context of massive failures, as well as coming up with a new and flexible model of land restitution that will meet the modern needs of beneficiaries. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the risks and the challenges of livelihoods reconstruction faced by resettling communities through an investigation into the post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land restitution beneficiaries through ‘thick descriptions’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Outcome of illustrated information leaflet on correct usage of asthma-metered dose inhaler:
- Wrench, Wendy W, Van Dyk, Lynette, Srinivas, Sunitha C, Dowse, Roslind
- Authors: Wrench, Wendy W , Van Dyk, Lynette , Srinivas, Sunitha C , Dowse, Roslind
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156640 , vital:40033 , https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.2079
- Description: Research globally has shown that metered dose inhaler (MDI) technique is poor, with patient education and regular demonstration critical in maintaining correct use of inhalers. Patient information containing pictorial aids improves understanding of medicine usage; however, manufacturer leaflets illustrating MDI use may not be easily understood by low-literacy asthma patients. To develop and evaluate the outcome of a tailored, simplified leaflet on correct MDI technique in asthma patients with limited literacy skills.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Wrench, Wendy W , Van Dyk, Lynette , Srinivas, Sunitha C , Dowse, Roslind
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156640 , vital:40033 , https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.2079
- Description: Research globally has shown that metered dose inhaler (MDI) technique is poor, with patient education and regular demonstration critical in maintaining correct use of inhalers. Patient information containing pictorial aids improves understanding of medicine usage; however, manufacturer leaflets illustrating MDI use may not be easily understood by low-literacy asthma patients. To develop and evaluate the outcome of a tailored, simplified leaflet on correct MDI technique in asthma patients with limited literacy skills.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Hearing silenced voices: a learning-centred approach to sustainable land rehabilitation and natural resource management
- Authors: Wolff, Margaret Gascoyne
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Watershed management -- South Africa -- Citizen participation , Water-supply -- Management -- Citizen participation , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94958 , vital:31101
- Description: South Africa is a semi-arid country with dysfunctional water management. The National Water Act encourages integrated water resource management and public participation in contributing to strategies for managing water within delineated areas. Various challenges hamper progress of integrated water resource management and meaningful participation by residents in catchments across the country. One of the challenges is the lack of knowledge about their role in water resource management. By viewing catchments as complex social-ecological systems, this case study investigates how to establish a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum (CMF) formation. The study addressed three sub-questions: What activity systems need to be prioritised for community participation in CMF formation? What existing learning can be identified within the activity systems? What are the sources for expansive social learning in and between the activity systems? The study draws on social learning theory, and on cultural historical activity theory as it offers a methodological approach to identifying a learning-centred approach to learning in a catchment context. Drawing on this theoretical framework, for research question 1, I identified five activity systems that are present in the study area, are partly representative of the people who live in the area, and are linked to land and water governance either through their positions as government employees within the sector, or the NLEIP in ways that influence communities’ lives and livelihoods. To address question 2, I ran learning-centred workshops and interviewed people who lived in the study area. Careful, respectful listening and participants’ use of home language created the safe space in which residents revealed that they know which water resources are important to protect and where breakdowns in communication happen. For question 3, I analysed the data from the workshops and interviews using a cultural historical activity theory framework to identify discursive manifestations of contradictions within and between activity systems which illuminate the potential for expansive social learning. This study recommends developing an understanding of the complex social-ecological context and prioritising co-learning and community participation in a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum formation. For this, there is need to develop in-depth insight into activity systems associated with water governance in local contexts. In this study I identified five of these activity systems, but the study points to a further range of activity systems that need to be considered for a learning-centred approach to be fully established. The study also found that communities are learning via engaging in the rehabilitation work, through engagements in workshops and within the municipal structures. Additionally, the study identified a number of contradictions that can provide sources of learning for taking an expansive learning approach further in CMF formation. Such an approach may provide the space to build bridges of trust between diverse knowledge systems, and has the potential to encourage sustainable co-operation in natural resource management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Wolff, Margaret Gascoyne
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Watershed management -- South Africa -- Citizen participation , Water-supply -- Management -- Citizen participation , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94958 , vital:31101
- Description: South Africa is a semi-arid country with dysfunctional water management. The National Water Act encourages integrated water resource management and public participation in contributing to strategies for managing water within delineated areas. Various challenges hamper progress of integrated water resource management and meaningful participation by residents in catchments across the country. One of the challenges is the lack of knowledge about their role in water resource management. By viewing catchments as complex social-ecological systems, this case study investigates how to establish a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum (CMF) formation. The study addressed three sub-questions: What activity systems need to be prioritised for community participation in CMF formation? What existing learning can be identified within the activity systems? What are the sources for expansive social learning in and between the activity systems? The study draws on social learning theory, and on cultural historical activity theory as it offers a methodological approach to identifying a learning-centred approach to learning in a catchment context. Drawing on this theoretical framework, for research question 1, I identified five activity systems that are present in the study area, are partly representative of the people who live in the area, and are linked to land and water governance either through their positions as government employees within the sector, or the NLEIP in ways that influence communities’ lives and livelihoods. To address question 2, I ran learning-centred workshops and interviewed people who lived in the study area. Careful, respectful listening and participants’ use of home language created the safe space in which residents revealed that they know which water resources are important to protect and where breakdowns in communication happen. For question 3, I analysed the data from the workshops and interviews using a cultural historical activity theory framework to identify discursive manifestations of contradictions within and between activity systems which illuminate the potential for expansive social learning. This study recommends developing an understanding of the complex social-ecological context and prioritising co-learning and community participation in a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum formation. For this, there is need to develop in-depth insight into activity systems associated with water governance in local contexts. In this study I identified five of these activity systems, but the study points to a further range of activity systems that need to be considered for a learning-centred approach to be fully established. The study also found that communities are learning via engaging in the rehabilitation work, through engagements in workshops and within the municipal structures. Additionally, the study identified a number of contradictions that can provide sources of learning for taking an expansive learning approach further in CMF formation. Such an approach may provide the space to build bridges of trust between diverse knowledge systems, and has the potential to encourage sustainable co-operation in natural resource management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Development, manufacture and characterization of niosomes for the delivery for nevirapine
- Witika, Bwalya A, Walker, Roderick B
- Authors: Witika, Bwalya A , Walker, Roderick B
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183514 , vital:44002 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1691/ph.2019.8168"
- Description: Nevirapine (NVP), used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, exhibits unpredictable oral bioavailability, has a poor side effect profile and requires frequent dosing. Niosomes are novel drug delivery systems that have the potential to overcome these challenges. A thin layer hydration approach was used to produce niosomes and optimisation was undertaken using design of experiments (DoE) and response surface methodology (RSM) establish and identify parameters that may affect the manufacture of niosomes. The impact of cholesterol and surfactant content, hydration time and temperature on manufacture was investigated. Critical quality attributes (CQA) in respect of particle size (PS), entrapment efficiency (EE), polydispersity index (PDI) and the amount of NVP released at 48 hours was also assessed. The optimised niosome composition was identified and manufactured and the CQA characterised prior to placing the batch on stability for 12 weeks at 4±2 °C and 22±2 °C. The PS, PDI, EE and % NVP released at 48 h was 523.36±23.16 nm, 0.386±0.054, 96.8 % and 25.3 % for niosomes manufactured with Span® 20. Similarly, the parameters were 502.87±21.77 nm and 0.394±0.027, 98.0 % and 25.0 % for mean PS, PDI, EE and %NVP released at 48 h for Span® 80 niosomes. All characterisation was undertaken on the day of manufacture. In conclusion, a simple, cheap, rapid and precise method of manufacture of NVP niosomes was developed, validated and optimised using DoE and RSM and the product exhibited the target CQA.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Witika, Bwalya A , Walker, Roderick B
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183514 , vital:44002 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1691/ph.2019.8168"
- Description: Nevirapine (NVP), used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, exhibits unpredictable oral bioavailability, has a poor side effect profile and requires frequent dosing. Niosomes are novel drug delivery systems that have the potential to overcome these challenges. A thin layer hydration approach was used to produce niosomes and optimisation was undertaken using design of experiments (DoE) and response surface methodology (RSM) establish and identify parameters that may affect the manufacture of niosomes. The impact of cholesterol and surfactant content, hydration time and temperature on manufacture was investigated. Critical quality attributes (CQA) in respect of particle size (PS), entrapment efficiency (EE), polydispersity index (PDI) and the amount of NVP released at 48 hours was also assessed. The optimised niosome composition was identified and manufactured and the CQA characterised prior to placing the batch on stability for 12 weeks at 4±2 °C and 22±2 °C. The PS, PDI, EE and % NVP released at 48 h was 523.36±23.16 nm, 0.386±0.054, 96.8 % and 25.3 % for niosomes manufactured with Span® 20. Similarly, the parameters were 502.87±21.77 nm and 0.394±0.027, 98.0 % and 25.0 % for mean PS, PDI, EE and %NVP released at 48 h for Span® 80 niosomes. All characterisation was undertaken on the day of manufacture. In conclusion, a simple, cheap, rapid and precise method of manufacture of NVP niosomes was developed, validated and optimised using DoE and RSM and the product exhibited the target CQA.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Using a multi-method approach to understand the movement patterns and the associated environmental correlates of an iconic West African recreational fish
- Authors: Winkler, Alexander Claus
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Carangidae fishing , Carangidae -- Migration , Carangidae -- Namibia , Carangidae -- Angola , Fish tagging , Carangidae -- Benguela Current , Underwater acoustic telemetry , Ocean temperature -- Physiological effect , Fishes -- Effect of temperature on
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76530 , vital:30597
- Description: The leerfish (Lichia amia), is a large, primarily coastal recreational fish species with a distribution extending from Portugal down the west coast of African to southern Mozambique. Owing to its large size (30 kg), strong fighting abilities and habit of taking surface artificial lures, this species has taken on an iconic stature among shore-based recreational anglers. Its reputation has made it an important angling tourism species that makes an important contribution to the economy of developing countries. For example, the species brought US$243 per harvested kilogramme into the local southern Angola economy. Despite its high value, little is known about its movement patterns in the northern Benguela coastal region, a region which includes southern Angola and northern Namibia. While much is known about the migratory patterns of the South African stock of L. amia, recent molecular studies have shown that the northern Benguela stock of L. amia has been isolated from the South African population for at least two million years, a consequence of the development of the cold Lüderitz upwelling cell in southern Namibia. Although the global population of L. amia is considered a single species, prominent biogeographic barriers within its distribution and subtle morphological differences between specimens captured within its tropical versus warm-temperate distribution suggest otherwise. A multi-method approach incorporating passive acoustic telemetry (PAT), recreational catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) and conventional tagging (CT) in southern Angola, as well as recreational fisher-ecological knowledge (FEK) from Namibia, was used to investigate the large-scale movement patterns of L. amia within the northern Benguela coastal region. While each method had its own associated limitations, the combination provided a holistic picture of the population's seasonal migratory patterns. Furthermore, PAT successfully identified partial migration with 25% vs 75% of monitored fish exhibiting resident (movements < 100 km) or migratory (movements > 100 km) behaviour, respectively. Further behavioural diversity was observed with ‘resident’, ‘roaming’ and ‘embayment’ contingents identified based on varying levels of affinity to certain habitats. The presence of both resident and migratory individuals within the northernmost study during June and July, combined with available biological information, suggested that area-specific spawning may take place. While PAT, CPUE and CT largely aligned in determining area specific high-area use, results from network analyses and mixed effects models conducted on the PAT data supported the spawning hypothesis, with anomalous behaviour around specific receivers during the spawning season. All fish, regardless of behavioural contingent, displayed similar movement behaviour during the spawning season and this was driven by factors generally associated with reproduction, such as lunar illumination. Interestingly, these drivers were different from those that determined the area specific use of individuals outside of the spawning season. The environmental drivers of longshore migration into the northern study site were identified as a decline in water temperature and shorter day lengths. The results of this study highlight the importance of using a multi-method approach in determining migratory movement behaviour, area specific area use, and stock structure of key fisheries species. The identification of different behavioural contingents highlights the importance of acknowledging individual variation in movement and habitat-use patterns. This is particularly relevant as future climate change and spatiotemporal variation in fishing effort may artificially skew natural selection processes to favour certain behavioural groups. This study also highlighted the importance of scientists forming relationships with resource-users, such as recreational angling lodges in areas where limited research has been conducted. This is particularly relevant within the West African context where little is known about many of the fish species that are being increasingly targeted by tourism angling ventures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Winkler, Alexander Claus
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Carangidae fishing , Carangidae -- Migration , Carangidae -- Namibia , Carangidae -- Angola , Fish tagging , Carangidae -- Benguela Current , Underwater acoustic telemetry , Ocean temperature -- Physiological effect , Fishes -- Effect of temperature on
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76530 , vital:30597
- Description: The leerfish (Lichia amia), is a large, primarily coastal recreational fish species with a distribution extending from Portugal down the west coast of African to southern Mozambique. Owing to its large size (30 kg), strong fighting abilities and habit of taking surface artificial lures, this species has taken on an iconic stature among shore-based recreational anglers. Its reputation has made it an important angling tourism species that makes an important contribution to the economy of developing countries. For example, the species brought US$243 per harvested kilogramme into the local southern Angola economy. Despite its high value, little is known about its movement patterns in the northern Benguela coastal region, a region which includes southern Angola and northern Namibia. While much is known about the migratory patterns of the South African stock of L. amia, recent molecular studies have shown that the northern Benguela stock of L. amia has been isolated from the South African population for at least two million years, a consequence of the development of the cold Lüderitz upwelling cell in southern Namibia. Although the global population of L. amia is considered a single species, prominent biogeographic barriers within its distribution and subtle morphological differences between specimens captured within its tropical versus warm-temperate distribution suggest otherwise. A multi-method approach incorporating passive acoustic telemetry (PAT), recreational catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) and conventional tagging (CT) in southern Angola, as well as recreational fisher-ecological knowledge (FEK) from Namibia, was used to investigate the large-scale movement patterns of L. amia within the northern Benguela coastal region. While each method had its own associated limitations, the combination provided a holistic picture of the population's seasonal migratory patterns. Furthermore, PAT successfully identified partial migration with 25% vs 75% of monitored fish exhibiting resident (movements < 100 km) or migratory (movements > 100 km) behaviour, respectively. Further behavioural diversity was observed with ‘resident’, ‘roaming’ and ‘embayment’ contingents identified based on varying levels of affinity to certain habitats. The presence of both resident and migratory individuals within the northernmost study during June and July, combined with available biological information, suggested that area-specific spawning may take place. While PAT, CPUE and CT largely aligned in determining area specific high-area use, results from network analyses and mixed effects models conducted on the PAT data supported the spawning hypothesis, with anomalous behaviour around specific receivers during the spawning season. All fish, regardless of behavioural contingent, displayed similar movement behaviour during the spawning season and this was driven by factors generally associated with reproduction, such as lunar illumination. Interestingly, these drivers were different from those that determined the area specific use of individuals outside of the spawning season. The environmental drivers of longshore migration into the northern study site were identified as a decline in water temperature and shorter day lengths. The results of this study highlight the importance of using a multi-method approach in determining migratory movement behaviour, area specific area use, and stock structure of key fisheries species. The identification of different behavioural contingents highlights the importance of acknowledging individual variation in movement and habitat-use patterns. This is particularly relevant as future climate change and spatiotemporal variation in fishing effort may artificially skew natural selection processes to favour certain behavioural groups. This study also highlighted the importance of scientists forming relationships with resource-users, such as recreational angling lodges in areas where limited research has been conducted. This is particularly relevant within the West African context where little is known about many of the fish species that are being increasingly targeted by tourism angling ventures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Sectioned or whole otoliths? A global review of hard structure preparation techniques used in ageing sparid fishes
- Winkler, Alexander C, Duncan, Murray I, Farthing, Matthew W, Potts, Warren M
- Authors: Winkler, Alexander C , Duncan, Murray I , Farthing, Matthew W , Potts, Warren M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/126733 , vital:35917 , https://doi.10.1007/s11160-019-09571-1
- Description: While otoliths are considered the most reliable structure to accurately age fish, a variety of otolith preparation techniques are available, which have consequences on the otolith’s optical properties and therefore interpretation of growth bands. Recently, numerous studies from a variety of authors have criticised the use of whole otoliths in ageing sparids with sectioned otoliths subsequently acknowledged as the most reliable preparation technique. Despite this criticism; ageing data is still being generated from whole otoliths and other unreliable structures such as scales. In an attempt to understand the severity of this issue we conducted a global literature review of otolith preparation protocols used for sparids. We identified global spatial inconsistencies in otolith preparation techniques with some regions predominately using methods other than sectioned otoliths to age sparids. The review highlights the need for a standardisation of otolith preparation methods and a move towards the use of sectioned otoliths, or at least valid support where alternative structures or preparation techniques are used. Given that large numbers of studies have been conducted on whole otoliths in certain regions, it may be necessary to revaluate the existing growth parameters to ensure that accurate information is incorporated into management structures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Winkler, Alexander C , Duncan, Murray I , Farthing, Matthew W , Potts, Warren M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/126733 , vital:35917 , https://doi.10.1007/s11160-019-09571-1
- Description: While otoliths are considered the most reliable structure to accurately age fish, a variety of otolith preparation techniques are available, which have consequences on the otolith’s optical properties and therefore interpretation of growth bands. Recently, numerous studies from a variety of authors have criticised the use of whole otoliths in ageing sparids with sectioned otoliths subsequently acknowledged as the most reliable preparation technique. Despite this criticism; ageing data is still being generated from whole otoliths and other unreliable structures such as scales. In an attempt to understand the severity of this issue we conducted a global literature review of otolith preparation protocols used for sparids. We identified global spatial inconsistencies in otolith preparation techniques with some regions predominately using methods other than sectioned otoliths to age sparids. The review highlights the need for a standardisation of otolith preparation methods and a move towards the use of sectioned otoliths, or at least valid support where alternative structures or preparation techniques are used. Given that large numbers of studies have been conducted on whole otoliths in certain regions, it may be necessary to revaluate the existing growth parameters to ensure that accurate information is incorporated into management structures.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Investigating household energy conservation behaviours in Johannesburg, South Africa
- Authors: Williams, Stephanie
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Environmental behavior -- South Africa , Energy conservation -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa , Energy consumption -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa , South Africans -- Energy consumption
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94101 , vital:31000
- Description: Behavioural change is increasingly anticipated as an important pathway towards the reduction of the human footprint on the environment. Monitoring resource consumption at the household scale is essential as a basis for evaluating current performance and supports the understanding of how behaviour change interventions can be implemented. Yet, there are comparatively fewer studies on pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) in developing country contexts than in developed countries. Further, where research efforts have been made in developing countries, these have mainly focussed on low-income households. This means the extant literature on PEB is limited across a geographic and economic gradient, making generalisations about PEB problematic and limiting the scope for thinking about interventions for promoting pro-environmental behaviour in developing countries. In response to this, the study focuses on high-income households in Johannesburg, South Africa. Overall, the findings show a high level of heterogeneity in reported pro-environmental energy use behaviour, attributed to a suit of socio-demographic and value factors. Mainly, age, number of dependents, household size. Valuing leisure time were negatively correlated to energy use behaviours, while valuing environmental quality positively correlated to energy use behaviours. The provision of information energy-saving interventions yielded positive behavioural change as shown by reduced energy consumption of up to 12% in the Treatment group. However, no significant correlations were found between energy reduction and socio-demographic and personal value factors, which can be attributed to a different cultural context. The study discusses the implications of the findings on debates around pro-environmental behaviour and factors influencing pro-environmental behaviour, and provides further recommendations for future energy policies related to the household sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Williams, Stephanie
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Environmental behavior -- South Africa , Energy conservation -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa , Energy consumption -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa , South Africans -- Energy consumption
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94101 , vital:31000
- Description: Behavioural change is increasingly anticipated as an important pathway towards the reduction of the human footprint on the environment. Monitoring resource consumption at the household scale is essential as a basis for evaluating current performance and supports the understanding of how behaviour change interventions can be implemented. Yet, there are comparatively fewer studies on pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) in developing country contexts than in developed countries. Further, where research efforts have been made in developing countries, these have mainly focussed on low-income households. This means the extant literature on PEB is limited across a geographic and economic gradient, making generalisations about PEB problematic and limiting the scope for thinking about interventions for promoting pro-environmental behaviour in developing countries. In response to this, the study focuses on high-income households in Johannesburg, South Africa. Overall, the findings show a high level of heterogeneity in reported pro-environmental energy use behaviour, attributed to a suit of socio-demographic and value factors. Mainly, age, number of dependents, household size. Valuing leisure time were negatively correlated to energy use behaviours, while valuing environmental quality positively correlated to energy use behaviours. The provision of information energy-saving interventions yielded positive behavioural change as shown by reduced energy consumption of up to 12% in the Treatment group. However, no significant correlations were found between energy reduction and socio-demographic and personal value factors, which can be attributed to a different cultural context. The study discusses the implications of the findings on debates around pro-environmental behaviour and factors influencing pro-environmental behaviour, and provides further recommendations for future energy policies related to the household sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Spatial and Seasonal Distribution of Forensically Important Blow Flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa:
- Williams, K A, Villet, Martin H
- Authors: Williams, K A , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140716 , vital:37912 , DOI: 10.1093/jme/tjz056
- Description: The seasonal activity of adults of eight forensically important blow fly species [Calliphora croceipalpis (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Jaennicke, Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), L. cuprina (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Chrysomya chloropyga (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. albiceps (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. marginalis (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. putoria (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. megacephala (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)] was quantified from collections in Makhanda, South Africa. Flies were collected in traps baited with chicken liver and placed in the field at eight locations for four consecutive days each fortnight for 14 mo. The seasonal distribution of each species compared well to published seasonal distributions of these blow flies elsewhere in South Africa, with evidence of year-to-year variation within seasons that might be explained by weather. This information is important for determining when and where certain species are likely to occur and will be of use in forensic investigations and myiasis management plans.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Williams, K A , Villet, Martin H
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140716 , vital:37912 , DOI: 10.1093/jme/tjz056
- Description: The seasonal activity of adults of eight forensically important blow fly species [Calliphora croceipalpis (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Jaennicke, Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), L. cuprina (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Chrysomya chloropyga (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. albiceps (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. marginalis (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. putoria (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Ch. megacephala (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)] was quantified from collections in Makhanda, South Africa. Flies were collected in traps baited with chicken liver and placed in the field at eight locations for four consecutive days each fortnight for 14 mo. The seasonal distribution of each species compared well to published seasonal distributions of these blow flies elsewhere in South Africa, with evidence of year-to-year variation within seasons that might be explained by weather. This information is important for determining when and where certain species are likely to occur and will be of use in forensic investigations and myiasis management plans.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Negotiating spaces, constructing identities and consuming symbolic resources: examining the complex interplay between identity formation, context and media consumption amongst black South African students at Rhodes University
- Authors: Willetts, Luke
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mass media -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media -- Sociological aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media and culture -- South Africa , Mass media and race relations -- South Africa , Social movements -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student movements -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Male college students -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95207 , vital:31127
- Description: This thesis has looked at the complex interplay between media consumption and identity formation amongst a group of black South African male students within the context of a racially homogenous communal viewing area located on the Rhodes University campus during the #FMF protests in 2016. Using qualitative research methods the study concluded that the group context of communal viewing helped the students structure and make sense of their daily lives. They actively divorced themselves from the main student populace in an attempt to escape lived experiences of a repressive institutional culture expressed through the university’s monolingual language policies, aesthetics and course material. These students embodied the characteristics of a diasporic community characterised by displacement, dispersal and the continuous re-articulation of differences across contradictory social, cultural and economic contexts. They grappled with an alienating environment by creating a safe space for cultural reproduction aided by the communal consumption of local television programmes. Preferences for local content broadcast in African languages were shaped by a linguistic marginalisation experienced on the Rhodes campus. The politicisation of the context through #FMF in turn politicised the students’ subjectivities leading to a need to be informed of the movement’s progression through evening news broadcasts. Discussions around campus life were dominated by #FMF and the collective experiences of marginalisation in and from the university space. Communal viewing of local television shows allowed this group of students to transcend decades of essentialised African ethnic divisions bringing forward a group identity premised on a lived hegemony signified by blackness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Willetts, Luke
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Mass media -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media -- Sociological aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Mass media and culture -- South Africa , Mass media and race relations -- South Africa , Social movements -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Student movements -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Male college students -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Rhodes University -- Students -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/95207 , vital:31127
- Description: This thesis has looked at the complex interplay between media consumption and identity formation amongst a group of black South African male students within the context of a racially homogenous communal viewing area located on the Rhodes University campus during the #FMF protests in 2016. Using qualitative research methods the study concluded that the group context of communal viewing helped the students structure and make sense of their daily lives. They actively divorced themselves from the main student populace in an attempt to escape lived experiences of a repressive institutional culture expressed through the university’s monolingual language policies, aesthetics and course material. These students embodied the characteristics of a diasporic community characterised by displacement, dispersal and the continuous re-articulation of differences across contradictory social, cultural and economic contexts. They grappled with an alienating environment by creating a safe space for cultural reproduction aided by the communal consumption of local television programmes. Preferences for local content broadcast in African languages were shaped by a linguistic marginalisation experienced on the Rhodes campus. The politicisation of the context through #FMF in turn politicised the students’ subjectivities leading to a need to be informed of the movement’s progression through evening news broadcasts. Discussions around campus life were dominated by #FMF and the collective experiences of marginalisation in and from the university space. Communal viewing of local television shows allowed this group of students to transcend decades of essentialised African ethnic divisions bringing forward a group identity premised on a lived hegemony signified by blackness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
A continental-scale validation of ecosystem service models
- Willcock, Simon, Hooftman, Danny A P, Balbi, Stefano, Blanchard, Ryan, Dawson, Terence P, O’Farrell, Patrick J, Hickler, Thomas, Hudson, Malcolm D, Lindeskog, Mats, Martinez-Lopez, Javier, Mulligan, Mark, Reyers, Belinda, Shackleton, Charlie M, Sitas, Nadia, Villa, Ferdinando, Watts, Sophie M, Eigenbrod, Felix, Bullock, James M
- Authors: Willcock, Simon , Hooftman, Danny A P , Balbi, Stefano , Blanchard, Ryan , Dawson, Terence P , O’Farrell, Patrick J , Hickler, Thomas , Hudson, Malcolm D , Lindeskog, Mats , Martinez-Lopez, Javier , Mulligan, Mark , Reyers, Belinda , Shackleton, Charlie M , Sitas, Nadia , Villa, Ferdinando , Watts, Sophie M , Eigenbrod, Felix , Bullock, James M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177476 , vital:42825 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00380-y
- Description: Faced with environmental degradation, governments worldwide are developing policies to safeguard ecosystem services (ES). Many ES models exist to support these policies, but they are generally poorly validated, especially at large scales, which undermines their credibility. To address this gap, we describe a study of multiple models of five ES, which we validate at an unprecedented scale against 1675 data points across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Willcock, Simon , Hooftman, Danny A P , Balbi, Stefano , Blanchard, Ryan , Dawson, Terence P , O’Farrell, Patrick J , Hickler, Thomas , Hudson, Malcolm D , Lindeskog, Mats , Martinez-Lopez, Javier , Mulligan, Mark , Reyers, Belinda , Shackleton, Charlie M , Sitas, Nadia , Villa, Ferdinando , Watts, Sophie M , Eigenbrod, Felix , Bullock, James M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177476 , vital:42825 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00380-y
- Description: Faced with environmental degradation, governments worldwide are developing policies to safeguard ecosystem services (ES). Many ES models exist to support these policies, but they are generally poorly validated, especially at large scales, which undermines their credibility. To address this gap, we describe a study of multiple models of five ES, which we validate at an unprecedented scale against 1675 data points across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Fishes of Southern African estuaries: from species to systems
- Authors: Whitfield, Alan K
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: Estuarine fishes -- South Africa , Estuarine fishes -- Africa, Southern , Fishes -- Africa, Southern -- Identification , Estuaries -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/97933 , vital:31512
- Description: South Africa, despite its relatively small size, is often called “a world in one country”. This phrase arises mainly from the range of oceanographic and climatic features; geological and geomorphological attributes, the diversity of human cultures, languages, races and religions; the mix of developed and developing economies; the wide range in political opinion and parties; the vast array of mineral resources; and finally, what biologists find most interesting of all, the richness of the indigenous flora and fauna. Although southern African aquatic scientists cannot boast an equivalent of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the stretch of coast between northern Namibia and southern Mozambique has a particularly rich marine biota, accounting for almost 15% of all the coastal marine species known world-wide. The richness of the ichthyofauna is due to a number of factors, including the variety of habitats around the subcontinent, ranging from coral reefs, kelp beds, sheltered bays, sandy beaches, exposed rocky shores, coastal lakes to estuaries. In addition, southern Africa is the meeting place of three great oceans and is thus the recipient of species from each of these separate faunas. In comparison to land vertebrates, the world’s fish fauna is by no means well-known, either taxonomically or with regard to the biology of the component species. Apart from the very large number of fish species (estimated to be approximately 40 000), and the difficulties posed by the medium in which they live, there are other reasons for the above state of affairs. An obvious and universal reason is the shortage of funding available for taxonomic, biological and ecological studies, with increasing emphasis being placed on aquaculture, mariculture and fisheries related work. This situation is unlikely to improve and many research institutions around the world are operating on shrinking rather than expanding budgets. The onus of responsibility to disseminate information on the world’s fish faunas therefore rests squarely on the shoulders of those who are fortunate enough to be employed in the fascinating field of ichthyology. This book, which is a major revision and expansion of an earlier monograph (Whitfield 1998), is an attempt to synthesize the available information on fishes associated with southern African estuaries and to highlight the importance of conserving these systems for both fishes and people of the region. Limited reference is made to international estuarine fish research due to space constraints and readers are referred to global ichthyological reviews in this regard. The estuaries of southern Africa (defined as south of 26°S latitude for the purposes of this book) are highly diverse, both in terms of form and functioning. They range from the clear Kosi Estuary entering the coral rich subtropical Indian Ocean waters on the east coast, to the turbid Orange River flowing into the cool upwelled waters of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast. The estuaries of the subcontinent are fed by catchments with a wide variety of climatic and geological characteristics. For example, the cool-temperate west coast is characterized by good winter rains and relatively dry summers, whereas on the subtropical east coast the opposite rainfall pattern prevails. While most south-western Cape estuaries are fed by rivers with low suspended sediment levels, those of KwaZulu-Natal normally carry high silt loads during the rainy season. Between Mossel Bay and St Francis Bay, rainfall patterns show no distinct seasonal peak and relatively acidic waters with low nutrient levels enter a variety of estuarine types along this section of the coast. The Eastern Cape is a region of transition between the subtropical and warm-temperate biogeographic provinces, and is prone to both droughts and floods occurring during any season of the year. The southern African estuarine environment is an unpredictable and often harsh habitat to occupy, yet each year millions of larval and juvenile fishes enter and thrive in these systems. The fish species that utilize estuaries as nursery areas exhibit great diversity in size, body form, salinity tolerance, diet, habitat preference and breeding behaviour. There is also a complete gradation in terms of the dependence that each species has on the estuarine environment. These and many other issues relating to the biology and ecology of estuary-associated fish species in southern Africa are explored in the chapters to follow. It is my sincere wish that our improved knowledge of these species and their environmental requirements will contribute to the wise management and conservation of these valuable ecosystems. , 2022 Edition
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Whitfield, Alan K
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: Estuarine fishes -- South Africa , Estuarine fishes -- Africa, Southern , Fishes -- Africa, Southern -- Identification , Estuaries -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/97933 , vital:31512
- Description: South Africa, despite its relatively small size, is often called “a world in one country”. This phrase arises mainly from the range of oceanographic and climatic features; geological and geomorphological attributes, the diversity of human cultures, languages, races and religions; the mix of developed and developing economies; the wide range in political opinion and parties; the vast array of mineral resources; and finally, what biologists find most interesting of all, the richness of the indigenous flora and fauna. Although southern African aquatic scientists cannot boast an equivalent of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the stretch of coast between northern Namibia and southern Mozambique has a particularly rich marine biota, accounting for almost 15% of all the coastal marine species known world-wide. The richness of the ichthyofauna is due to a number of factors, including the variety of habitats around the subcontinent, ranging from coral reefs, kelp beds, sheltered bays, sandy beaches, exposed rocky shores, coastal lakes to estuaries. In addition, southern Africa is the meeting place of three great oceans and is thus the recipient of species from each of these separate faunas. In comparison to land vertebrates, the world’s fish fauna is by no means well-known, either taxonomically or with regard to the biology of the component species. Apart from the very large number of fish species (estimated to be approximately 40 000), and the difficulties posed by the medium in which they live, there are other reasons for the above state of affairs. An obvious and universal reason is the shortage of funding available for taxonomic, biological and ecological studies, with increasing emphasis being placed on aquaculture, mariculture and fisheries related work. This situation is unlikely to improve and many research institutions around the world are operating on shrinking rather than expanding budgets. The onus of responsibility to disseminate information on the world’s fish faunas therefore rests squarely on the shoulders of those who are fortunate enough to be employed in the fascinating field of ichthyology. This book, which is a major revision and expansion of an earlier monograph (Whitfield 1998), is an attempt to synthesize the available information on fishes associated with southern African estuaries and to highlight the importance of conserving these systems for both fishes and people of the region. Limited reference is made to international estuarine fish research due to space constraints and readers are referred to global ichthyological reviews in this regard. The estuaries of southern Africa (defined as south of 26°S latitude for the purposes of this book) are highly diverse, both in terms of form and functioning. They range from the clear Kosi Estuary entering the coral rich subtropical Indian Ocean waters on the east coast, to the turbid Orange River flowing into the cool upwelled waters of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast. The estuaries of the subcontinent are fed by catchments with a wide variety of climatic and geological characteristics. For example, the cool-temperate west coast is characterized by good winter rains and relatively dry summers, whereas on the subtropical east coast the opposite rainfall pattern prevails. While most south-western Cape estuaries are fed by rivers with low suspended sediment levels, those of KwaZulu-Natal normally carry high silt loads during the rainy season. Between Mossel Bay and St Francis Bay, rainfall patterns show no distinct seasonal peak and relatively acidic waters with low nutrient levels enter a variety of estuarine types along this section of the coast. The Eastern Cape is a region of transition between the subtropical and warm-temperate biogeographic provinces, and is prone to both droughts and floods occurring during any season of the year. The southern African estuarine environment is an unpredictable and often harsh habitat to occupy, yet each year millions of larval and juvenile fishes enter and thrive in these systems. The fish species that utilize estuaries as nursery areas exhibit great diversity in size, body form, salinity tolerance, diet, habitat preference and breeding behaviour. There is also a complete gradation in terms of the dependence that each species has on the estuarine environment. These and many other issues relating to the biology and ecology of estuary-associated fish species in southern Africa are explored in the chapters to follow. It is my sincere wish that our improved knowledge of these species and their environmental requirements will contribute to the wise management and conservation of these valuable ecosystems. , 2022 Edition
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
Participatory mapping in a developing country context: Lessons from South Africa
- Weyer, Dylan J, Bezerra, Joana C, de Vos, Alta
- Authors: Weyer, Dylan J , Bezerra, Joana C , de Vos, Alta
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/416333 , vital:71340 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/land8090134"
- Description: Digital participatory mapping improves accessibility to spatial information and the way in which knowledge is co-constructed and landscapes co-managed with impoverished communities. However, many unintended consequences for social and epistemic justice may be exacerbated in developing country contexts. Two South African case studies incorporating Direct-to-Digital participatory mapping in marginalized communities to inform land-use decision-making, and the ethical challenges of adopting this method are discussed. Understanding the past and present context of the site and the power dynamics at play is critical to develop trust and manage expectations among research participants. When employing unfamiliar technology, disparate literacy levels and language barriers create challenges for ensuring participants understand the risks of their involvement and recognize their rights. The logistics of using this approach in remote areas with poor infrastructure and deciding how best to leave the participants with the maps they have co-produced in an accessible format present further challenges. Overcoming these can however offer opportunity for redressing past injustices and empowering marginalized communities with a voice in decisions that affect their livelihoods.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Weyer, Dylan J , Bezerra, Joana C , de Vos, Alta
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/416333 , vital:71340 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/land8090134"
- Description: Digital participatory mapping improves accessibility to spatial information and the way in which knowledge is co-constructed and landscapes co-managed with impoverished communities. However, many unintended consequences for social and epistemic justice may be exacerbated in developing country contexts. Two South African case studies incorporating Direct-to-Digital participatory mapping in marginalized communities to inform land-use decision-making, and the ethical challenges of adopting this method are discussed. Understanding the past and present context of the site and the power dynamics at play is critical to develop trust and manage expectations among research participants. When employing unfamiliar technology, disparate literacy levels and language barriers create challenges for ensuring participants understand the risks of their involvement and recognize their rights. The logistics of using this approach in remote areas with poor infrastructure and deciding how best to leave the participants with the maps they have co-produced in an accessible format present further challenges. Overcoming these can however offer opportunity for redressing past injustices and empowering marginalized communities with a voice in decisions that affect their livelihoods.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Using camera traps to generate a species inventory for medium-sized and large mammals in South West Zimbabwe:
- Welch, Rebecca J, Grant, Tanith, Parker, Daniel M
- Authors: Welch, Rebecca J , Grant, Tanith , Parker, Daniel M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/150267 , vital:38955 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.3957/056.049.0089
- Description: We investigated the presence of medium-sized and large mammals utilizing by-catch data from a camera trapping survey in the Mangwe District in South West Zimbabwe, an unprotected commercial livestock farming area which is impacted by human encroachment, poaching and trophy hunting. The camera trapping survey was carried out from 23 October to 5 December 2009, covered an area of 200 km2 and was initially intended to estimate the population density of leopards (Panthera pardus). The study area was split into two contiguous subsections, with each section sampled for a total of 20 days using 20 cameras. Camera trap photographs were identified to species level, then compared to a list of species thought to occur in the area according to available literature, as well as sightings from professional hunters and local landowners.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Welch, Rebecca J , Grant, Tanith , Parker, Daniel M
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/150267 , vital:38955 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.3957/056.049.0089
- Description: We investigated the presence of medium-sized and large mammals utilizing by-catch data from a camera trapping survey in the Mangwe District in South West Zimbabwe, an unprotected commercial livestock farming area which is impacted by human encroachment, poaching and trophy hunting. The camera trapping survey was carried out from 23 October to 5 December 2009, covered an area of 200 km2 and was initially intended to estimate the population density of leopards (Panthera pardus). The study area was split into two contiguous subsections, with each section sampled for a total of 20 days using 20 cameras. Camera trap photographs were identified to species level, then compared to a list of species thought to occur in the area according to available literature, as well as sightings from professional hunters and local landowners.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Shifting white SADF veteran identities from apartheid to contemporary South Africa
- Authors: Weich, Francois
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: South Africa -- History -- 1961-1994 , Angola -- History -- South African Incursions, 1978-1990 -- Veterans , South Africa -- History, Military -- 1961- , Veterans -- South Africa -- Personal narratives , South Africa -- Armed forces , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1961-1978 , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1978-1989 , South Africa. South African Defence Force
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76106 , vital:30504
- Description: The ideologies and structures of the apartheid state have received extensive academic attention, but the legacies of the militarisation of white South African men – a group that exists at a unique intersection of apartheid privilege and exploitation – have not been sufficiently addressed. Even as beneficiaries of apartheid, white men were militarised through structures of coercion and the mobilisation of identity constructions that resulted in the widespread submission to conscription and support for apartheid militarism. This thesis explores the relationship between those militarised identities and the historical processes of apartheid through a consideration of a broad range of white SADF veteran narratives from the Missing Voices Oral History Project archive. This consideration of the role of identity mobilisation in apartheid can shed light on the effect of historical processes of militarisation on white men in South Africa, as well as address the persistence of values and behaviours that may present barriers to the social transformation of South Africa towards a true constitutional democracy. The thesis explores identity in SADF veteran narratives through the application of social constructionism in order to determine the effect of coercive structures and identity mobilisation on individuals, and to gauge the persistence militarised identities after the social and political structures underpinning them had become defunct. The identity content of the narratives is contextualised in relation to structures of coercion employed by the apartheid state and the SADF alongside a consideration of the effect of political transition on veterans. The legacy of the historical environment and the impact of political transition on SADF veterans’ constructed identities is investigated in relation to these veterans’ own visions of their roles in post-apartheid South Africa. Therefore, this thesis endeavours to contribute to the expansion of the field of historical and identity study by considering the construction and renegotiation of military identities that maintained, benefited from, and were exploited by the apartheid state.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Weich, Francois
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: South Africa -- History -- 1961-1994 , Angola -- History -- South African Incursions, 1978-1990 -- Veterans , South Africa -- History, Military -- 1961- , Veterans -- South Africa -- Personal narratives , South Africa -- Armed forces , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1961-1978 , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1978-1989 , South Africa. South African Defence Force
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76106 , vital:30504
- Description: The ideologies and structures of the apartheid state have received extensive academic attention, but the legacies of the militarisation of white South African men – a group that exists at a unique intersection of apartheid privilege and exploitation – have not been sufficiently addressed. Even as beneficiaries of apartheid, white men were militarised through structures of coercion and the mobilisation of identity constructions that resulted in the widespread submission to conscription and support for apartheid militarism. This thesis explores the relationship between those militarised identities and the historical processes of apartheid through a consideration of a broad range of white SADF veteran narratives from the Missing Voices Oral History Project archive. This consideration of the role of identity mobilisation in apartheid can shed light on the effect of historical processes of militarisation on white men in South Africa, as well as address the persistence of values and behaviours that may present barriers to the social transformation of South Africa towards a true constitutional democracy. The thesis explores identity in SADF veteran narratives through the application of social constructionism in order to determine the effect of coercive structures and identity mobilisation on individuals, and to gauge the persistence militarised identities after the social and political structures underpinning them had become defunct. The identity content of the narratives is contextualised in relation to structures of coercion employed by the apartheid state and the SADF alongside a consideration of the effect of political transition on veterans. The legacy of the historical environment and the impact of political transition on SADF veterans’ constructed identities is investigated in relation to these veterans’ own visions of their roles in post-apartheid South Africa. Therefore, this thesis endeavours to contribute to the expansion of the field of historical and identity study by considering the construction and renegotiation of military identities that maintained, benefited from, and were exploited by the apartheid state.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Civil society engagement with water governance at a local government scale in South Africa
- Weaver, Matthew James Thanduxolo
- Authors: Weaver, Matthew James Thanduxolo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Government accountability -- South Africa , Civil Society -- South Africa , Political participation -- South Africa , Local government -- South Africa , Water supply -- Management , Water resources development -- South Africa , Water quality management -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/151316 , vital:39051
- Description: The South African state’s ideological commitment to a participatory approach to managing water resources and delivering services in a way that includes all stakeholders warrants critical analysis.Realising this ideological commitment has proved challenging, due largely to the complex historical, political, social, and environmental context of integrated water resource management (IWRM) in South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to explore and expand the learning of civil societyparticipating in water governance processes at a local government scale. To address this aim a single, in-depth, four-year case study into civil society participation in water governance in the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was conducted between 2014 and 2018. The case study comprised two research phases. Both phases of the research were conducted using an adaptive transdisciplinary and participatory action research approach underpinned by General Complexity Theory. Located at the research-practice interface, the study sought to be transformative and advance both scientific research and societal goals. Qualitative research methods and inductive and deductive modes of inference were used to collect and analyse the data respectively. In the first phase of the study, a Communities of Practice theoretical framing was adopted to investigate the emergence, practice and learning of a civil society organisation (CSO), Water for Dignity (WfD), in response to household water service delivery issues in the municipality. This phase served to build an understanding of factors that enabled and constrained the practice of WfD in addressing local water service issues, and of their role as social learning agents in building water-related knowledge in their community. As participation with the first civil society organisation fragmented, the opportunity arose for local government, the National Department of Water and Sanitation and civil society to co-engage. This opened up the second phase of the research during which the role of a multi-stakeholder platform, the Makana Water Forum (MWF), in enabling democratic water governance was investigated. The MWF was South Africa’s first catchment management forum with an integrated water service and water resource management agenda. In this phase, the study drew on interventionist methodology, Change Laboratory, from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to 1) describe the historical development, composition and shared purpose of the MWF multi-activity system constellation; and to 2) guide participants through seven learning actions (expansive learning cycle) to identify, analyse, model and implement remedial actions to problematic aspects (contradictions) of the MWF practice. Participants of the Change Laboratory workshops built their individual and collective transformative agency (deliberate actions to transform a problematic situation) as they navigated the expansive learning process. The development of this agency was identified through a micro-analysis of agentive talk. The two phases served to advance the exploration of civil society participation from informal participation to address water issues, to formal participation in water governance processes at a local government scale. Findings from the first phase of the research revealed that dedicated and sustained support of partners with distributed expertise and the highly motivated core members of WfD enabled the practice and emergence of the civil society organisation. However, factors such as poor internal leadership, power dynamics between supporting partners, socio-economic constraints and a deeply embedded lack of agency were found to be key constraining factors to WfD’s practice. Findings revealed that learning at WfD team level occurred in four ways, through learning as belonging, learning as doing, learning as experiencing and learning as becoming. The WfD CSO was able to catalyse social learning related to personal water rights; and best practices for improving water quality and water conservation in their wider community of practice. Social learning was fostered mainly through structured citizen engagements offered by WfD. The research provides evidence that civil society organisations can play an important role in bridging water-related knowledge gaps and can foster active citizenship in South African communities. However, despite significant inputs of support and resources through the engaged transdisciplinary research process, the practice and learning outcomes of WfD had a marginal transformative impact on improving the citizen’s every-day water service experiences. Findings from the second phase of the study revealed the MWF to resemble a multi-activity system constellation with a multiple, partially overlapping. interests related to the management of water. The establishment, function and contradictions constraining the function of the MWF were influenced by past cycles of participatory water governance-related activity and practice at national and local scales. Through the Change Laboratory process, 25 contradictions were identified that appeared to constrain the ability of the MWF to enable inclusive and meaningful participatory water governance. Through a process of expansive learning, participants sought to overcome three sets of contradictions grouped as Problem Themes: lack of clear focus of the MWF; representation, representivity and nonattendance; and the MWF relationship with the Makana Local Municipality. Remedial actions modelled and those enacted have improved aspects of the function of the MWF (such as diversified modes of engagement and a more focussed agenda) but have only resulted in incremental shifts towards enabling improved participatory practice, most markedly in building a collaborative relationship and trust between the MWF members, municipal and government officials. The microanalysis of agentive talk revealed seven different expressions of transformative agency. Constraining socio-economic and political conditions and the limited capacity of the coordinating committee of the MWF hindered the development of transformative agency to the extent to which concrete actions were implemented. Findings further revealed that contextualising a Change Laboratory process within the adaptive cycle of a complex social-ecological system, and the particular opportunity context the system presents, could inform the enactment of agency and its potential impact on the transformation of the system. The intervention with the MWF was too short a process to clearly observe the effects of transformative actions on the sustainability of the Makana Local Municipality water system. However, long-chain transformative agency through the development of one-on-one engagements, learning journeys and a reflexive component to the MWF engagements could support transformative pathways to sustainability in the municipality and water management system. The study contributes in-depth insight into the key role of learning as a catalyst in transformative processes. Learning improves the collaborative and adaptive capacity of people, and therefore, water management institutions, to manage explicitly for the complexity inherent in “complex” socialecological systems. It provides empirical evidence as to what enables and constrains “real” participation and learning in grass-roots water governance processes in the context of a shifting national drive towards a more adaptive and developmental Integrated Water Resource Management approach. It further provides methodological contributions to 1) the application of the Change Laboratory method with multi-activity system constellations in developing world contexts and 2) value and limitations of extended and engaged transdisciplinary research. Lastly, it provides practical recommendations to the establishment and sustainable function of both community-based CSOs and multi-stakeholder platforms engaging in water governance processes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Weaver, Matthew James Thanduxolo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Government accountability -- South Africa , Civil Society -- South Africa , Political participation -- South Africa , Local government -- South Africa , Water supply -- Management , Water resources development -- South Africa , Water quality management -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/151316 , vital:39051
- Description: The South African state’s ideological commitment to a participatory approach to managing water resources and delivering services in a way that includes all stakeholders warrants critical analysis.Realising this ideological commitment has proved challenging, due largely to the complex historical, political, social, and environmental context of integrated water resource management (IWRM) in South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to explore and expand the learning of civil societyparticipating in water governance processes at a local government scale. To address this aim a single, in-depth, four-year case study into civil society participation in water governance in the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was conducted between 2014 and 2018. The case study comprised two research phases. Both phases of the research were conducted using an adaptive transdisciplinary and participatory action research approach underpinned by General Complexity Theory. Located at the research-practice interface, the study sought to be transformative and advance both scientific research and societal goals. Qualitative research methods and inductive and deductive modes of inference were used to collect and analyse the data respectively. In the first phase of the study, a Communities of Practice theoretical framing was adopted to investigate the emergence, practice and learning of a civil society organisation (CSO), Water for Dignity (WfD), in response to household water service delivery issues in the municipality. This phase served to build an understanding of factors that enabled and constrained the practice of WfD in addressing local water service issues, and of their role as social learning agents in building water-related knowledge in their community. As participation with the first civil society organisation fragmented, the opportunity arose for local government, the National Department of Water and Sanitation and civil society to co-engage. This opened up the second phase of the research during which the role of a multi-stakeholder platform, the Makana Water Forum (MWF), in enabling democratic water governance was investigated. The MWF was South Africa’s first catchment management forum with an integrated water service and water resource management agenda. In this phase, the study drew on interventionist methodology, Change Laboratory, from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to 1) describe the historical development, composition and shared purpose of the MWF multi-activity system constellation; and to 2) guide participants through seven learning actions (expansive learning cycle) to identify, analyse, model and implement remedial actions to problematic aspects (contradictions) of the MWF practice. Participants of the Change Laboratory workshops built their individual and collective transformative agency (deliberate actions to transform a problematic situation) as they navigated the expansive learning process. The development of this agency was identified through a micro-analysis of agentive talk. The two phases served to advance the exploration of civil society participation from informal participation to address water issues, to formal participation in water governance processes at a local government scale. Findings from the first phase of the research revealed that dedicated and sustained support of partners with distributed expertise and the highly motivated core members of WfD enabled the practice and emergence of the civil society organisation. However, factors such as poor internal leadership, power dynamics between supporting partners, socio-economic constraints and a deeply embedded lack of agency were found to be key constraining factors to WfD’s practice. Findings revealed that learning at WfD team level occurred in four ways, through learning as belonging, learning as doing, learning as experiencing and learning as becoming. The WfD CSO was able to catalyse social learning related to personal water rights; and best practices for improving water quality and water conservation in their wider community of practice. Social learning was fostered mainly through structured citizen engagements offered by WfD. The research provides evidence that civil society organisations can play an important role in bridging water-related knowledge gaps and can foster active citizenship in South African communities. However, despite significant inputs of support and resources through the engaged transdisciplinary research process, the practice and learning outcomes of WfD had a marginal transformative impact on improving the citizen’s every-day water service experiences. Findings from the second phase of the study revealed the MWF to resemble a multi-activity system constellation with a multiple, partially overlapping. interests related to the management of water. The establishment, function and contradictions constraining the function of the MWF were influenced by past cycles of participatory water governance-related activity and practice at national and local scales. Through the Change Laboratory process, 25 contradictions were identified that appeared to constrain the ability of the MWF to enable inclusive and meaningful participatory water governance. Through a process of expansive learning, participants sought to overcome three sets of contradictions grouped as Problem Themes: lack of clear focus of the MWF; representation, representivity and nonattendance; and the MWF relationship with the Makana Local Municipality. Remedial actions modelled and those enacted have improved aspects of the function of the MWF (such as diversified modes of engagement and a more focussed agenda) but have only resulted in incremental shifts towards enabling improved participatory practice, most markedly in building a collaborative relationship and trust between the MWF members, municipal and government officials. The microanalysis of agentive talk revealed seven different expressions of transformative agency. Constraining socio-economic and political conditions and the limited capacity of the coordinating committee of the MWF hindered the development of transformative agency to the extent to which concrete actions were implemented. Findings further revealed that contextualising a Change Laboratory process within the adaptive cycle of a complex social-ecological system, and the particular opportunity context the system presents, could inform the enactment of agency and its potential impact on the transformation of the system. The intervention with the MWF was too short a process to clearly observe the effects of transformative actions on the sustainability of the Makana Local Municipality water system. However, long-chain transformative agency through the development of one-on-one engagements, learning journeys and a reflexive component to the MWF engagements could support transformative pathways to sustainability in the municipality and water management system. The study contributes in-depth insight into the key role of learning as a catalyst in transformative processes. Learning improves the collaborative and adaptive capacity of people, and therefore, water management institutions, to manage explicitly for the complexity inherent in “complex” socialecological systems. It provides empirical evidence as to what enables and constrains “real” participation and learning in grass-roots water governance processes in the context of a shifting national drive towards a more adaptive and developmental Integrated Water Resource Management approach. It further provides methodological contributions to 1) the application of the Change Laboratory method with multi-activity system constellations in developing world contexts and 2) value and limitations of extended and engaged transdisciplinary research. Lastly, it provides practical recommendations to the establishment and sustainable function of both community-based CSOs and multi-stakeholder platforms engaging in water governance processes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Morphological identification of fungi associated with Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.-Solms) Laubach in the Wouri River Basin, Douala, Cameroon
- Voukeng, Kenfack S N, Coombes, Candice A, Weyl, Philip S, Djeugoue, F, Hill, Martin P
- Authors: Voukeng, Kenfack S N , Coombes, Candice A , Weyl, Philip S , Djeugoue, F , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/423785 , vital:72093 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2989/16085914.2019.1636760"
- Description: In many parts of the world, excess growth of Eichhornia crassipes (Pontederiaceae) poses a serious threat to aquatic environments. In Cameroon, where manual clearing is still undertaken, little is known about fungal diversity associated with the plant, or its potential for biological control. Surveys of the Wouri River Basin in the Littoral Region of Cameroon were conducted during a rainy season (May–October 2014) and a dry season (November 2015–April 2016) at various sites, to identify fungi associated with water hyacinth. Fungi were isolated and identified from symptomatic plant parts collected. In the rainy season, 130 fungal isolates belonging to 12 genera were identified morphologically, whereas 299 isolates belonging to 23 genera were identified during the dry season. With the exception of Fusarium oxysporum and Phytophthora sp., the genera represented new records for Cameroon, and Chaetomium strumarium, Colletotrichum gloesporioides, C. acutatum, C. dematium, Curvularia pallescens and Pytomyces chartarum were considered new host records for E. crassipes in Africa. Isolates of Acremonium zonatum, Chaetomium strumarium, Alternaria eichhorniae, Phytophthora sp. and Rhizoctonia sp. showed the highest frequency of occurrence on E. crassipes in the Wouri River Basin and, given their record as plant pathogens, could be potentially useful in the development of mycoherbicides for this weed in Cameroon.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Voukeng, Kenfack S N , Coombes, Candice A , Weyl, Philip S , Djeugoue, F , Hill, Martin P
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/423785 , vital:72093 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2989/16085914.2019.1636760"
- Description: In many parts of the world, excess growth of Eichhornia crassipes (Pontederiaceae) poses a serious threat to aquatic environments. In Cameroon, where manual clearing is still undertaken, little is known about fungal diversity associated with the plant, or its potential for biological control. Surveys of the Wouri River Basin in the Littoral Region of Cameroon were conducted during a rainy season (May–October 2014) and a dry season (November 2015–April 2016) at various sites, to identify fungi associated with water hyacinth. Fungi were isolated and identified from symptomatic plant parts collected. In the rainy season, 130 fungal isolates belonging to 12 genera were identified morphologically, whereas 299 isolates belonging to 23 genera were identified during the dry season. With the exception of Fusarium oxysporum and Phytophthora sp., the genera represented new records for Cameroon, and Chaetomium strumarium, Colletotrichum gloesporioides, C. acutatum, C. dematium, Curvularia pallescens and Pytomyces chartarum were considered new host records for E. crassipes in Africa. Isolates of Acremonium zonatum, Chaetomium strumarium, Alternaria eichhorniae, Phytophthora sp. and Rhizoctonia sp. showed the highest frequency of occurrence on E. crassipes in the Wouri River Basin and, given their record as plant pathogens, could be potentially useful in the development of mycoherbicides for this weed in Cameroon.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The attitudes of riparian communities to the presence of water hyacinth in the Wouri River Basin, Douala, Cameroon
- Voukeng, Kenfack S N, Weyl, Philip, Hill, Martin P, Chi, N
- Authors: Voukeng, Kenfack S N , Weyl, Philip , Hill, Martin P , Chi, N
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/423822 , vital:72096 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2989/16085914.2018.1538868"
- Description: Since publication of the first record of Eichhornia crassipes in Cameroon in 1997, the weed has become highly invasive in the Wouri River Basin. Between June and September 2014, a socio-economic survey using participatory and qualitative methods was undertaken in the riparian villages of the Wouri River Basin to assess the perception of respondents to the presence of water hyacinth. The survey revealed that water hyacinth was a significant threat to activities along the river, which included fishing, sand extraction and river transportation. The presence of water hyacinth mats reduced catch rates of several common fish species, river transportation by 75%, and significantly reduced the income for sand extraction. Cameroon employs manual clearing of water hyacinth; however, respondents indicated they would consider other control methods, provided they do not have any negative impacts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Voukeng, Kenfack S N , Weyl, Philip , Hill, Martin P , Chi, N
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/423822 , vital:72096 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2989/16085914.2018.1538868"
- Description: Since publication of the first record of Eichhornia crassipes in Cameroon in 1997, the weed has become highly invasive in the Wouri River Basin. Between June and September 2014, a socio-economic survey using participatory and qualitative methods was undertaken in the riparian villages of the Wouri River Basin to assess the perception of respondents to the presence of water hyacinth. The survey revealed that water hyacinth was a significant threat to activities along the river, which included fishing, sand extraction and river transportation. The presence of water hyacinth mats reduced catch rates of several common fish species, river transportation by 75%, and significantly reduced the income for sand extraction. Cameroon employs manual clearing of water hyacinth; however, respondents indicated they would consider other control methods, provided they do not have any negative impacts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019