Research Articles (Geography and Environmental Studies)
Recent Submissions
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Into the future : Donkergat military training area and the Langebaan Ramsar site
(AOSIS, 2019-02-26)Militaries need natural areas for offensive and defensive combat-readiness programmes. Here soldiers, war machinery and munitions are employed to prepare forces to execute warfighting tactics. Integration of environmental ... -
Studentification in Stellenbosch, South Africa
(Urbanistični inštitut RS, 2019)Globally, studentification has emerged as a prominent urban process, fast becoming entrenched in geographical discourse. Since the early 1990s, in both developed and developing world countries, an expansion in student ... -
Stellenbosch coffee society : societal and locational preferences
(Urbanistični inštitut RS, 2019)Stellenbosch is a university town boasting knowledge-intensive economic sectors with a variety of ‘new economy’ occupations and activities. The presence of a professional and creative class, as well as university students ... -
Architecture in Southern African informal settlements : a contextually appropriate intervention
(Urbanistični inštitut RS, 2019)Architectural professionals can contribute to efforts at achieving sustainable urbanism. However, the realm of professional discourse is extremely limited. Grounded architectural practice (GAP) is developed as a conceptual ... -
Laboratory method design for investigating the phytoremediation of polluted water (with erratum)
(South African Water Research Commission, 2019)The performance of plants to remove, remediate or immobilise environmental contaminants in a growth matrix through natural biological, chemical or physical activities was studied in a laboratory phytoremediation system. ... -
Assessing the influence of DEM source on derived streamline and catchment boundary accuracy
(South African Water Research Commission, 2019)Accurate DEM-derived streamlines and catchment boundaries are essential for hydrological modelling. Due to the popularity of hydrological parameters derived mainly from free DEMs, it is essential to investigate the accuracy ... -
Spatial variation in school performance, a local analysis of socio-economic factors in Cape Town
(CONSAS Conference, 2014)Poor pass rates of matric learners at secondary schools in South Africa has been a concern for quite some time. Despite large government spending on education, research has shown that the South African schooling system ... -
Do social grants contribute to the jobless population growth in the former South African homelands?
(University of the Free State, 2018)The former homelands and tribal authorities have large populations and high densities with low levels of economic activity and low employment. Population growth in these settlements is in contrast to expectations of ... -
Evaluating ‘homegrown’ research networks in Africa
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2018)Attempts to improve the policy environment have led to a growing pressure on governments in Africa to embark on policymaking that is more evidence based and considers a wide spectrum of scientific and indigenous knowledge. ... -
Applying the water-energy-food nexus to farm profitability in the Middle Breede catchment, South Africa
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2018)The 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 ... -
Quantifying the effects of ecological constraints on trait expression using novel trait-gradient analysis parameters
(Wiley Open Access, 2017)Complex processes related to biotic and abiotic forces can impose limitations to assembly and composition of plant communities. Quantifying the effects of these constraints on plant functional traits across environmental ... -
Impact of ecological redundancy on the performance of machine learning classifiers in vegetation mapping
(Wiley Open Access, 2017)Vegetation maps are models of the real vegetation patterns and are considered important tools in conservation and management planning. Maps created through traditional methods can be expensive and time-consuming, thus, ... -
Naturalization of European plants on other continents : the role of donor habitats
(National Academy of Sciences, 2019)The success of European plant species as aliens worldwide is thought to reflect their association with human-disturbed environments. However, an explicit test including all human-made, seminatural and natural habitat types ... -
Measuring and modelling evapotranspiration in a South African grassland : comparison of two improved Penman-Monteith formulations
(South African Water Research Commission, 2018)Accurately measuring evapotranspiration (ET) is important in the context of global atmospheric changes and for use with climate models. Direct ET measurement is costly to apply widely and local calibration and validation ... -
The application of an Urban Sprawl Index : comparing towns and cities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa
(CONSAS, 2018)The incidence and effects of urban sprawl have been the subject of a great many academic research mainly as a result of the challenges posed by continued urbanisation, especially in developing countries (see inter alia ... -
Thesium nautimontanum, a new species of Thesiaceae (Santalales) from South Africa
(Pensoft Publishers, 2018)Thesium nautimontanum, a new species of Thesiaceae (Santalales) from South Africa -
Future land cover change scenarios in South African grasslands - implications of altered biophysical drivers on land management
(Elsevier, 2018)Future land cover changes may result in adjustments to biophysical drivers impacting on net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE), catchment water use through evapotranspiration (ET), and the surface energy balance through a ... -
Fire and life history affect the distribution of plant species in a biodiversity hotspot
(Wiley, 2019)Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) provide valuable insights into species–environment relationships and potential climate change impacts on diversity. Most SDMs do not account for the role of natural disturbance ... -
Reflections on student tourism research in South Africa
(AfricaJournals, 2017)In South Africa, the tourism system has seen considerable policy attention over the past twenty years. As a consequence, there has been a large body of scholarship tracing its development. Much of this work draws heavily ... -
Extreme 1-day rainfall distributions : analysing change in the Western Cape
(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2017)Severe floods in the Western Cape Province of South Africa have caused significant damage to property and infrastructure over the past decade (2003–2014). The hydrological design criteria for exposed structures and design ...
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