Doctoral Degrees (Geography and Environmental Studies)

A chaos theory approach to understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism businesses in Plateau State, Nigeria

Iirmdu, Tina Odinakachi (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Nations worldwide are grappling with the challenges of crises and disasters affecting the tourism industry. The coronavirus (COVID-19) which unexpectedly broke out in 2019 in Wuhan, China spread around ...

Deconstructing vulnerability: exploring the lives of young black men in urban informal settlements

Zweig, Patricia (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Globally, over a billion urban dwellers live in slum conditions today, increasing by around ten million inhabitants annually. Much of this growth is occurring in Africa, where some estimates suggest that ...

Towards a conceptual framework for the analysis of governance arrangements and livelihoods of small-scale fisheries in Norton, Zimbabwe

Jimu, Tawanda (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Governance arrangements and their impacts on the livelihoods of small-scale fisheries (SSF) in Zimbabwe are an understudied phenomenon. Government and local authorities are very active, vocal and visible ...

Negotiating grey spaces: A southernised relational analysis of customary land-use regulation mechanisms in peri-urban Informal mixed-use developments - A case study of the Helderberg District in Cape Town

Geyer, H. S. (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study investigates the phenomenon of mixed-use development in informalised public housing (Colloquially referred to as RDP housing) developments in the Helderberg region of the City of Cape Town ...

Object-based geomorphometry and soil spectroscopy in a fluvial terrace dominated landscape

Louw, Gerrit Jacobus (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The adaptation and mitigation of adverse global change necessitate better understanding and management of natural resources. Fluvial terrace staircases are a paleo-fluvial phenomenon critical to mining, ...

Linking love and health: Social narratives of sex, intimacy, and love in the context of universal testing and treatment of HIV

Viljoen, Lario (2021-03)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since the 1990s, HIV prevention efforts have evolved from a primary focus on sexual behavioural change to an increasing focus on treatment-based prevention modalities as scientific evidence about the ...

Regional economic resilience: exploring industrial decline in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe

Gambe, Tazviona Richman (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study sought to investigate the strategy options for regional economic resilience in the face of industrial decline in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province in Zimbabwe. Bulawayo has been going through a ...

A remote sensing-machine learning framework for modelling forest health

Poona, Nitesh Keshavelal (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The utility of remote sensing data, in particular high dimensional spectroscopy data, is now widely used for the detection and monitoring of pest and disease in agriculture and forestry. Coupled with ...

Developing a spatial risk profile: assessing building vulnerability to extreme coastal inundation hazard

Williams, Lauren Lyn (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Coastal zones are dynamic spaces where human activities and infrastructure interface directly with natural forces, particularly extreme weather events such as storm surges. Coastal inundation is regarded ...

Regional mapping of spekboom canopy cover using very high resolution aerial imagery

Harris, Dugal Jeremy (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Widespread degradation of subtropical thicket (South Africa) by poorly managed pastoralism has led to substantial decreases in ecological functioning and biodiversity. Once degraded, thicket does not ...

Towards land change management using ecosystem dynamics and land cover change in rural Eastern Cape

Munch, Zahn (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Land cover change, triggered by natural and anthropogenic land use change, affects ecosystem services provided by grasslands. Woody encroachment into the grasslands is a threat to function and productivity ...

Mapping surface water in complex and heterogeneous environments using remote sensing

Bangira, Tsitsi (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Global climate change characterised by rising temperatures and changes in the magnitude and intensity of precipitation is projected to affect the spatial and temporal distribution of land surface water ...

The impact of spatial planning on the structure of South African cities since 1994

Du Plessis, Daniel Jacobus (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African cities have been shaped by colonial and post-1948 apartheid city policies resulting in what is commonly referred to as ‘apartheid cities’. The vision of urban spatial transformation supported ...

An analysis of an urban edge as urban growth management instrument : Cape Town, South Africa

Horn, Anele (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The City of Cape Town (CoCT) has since the 1990s employed an urban edge line and development edges policy as growth management instruments in its spatial development framework (SDF) (CoCT 2011). However, ...

Understanding distributional responses of vegetation to changes in climate and fire regime in the Cape Floristic Region

Magadzire, Nyasha (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-12)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As evidence of climate change and its impact on biodiversity continues to grow, anticipating and understanding ecological responses to climate change is ever more critical. In fire-prone ecosystems, such ...

A critical reflection on the formalisation of communal land rights in Namibia : why local contexts matter for bridging the dichotomies of tenure rights

Matthaei, Elke Astrid (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-11)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Struggles over access to, and control of, land have a long history in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since precolonial times, land has material and symbolic significance, with rights to land having been exchanged, ...