Towards a holistic view of land and water management in the Gamtoos River catchment: applying a political geoecology approach
- Authors: Robb, Breanne Nicola
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7914 , vital:21323
- Description: The Eastern Cape of South Africa is characterised by water scarcity, constraint on usage, and inter-basin transfers. Water from the Gamtoos River catchment supplies water users both within the catchment and outside the catchment boundaries. This requires careful management of water and land to prevent overexploitation. However, management is complex as it is divided among various stakeholders with differing interests. Political geoecology is an approach that has the potential to provide holistic insight into the catchment’s water context. It was proposed to account for spatial patterns underlying interrelationships between resource distribution, human productive activity, and power relations by integrating the fields of political ecology and geoecology. This research was undertaken to further develop political geoecology as an approach for examining human-environment relations in geography through a case study of land and water management in the Gamtoos River catchment and its subcatchments. Distribution of resources and human influences were elucidated through generation of maps. To facilitate spatial analysis, the study area was delineated into catchment zones. Additionally, stakeholders were identified and classified at local, regional, national, and international levels. Power relations between stakeholders were investigated through qualitative content analysis of transcribed semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires that were administered to 34 research participants (selected through purposive and snowball sampling) directly involved in resource management in the catchment. Findings were spatially interpreted for each of the zones. The source zone was characterised by natural vegetation, steep, rugged topography, limited access ability, and power relations around restoration and conservation interests, which arose most significantly in the Baviaanskloof. The natural recapture zone was characterised by irrigated cultivation in areas of less harsh terrain in the upstream (Baviaanskloof and Kouga) sub-catchments. In the marginal Baviaanskloof, localised power relations over water distribution primarily arose. In the thriving commercial farming context of the Kouga, power relations included a local upstream-downstream legal conflict, competing levels of governance, issues with establishing water users’ associations (WUAs), and lack of adequate implementation of processes by government. Regional power relations are most prominent in the thriving commercial farming context of the overlapping regulated recapture and final use zones in the downstream Gamtoos sub-catchment. The reliance on upstream sub-catchments and tensions with the city of Port Elizabeth over water use are mediated through decisions made at the national level. Non-location specific power relations included indirect influence through energy, markets, and standards organisations, barriers in government preventing successful process implementation, and equity issues (particularly limiting the success of emerging farmers). These results illustrated that resource distribution, human productive activity, and power relations combine to produce unique characteristics in each of the zones in the Gamtoos catchment. The application of political geoecology in this case study situated the approach as useful for examining human- environment relations in geography.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Robb, Breanne Nicola
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7914 , vital:21323
- Description: The Eastern Cape of South Africa is characterised by water scarcity, constraint on usage, and inter-basin transfers. Water from the Gamtoos River catchment supplies water users both within the catchment and outside the catchment boundaries. This requires careful management of water and land to prevent overexploitation. However, management is complex as it is divided among various stakeholders with differing interests. Political geoecology is an approach that has the potential to provide holistic insight into the catchment’s water context. It was proposed to account for spatial patterns underlying interrelationships between resource distribution, human productive activity, and power relations by integrating the fields of political ecology and geoecology. This research was undertaken to further develop political geoecology as an approach for examining human-environment relations in geography through a case study of land and water management in the Gamtoos River catchment and its subcatchments. Distribution of resources and human influences were elucidated through generation of maps. To facilitate spatial analysis, the study area was delineated into catchment zones. Additionally, stakeholders were identified and classified at local, regional, national, and international levels. Power relations between stakeholders were investigated through qualitative content analysis of transcribed semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires that were administered to 34 research participants (selected through purposive and snowball sampling) directly involved in resource management in the catchment. Findings were spatially interpreted for each of the zones. The source zone was characterised by natural vegetation, steep, rugged topography, limited access ability, and power relations around restoration and conservation interests, which arose most significantly in the Baviaanskloof. The natural recapture zone was characterised by irrigated cultivation in areas of less harsh terrain in the upstream (Baviaanskloof and Kouga) sub-catchments. In the marginal Baviaanskloof, localised power relations over water distribution primarily arose. In the thriving commercial farming context of the Kouga, power relations included a local upstream-downstream legal conflict, competing levels of governance, issues with establishing water users’ associations (WUAs), and lack of adequate implementation of processes by government. Regional power relations are most prominent in the thriving commercial farming context of the overlapping regulated recapture and final use zones in the downstream Gamtoos sub-catchment. The reliance on upstream sub-catchments and tensions with the city of Port Elizabeth over water use are mediated through decisions made at the national level. Non-location specific power relations included indirect influence through energy, markets, and standards organisations, barriers in government preventing successful process implementation, and equity issues (particularly limiting the success of emerging farmers). These results illustrated that resource distribution, human productive activity, and power relations combine to produce unique characteristics in each of the zones in the Gamtoos catchment. The application of political geoecology in this case study situated the approach as useful for examining human- environment relations in geography.
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A comparison of Grade 10 Mathematics classroom-based test items and the end-of-year national examinations, using Stein's framework of cognitive demands : a Namibian case study
- Authors: Ihonya, Saima Namupa
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia -- Ohangwena , Educational tests and measurements -- Namibia -- Ohangwena , Cognitive learning , Critical thinking , Examinations -- Namibia -- Ohangwena
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2032 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017343
- Description: This study researched the nature of tasks used in Grade 10 mathematics tests and end-of-year national examinations. The study was carried out in three, purposively selected, Grade 10 schools in the Ohangwena region in Northern Namibia. For the purpose of this study, a mixed method approach was employed to analyse a combination of both quantitative and qualitative data. A sample of three tests per mathematics teacher from the three participating schools and national examinations question papers for the past three consecutive years (2011-2013) were analysed using Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver’s (2000) framework of cognitive demand. The study was divided into two phases. Phase 1 was the analysis of teacher test items and national examination items in terms of their cognitive demand. Phase 2 involved semi-structured interviews with three selected teachers to probe their views and find out their basis for selecting test items. The findings of this study revealed that there was no substantial difference in the distribution of the levels of cognitive demand in both tests and national examinations items. The study, however, showed that mainly tasks requiring only procedures without connections dominated the tests and the examinations. The number of higher level tasks in both tests and examinations analysed was low. There was no single task coded at level 4 in any of the teachers’ tests. Only 2% of tasks could be classified at level 4 in the examination items. The study also revealed that since tests and examinations assess the same learning objectives from the syllabus, most of the test items set by teachers were extracted from the national examinations question papers. The paper recommends that more tasks at a higher level category need to be included in assessment tasks to promote critical thinking amongst learners.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ihonya, Saima Namupa
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Namibia -- Ohangwena , Educational tests and measurements -- Namibia -- Ohangwena , Cognitive learning , Critical thinking , Examinations -- Namibia -- Ohangwena
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2032 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017343
- Description: This study researched the nature of tasks used in Grade 10 mathematics tests and end-of-year national examinations. The study was carried out in three, purposively selected, Grade 10 schools in the Ohangwena region in Northern Namibia. For the purpose of this study, a mixed method approach was employed to analyse a combination of both quantitative and qualitative data. A sample of three tests per mathematics teacher from the three participating schools and national examinations question papers for the past three consecutive years (2011-2013) were analysed using Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver’s (2000) framework of cognitive demand. The study was divided into two phases. Phase 1 was the analysis of teacher test items and national examination items in terms of their cognitive demand. Phase 2 involved semi-structured interviews with three selected teachers to probe their views and find out their basis for selecting test items. The findings of this study revealed that there was no substantial difference in the distribution of the levels of cognitive demand in both tests and national examinations items. The study, however, showed that mainly tasks requiring only procedures without connections dominated the tests and the examinations. The number of higher level tasks in both tests and examinations analysed was low. There was no single task coded at level 4 in any of the teachers’ tests. Only 2% of tasks could be classified at level 4 in the examination items. The study also revealed that since tests and examinations assess the same learning objectives from the syllabus, most of the test items set by teachers were extracted from the national examinations question papers. The paper recommends that more tasks at a higher level category need to be included in assessment tasks to promote critical thinking amongst learners.
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“The stranger at home” : representations of home and hospitality in three South African post-transitional novels
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , Wicomb, Zoë -- Criticism and interpretation , Shukri, Ishtiyaq, 1968- -- Criticism and interpretation , Vladislavić, Ivan, 1957- -- Criticism and interpretation , Home in literature , Hospitality in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2325 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016355
- Description: This thesis examines the representation of home and hospitality in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light, Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret, and Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative. It attempts to trace the un-homeliness of the central characters and to account for their feelings of discomfort. As such, it argues that the home is incapable of being inviolable because the invasion of the public is always a possibility. The implication is that master narratives such as race, history and politics are always entering the space one constructs as private. That said, this study also argues that the home and those things with which it is most closely associated, such as belonging, comfort and safety, may actually hide a form of violence. By this I mean that in the desire for homeliness, one may exclude others from one’s home. Consequently, this argument draws on Jacques Derrida’s writings on the aporia of conditional and unconditional hospitality to investigate what ethical possibilities might, somewhat unexpectedly, be created by the un-homely home. The study is therefore an exploration of the potentials that inhere in a certain kind of un-homeliness, the most important of which is the chance to respond ethically to the alterity of the other. In sum, there is a necessity to extend hospitality beyond condition and beyond limit, and this ethical imperative is at odds with the desire for comfort and safety. The way in which post-transitional novels explore these issues of hospitality and home is the primary focus of this study.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , Wicomb, Zoë -- Criticism and interpretation , Shukri, Ishtiyaq, 1968- -- Criticism and interpretation , Vladislavić, Ivan, 1957- -- Criticism and interpretation , Home in literature , Hospitality in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2325 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016355
- Description: This thesis examines the representation of home and hospitality in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light, Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret, and Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative. It attempts to trace the un-homeliness of the central characters and to account for their feelings of discomfort. As such, it argues that the home is incapable of being inviolable because the invasion of the public is always a possibility. The implication is that master narratives such as race, history and politics are always entering the space one constructs as private. That said, this study also argues that the home and those things with which it is most closely associated, such as belonging, comfort and safety, may actually hide a form of violence. By this I mean that in the desire for homeliness, one may exclude others from one’s home. Consequently, this argument draws on Jacques Derrida’s writings on the aporia of conditional and unconditional hospitality to investigate what ethical possibilities might, somewhat unexpectedly, be created by the un-homely home. The study is therefore an exploration of the potentials that inhere in a certain kind of un-homeliness, the most important of which is the chance to respond ethically to the alterity of the other. In sum, there is a necessity to extend hospitality beyond condition and beyond limit, and this ethical imperative is at odds with the desire for comfort and safety. The way in which post-transitional novels explore these issues of hospitality and home is the primary focus of this study.
- Full Text:
Nanomaterial modified electrodes : optimization of voltammetric sensors for pharmaceutical and industrial application
- Authors: Brimecombe, Rory Dennis
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Voltammetry , Electrochemistry , Nanotubes , Nanostructured materials
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4101 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009721
- Description: Nanomaterials, in particular carbon nanotubes have been shown to exhibit favourable properties for the enhancement of electrochemical detection of target analytes in complex matrices. There is however scope for improvement in terms of the optimization thereof in electrochemical sensors surface modification. The aim of this thesis was to examine methods that would result in increased current response, lowered passivation and application of such modified surfaces with application to pharmaceutically and industrially relevant analytes. Current methods for enhancing the performance of carbon nanotubes include acid functionalization which not only increases the hydrophilicity of the nanotubes, and consequently their ability to provide stable (aqueous) suspensions, but also introduces electrochemically active sites. This particular approach is however not normalized in the literature. Over-exposure to acid treatment results in loss of structural integrity of the carbon nanotubes, and as such a fine balance exists between achieving these dual outcomes. Guided by high resolution scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, voltammetric and impedance studies, this thesis examined the role of the length of time of the acid functionalization process as well as the impact of activation of carbon nanotubes and fullerenes on electrochemical sensor performance. Based on desired charge transfer resistances, rate transfer coefficients and sensitivity towards redox probes the optimal length of acid functionalization for multiwalled carbon nanotubes was 9 hours and 4 hours for single-walled carbon nanotubes. Further improvements in the desired outcomes were achieved through electrochemical activation of the modified electrode surface by cycling in the presence of catechol, in a novel approach. By employing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy it was observed that catechol activation resulted in lowered charge transfer resistance, before and after activation, with functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (9 hours) exhibiting the greatest decrease of 90 % and functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (4 hours), a 50 % decrease. Corresponding increases in the heterologous rate transfer coefficient showed a 770 % increase for functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (9 hours), following catechol activation. Comparative observations for fullerenes following partial reduction in potassium hydroxide yielded a 30 % decrease in charge transfer resistance, with an increased heterologous rate transfer coefficient at a fullerene modified surface The performance of the nanomaterial modified electrodes was applied to the detection of wortmannin with applications in bioprocess control and in the pharmaceutical sector as well as to the detection and monitoring of the industrial dye Reactive red. Of particular relevance to these analytes was the assessment of the nanomaterial modified electrodes for enhanced stability, reproducibility, sensitivity and decreased passivation effects. In this study the first known account of wortmannin detection through electrochemical methods is reported. Voltammetric characterization of wortmannin revealed an irreversible cathodic process with a total number of 4 electrons and a diffusion coefficient of 1.19 x 10-7 cm².s⁻¹. At a functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode a limit of detection of 0.128 nmol.cm⁻³ was obtained, and with limited surface passivation the detection scheme afforded pertinent analyses in biological media representing a substantial improvement over chromatographic detection methods. This study also provided the first account of the voltammetric detection of reactive red, competing favourably with traditional spectroscopic methods for monitoring biodegradation of this compound in real time.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Brimecombe, Rory Dennis
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Voltammetry , Electrochemistry , Nanotubes , Nanostructured materials
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4101 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009721
- Description: Nanomaterials, in particular carbon nanotubes have been shown to exhibit favourable properties for the enhancement of electrochemical detection of target analytes in complex matrices. There is however scope for improvement in terms of the optimization thereof in electrochemical sensors surface modification. The aim of this thesis was to examine methods that would result in increased current response, lowered passivation and application of such modified surfaces with application to pharmaceutically and industrially relevant analytes. Current methods for enhancing the performance of carbon nanotubes include acid functionalization which not only increases the hydrophilicity of the nanotubes, and consequently their ability to provide stable (aqueous) suspensions, but also introduces electrochemically active sites. This particular approach is however not normalized in the literature. Over-exposure to acid treatment results in loss of structural integrity of the carbon nanotubes, and as such a fine balance exists between achieving these dual outcomes. Guided by high resolution scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, voltammetric and impedance studies, this thesis examined the role of the length of time of the acid functionalization process as well as the impact of activation of carbon nanotubes and fullerenes on electrochemical sensor performance. Based on desired charge transfer resistances, rate transfer coefficients and sensitivity towards redox probes the optimal length of acid functionalization for multiwalled carbon nanotubes was 9 hours and 4 hours for single-walled carbon nanotubes. Further improvements in the desired outcomes were achieved through electrochemical activation of the modified electrode surface by cycling in the presence of catechol, in a novel approach. By employing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy it was observed that catechol activation resulted in lowered charge transfer resistance, before and after activation, with functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (9 hours) exhibiting the greatest decrease of 90 % and functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (4 hours), a 50 % decrease. Corresponding increases in the heterologous rate transfer coefficient showed a 770 % increase for functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (9 hours), following catechol activation. Comparative observations for fullerenes following partial reduction in potassium hydroxide yielded a 30 % decrease in charge transfer resistance, with an increased heterologous rate transfer coefficient at a fullerene modified surface The performance of the nanomaterial modified electrodes was applied to the detection of wortmannin with applications in bioprocess control and in the pharmaceutical sector as well as to the detection and monitoring of the industrial dye Reactive red. Of particular relevance to these analytes was the assessment of the nanomaterial modified electrodes for enhanced stability, reproducibility, sensitivity and decreased passivation effects. In this study the first known account of wortmannin detection through electrochemical methods is reported. Voltammetric characterization of wortmannin revealed an irreversible cathodic process with a total number of 4 electrons and a diffusion coefficient of 1.19 x 10-7 cm².s⁻¹. At a functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode a limit of detection of 0.128 nmol.cm⁻³ was obtained, and with limited surface passivation the detection scheme afforded pertinent analyses in biological media representing a substantial improvement over chromatographic detection methods. This study also provided the first account of the voltammetric detection of reactive red, competing favourably with traditional spectroscopic methods for monitoring biodegradation of this compound in real time.
- Full Text:
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