Browsing by Author "Seeliger, Leanne"
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- ItemApplying the water-energy-food nexus to farm profitability in the Middle Breede catchment, South Africa(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2018) Seeliger, Leanne; De Clercq, Willem P.; Hoffman, Willem; Cullis, James D. S.; Horn, Annabel M.; De Witt, MarleneThe water-energy-food nexus has emerged as a useful concept to understand the multiple interdependencies that exist between the water, energy and food sectors. The nexus is an ambitious attempt to work across disciplines and scales to understand the workings of these complex systems. It is, however, criticised for being more of a general framework than a practical methodology because of the vast amount of data it would need to make real-life contributions to sustainable development. We show how the nexus approach, when used within a farm budget model, can transform the problem focus in water governance. By changing the relationship among water, energy and food production of a farm, profitability is significantly changed. The water-energy-food nexus debate is discussed within the context of the South African water sector, particularly the Breede River Catchment. Working from within the farm budget model, we demonstrate the impact of moving from an irrigation canal system that requires electricity for pumping, to a gravity-fed piped irrigation system in the Middle Breede River. The finding is that the water-energy-food nexus has the potential to unlock groundbreaking solutions to complex problems in agricultural water management when used in appropriate modelling systems.
- ItemOn the value of environmental pragmatism in economic decision-making : with special reference to the work of Bryan Norton(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-03) Seeliger, Leanne; Hattingh, J. P.; Van der Berg, Servaas; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.This thesis sets out to uncover why environmental concerns are not being effectively addressed in economic decision-making. It investigates this by analyzing the key values underpinning neo-classical economics and ecological economics, and concludes that both approaches remain trapped in a form of moral monism and are thus unable to express the full range of environmental values that exist. This results in a form of reductionism in economic thinking where all environmental value is expressed in the form of exchange value. In order to escape from this reductionism, it is asserted that ecological economics needs to adopt a moral pluralist philosophy that can accommodate both exchange values and subjective intrinsic value. Mindful of the quagmires of moral relativism, the thesis seeks out an approach to economic decision-making that is able to justify courses of action amid seemingly competing economic and environmental values. Environmental pragmatism, a form of moral pluralism, that focuses on the contextual nature of truth and value, is found fitting for the task. It uses experience to reduce uncertainty and moves decision-makers towards courses of action that can support a plurality of values within a given context. Environmental pragmatist Bryan Norton’s philosophy of adaptive management, with its guidelines of experimentalism, multi-scalar analysis and localism, is found to be particularly helpful in achieving this. The second half of the thesis concentrates on demonstrating the value of environmental pragmatism in economic decision-making by using it to analyse the South African National Budget of 2005. Norton’s guidelines are first used as critical tools of analysis to show up the gaps and inconsistencies in the budget process and then, secondly, as creative tools to reconstruct the budget process. To demonstrate what this would mean in concrete terms, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture budget votes are analysed using the sustainability indicators of The City of Cape Town’s Sustainability Report of 2005 and the 2020 goals of The City of Cape Town’s Integrated Development Plan of 2004/5.
- ItemAn opinion survey of ethical concerns in environmental decision-making in Cape Town and Surrounds: the base line of 2002(Stellenbosch University, 2004-10) Seeliger, Leanne; Hattingh, Johan P.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main objectives of this study were to determine the levels of confidence in the process of environmental decision-making in Cape Town and surrounds; to determine the possible causes of these concerns; and to make recommendations about addressing these.
- ItemPrice, virtues, principles: how to discern what inspires best practices in water management? a case study about small farmers in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico(MDPI, 2016) Ramirez, Rafael R.; Seeliger, Leanne; Di Pietro, FilippoENGLISH ABSTRACT: Improving water practices among small farmers in a water scarce area like the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is a complex task. Despite government attempts to enforce regulations and question the possibility of adjusting prices, the misuse of this scarce resource continues. Most farmers are, at best, motivated to aim for a minimum level of compliance, with very few striving to engage in best practices. This article seeks to make a proposal about the best drivers for inspiring best practices in an effort to improve the use of water management in the area. It proposes that a virtue ethics approach that explicitly focuses on the cultivation of an attitude of respect for water founded on three key principles (participation, hydrosolidarity and proactive engagement) is the best solution for Yucatan. This hypothesis is the result of developing a singular methodology based on Partial Least Squares (PLS), according to structural equation modeling (SEM), that could be replicated anywhere to ascertain which measures are best suited in a particular context. Using a small sample size, this research ascertains what is required to achieve best practices with regards to the management of water in that particular area.