Showing papers in "South African Geographical Journal in 2010"

Climate change 2007: the physical science basis

Abstract: S. Solomon, D. Qin, M. Manning, M. Marquis, K. Averyt, M.M.B. Tignor, H. LeRoy Miller, Jr. and Z. Chen, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007, 996 pp. (paperback), ISBN-978-1-57718-033-3 This...

Reconstructing history, grounding claims to space: history, memory, and displacement in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park

Abstract: The recent creation of Mozambique's Limpopo National Park (LNP) and its integration into the larger Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) promise to effect profound political, social, and ecological changes. These range from removing sections of the international border fence and restocking wildlife in the LNP to the planned relocation of several thousand people living within the park. These transformations have inspired complex, conflicting excavations of the past. This paper investigates how history and memory are deployed as strategic political resources to justify competing claims to space, in this case the rural village of Massingir Velho slated for relocation and the larger GLTP/LNP. Official GLTP history strategically rationalizes the creation of a transnational park that is rich in wildlife and tourist opportunities and a vehicle for addressing multiple past violences. Residents of Massingir Velho who are critical of the planned relocation reconstruct a strikingly different history. They draw on...

Large-scale disasters: prediction, control, and mitigation

Abstract: Disasters, natural and manmade, have major consequences on humans and their livelihoods as was tragically demonstrated by the Sumatra tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and many other recent events. The publication Large-scale Disasters: Prediction, Control and Mitigation, edited by Mohamed Gad-el-Hak, is another contribution to the growing amount of materials published on the topic of disasters. It follows from a U.S.–Egypt Workshop on Predictive Methodologies for Global WeatherRelated Disasters held in Cairo from 13 to 15 March 2006. It has been compiled as a set of chapters with the aim of reviewing different topics covering the prediction, control, and mitigation of large-scale disasters. However, it particularly focuses on describing the physical foundation and prediction of hazards leading to what is called large-scale disasters. These latter topics are particularly useful contributions for scientists, engineers, and practitioners engaged with current literature on disasters, as the book emphasizes on the physical science behind the origin and prediction of hazards leading to disasters, particularly weather-related hazards that have some kind of associated predictability. The foundation for the book is laid in Chapters 2 and 3, where the basic mathematical concepts behind modeling weather-related disasters are briefly described. In the following chapters, the book diverts from this theme to a loose and somewhat unrelated collection of topics describing relief logistics, medical responses, energy issues, and even seawater agriculture. From Chapter 10 onwards, the book returns to the theme of physics and prediction of hazards, starting with an excellent discussion on disastrous hazards affecting the growing number of megacities around the world, particularly sand and dust storms and air pollution in Egypt, India, and China. The next chapter presents a detailed discussion on the progress and impact of the 2004 Sumatra tsunami, and deals with warning against tsunamis. Chapter 11 is followed by a number of chapters written by leading experts, which discuss in a conversational manner, the highly complex mathematical models used in weather, and climate prediction of different hazards. The predictive capabilities on seasonal to decadal timescales (Chapter 14), the modeling applications for climate-change scenarios and impacts (Chapter 15), and the impact of climate change on precipitation (Chapter 16) present excellent overviews on the effects that changes in the climate system have on the seasonal to decadal timescale of potential disasters. These chapters are followed by a discussion that appears somewhat out of sequence in this book; namely, an overview on the history of numerical weather prediction over the last hundred years. It is a fascinating discussion for those who wish to know more about the history behind the development of this predictive technique that has led to the most significant advances in the prediction of hazardous weather over the last few decades. The book concludes with Chapters 20 and 21 on the application of satellite technology in observing hazardous weather and its disastrous consequences. A detailed discussion on space-based initiatives for disaster management and the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters gives

African regional integration and European involvement: external agents in the East African Community

Abstract: The EU's role as a model for regional integration is widely discussed in scholarship and policy circles. The promotion of regional integration is central to the EU's external relations and is frequently expected by the EU's partners. This paper examines European involvement with the East African Community (EAC). It questions the promotion and adoption of the European model and critically examines how the discourse of regionalisation relates to motivations and dynamics. On the European part, the promotion of regional integration is part of the EU's notion of a geopolitical mission based on the objective of aligning internal and external policy agendas. African elites, on the other hand, frequently view ‘integration’ as a way of mobilising resources and asserting state sovereignty.

Spatiality and ‘borderlessness’ in transfrontier conservation areas

Abstract: This article offers a critique of transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) by focusing on the conception of borders in the proposition of these areas. It claims that the conception of borders as fences that should be removed masks the actual process of bordering that accompanies the creation of TFCAs in different socio-economic and ecological settings. Using the local realities in southern Tanzania where the borders of neither the state nor the protected areas are marked by physical fences, this paper demonstrates how proponents of TFCAs engender new borders that affect the livelihoods of local residents. The assumption that TFCAs follow natural borders is problematic, in that borders are a human creation that are also spatially bounding. This paper draws on conceptual insights from border studies to engage with narratives in transfrontier conservation. Empirically, it uses the experience of the ongoing process of establishing the Selous–Niassa wildlife corridor, which is a cog in the creation of the Selo...

A spatial assessment of coastal development and land use change in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract: This paper considers development and land use change in the coastal zone of the Ngqushwa and Ndlambe municipalities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The two municipalities portray similar physical geographies, but have distinctly different socio-economic characteristics, which result in notable differences in development and land use patterns. Land use units were mapped from monochromatic aerial photographs at three time epochs for the period 1940–2004. The resultant land use maps illustrate a mosaic of development and land use change in the two municipalities with unique trends; the Ndlambe Municipality has experienced rapid formal urban development, with limited informal development. In contrast, the Ngqushwa Municipality has experienced low-density informal development, with a very low increase in formal development. Differences in the two areas can largely be attributed to their differing political and socio-economic histories as well as current municipal capacities. The study concludes that to ensu...

The geomorphology of the Coastal Platform in the southern Cape

Abstract: The Coastal Platform is the dominant geomorphic macro-feature of the southern Cape south of the Cape Fold Belt. The southern Cape coast has served, on-shore as well as off-shore, as an important sediment sink, since the mid-Cretaceous, and into and throughout the Quaternary. An understanding of the geomorphic evolution of the Coastal Platform since the Cretaceous provides a context for the subsequent Neogene and Quaternary geomorphic palaeoenvironments of the region. Existing evidence for the evolution of the Coastal Platform is reviewed and synthesised, and new evidence supporting the polycyclic nature of the surface is introduced. The Coastal Platform was planed under hot, humid conditions during the Cretaceous, following the break-up of Gondwana. Simultaneously, the Great Escarpment was eroded inland. This resulted in a much modified African Surface which manifests itself as the Coastal Platform extending from Bot River in the west to Port Elizabeth in the east. Evidence based on detailed map analysis ...

A South African Domesday Book: the first Union census of 1911

Abstract: The Union of South Africa was established a century ago in May 1910. The first census of the new united state took place in May 1911. It may therefore be regarded as a foundational, Domesday survey of the country, covering its population, housing, livestock, agriculture and industries. The census was organised with considerable speed, and the compilation and production of the results were equally fast, with all sections and the Director's report completed at the end of 1912, only 19 months after the enumeration. With such haste, some of the details have been lost and with the destruction of most of the original records, there is only a limited possibility of reconstructing the unpublished data. Nevertheless, in scope and inclusiveness, it was never repeated, and therefore remains an under-utilised landmark in the history of the country.

The shape of glacial valleys and implications for southern African glaciation

Abstract: The classic U-shaped valley is a typical expression of glacial erosion, but situations can occur where the glacier effects little to no change in the landscape. Such an occurrence would be where the glacier is cold-based and remains so during its demise – never entering into a warm-based (erosional) phase. Here, two present-day examples are provided where glaciers exist, but the valley form has remained unaltered despite multiple glacial events. The key to such a situation is suggested to be the altitudinal/latitudinal spatial location, such that the ice has completely disappeared before, during the move towards an interglacial, there is time for it to transform into warm-based ice. The argument can then be made that perhaps the same is the situation for the reconstructed, small glaciers in the Lesotho–Drakensberg area. The ice was cold-based due to a combination of its thinness and the cooling effect of shading. Cold-based ice could explain the lack of striated clasts found in the moraines, the absence o...

The changing context for regional integration in southern Africa: how adaptive are its regional institutions?

Abstract: This commentary examines the performance of southern Africa's regional institutions against the backdrop of the changing regional context since the late 1990s. The first section reflects on the relationship between successive geopolitical changes and efforts to keep the Southern African Customs Union, Southern African Development Coordination Conference and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa relevant over time, as well as the frequent mismatch between the ambitions for regional integration institutions and the evolving realities. Thereafter, I consider how far the optimism that post-apartheid South Africa would transform itself from regional pariah to leading partner in reaping collective peace dividends has been borne out, using the examples of recent trends in conflict and instability, in nationalism and nation building and in infrastructure and communications. Finally, the fitness of current institutions to address new challenges in the form of global environmental/climate change, the ongoin...

Global “openness” and trade regionalism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development

Abstract: Post-independent Africa is riddled with failed skeletons of development initiatives. Trade regionalism offered the potential for Africa's economic renewal on the presumption that it would consolidate intra-African trade and extra-continental exportation. Under the new trade regionalism, Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs) increasingly faced paradoxical trade development philosophies with extremes of outward orientation and inward orientation. Whereas Africa's RECs were, by design, inward-oriented with formal obligatory treaties, the ascendancy of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) entailed outward orientation, and global openness practices. NEPAD established direct contacts with member states to enforce unilateral action outside existing RECs' treaties to deepen national structural adjustments at the RECs scale, through the Most Favored Nation principle. This study argues that NEPAD failed to enhance intra-African trade or extra-continental exportation. Standard and global prin...

Queer visibilities: space, identity and interaction in Cape Town

Abstract: In 2006, South Africa joined The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada in granting same-sex couples the right to marry. The achievement of South Africa in this regard should not be underestimated. In just one-and-a-half decades, the country has gone from persecuting and arresting individuals with same-sex dispositions in allowing them to marry and adopt children. No country has so radically changed its position towards homosexual individuals or the perception of itself in such a short period of time. Yet, as Andrew Tucker notes, while such achievements have been admirable, the legal rights attained do not necessarily equate to daily improvements in the lives of many queer South Africans. While, de jure, queer citizens in South Africa now have the ability to marry, de facto, many still cannot. And while cities such as Cape Town are able to boast about their liberal and accepting stance towards queer individuals, the reality on the ground for many, even in Cape Town, may be considerably different. Andrew Tucker’s Queer Visibilities explores the gap between liberal law and the more dangerous reality for the groups of queer men in Cape Town. The book is focused around the concept of queer visibility as a way of exploring the connections between queer identities and particular spaces. Queer visibility is deployed as a lens through which it becomes possible to see the opportunities available to diverse groups of queer men to express difference. The book sets about exploring how different queer visibilities among different groups have been simultaneously possible in one city. By so doing, it tries to explore how visibility within particular urban communities depends on the history and the geographies of those different communities and, crucially, the relationship between them. Concurrently, the book explores how the heterosexual/homosexual binary itself varies within each community, how heteronormative regulation varies, and hence the different opportunities that exist for queer men to become visible in urban space. As such, it also provides a way of breaking down distinctions between ‘gay space’ and spaces that are not. It is argued that different urban spaces are infused with different forms of heteronormative regulation which allow different forms of queer visibility to occur. These contentions are developed in seven well-written chapters. Chapter 1 outlines the key argument of the book. Chapters 2–4 form the content of Part 1 and are collectively subtitled Visibilities. Here, it is demonstrated that queer groups have been remarkably resourceful, inventive, strategic and pragmatic in being able to engage different formations of heteronormative regulation and in some cases overcome homophobia in their respective communities. It is suggested that South Africa’s racial history and apartheid have acted as important settings for these different communities, allowing different groups different opportunities to become visible. Chapters 5–7, presented as Part 2, are subtitled Interactions. Here, the focus is on the problems different queer communities might have in interacting with each other owing to the different forms

Editorial : the SAGJ and 2010

Abstract: The South African Geographical Journal became one of the Routledge Journals in 2010. The journal also launched a new cover design and format. A more appropriate reflection on the implications of these changes on the journal and the community it serves can only be done after some years. For the moment, the new cover design seeks to consolidate the identity of the journal and to position the SAGJ as a scholarly outlet in South Africa, southern Africa, and the African continent as whole. The message in the new cover design is that though the journal is located in South Africa, its geographic reach should go beyond the borders of the Republic. In doing so, the journal should not loose its roots both literally and figuratively. By sheer coincidence, the year 2010 presented possibilities for testing some of the thoughts on the scope of the journal. These possibilities relate to landmark events in the country and the region.

Grain-size characteristics of surface sands and sandstones : indicators of potential sediment sources for the southern Tuli Basin, South Africa

Abstract: Cover sand is ubiquitous across much of northern South Africa, yet few areas have been geomorphologically investigated. Cover sands at the Hackthorne 1 Stone Age site, southern Tuli Basin, provide an opportunity to investigate the granulometry and geomorphology of artifact-bearing sands overlying weathered, calcretized Miocene alluvial deposits. Cover sands and potential sediment sources are investigated, specifically to understand the nature and origin of the regional sediments. Grain-size characteristics of the sand mantle at the Hackthorne 1 site suggest that the cover sand is eolian in origin. It is further postulated that the sand may represent an outlier of the Kalahari, particularly given its relatively close proximity to the west of the site. However, alluvial sediments contained within the underlying calcrete are being exhumed through dissolution, creating basal lags of alluvial gravels and mixing with the mantling eolian sands. Solution pits in the calcrete (makondos) concentrate these alluvial sediments and artifacts, and form coarse lag deposits at the base of makondos.

But we don't spoil it, we protect it': Coleske residents' conceptualisations of the Baviaanskloof nature reserve and its protection

Abstract: Many scholars acknowledge that people living within or adjacent to nature reserves should be part of conservation processes. However, studies indicate that tension exists between some government conservation models, vis-a-vis local residents' social attachments and sense of belonging to these protected areas. As tension may withhold residents from participating in conservation, it is critical to understand the nature of such tensions by considering how local residents express social values relating to the environment and its protection, and what influences these values. The objective of this article is to contribute to this body of literature by reporting on a case study of the Coleske residents living within the Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve (BNR) in South Africa. It considers tension between them and the conservation authority, the Eastern Cape Parks Board (ECPB), about relocation options outside the BNR, as presented to this community by the ECPB. Findings indicate that many residents attach meaning to ...

Regions and the environment: experiences of environmental research networks in southern Africa

Abstract: This paper analyses how the main environmental research networks in southern Africa have adopted a regional approach to environmental issues. Documented information is used to assess and discuss the experiences of the regional environmental research networks on the basis of four criteria: structure and functionality, productivity, impact and sustainability. It is apparent from the analysis that of the seven main regional environmental research networks studied, only the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network shows some signs of being on course towards consolidating a regional outlook. The other environmental research networks have structural, operational, funding and capacity constraints that hinder them from making meaningful contribution to environmental issues at a regional level. The paper recommends that an effective regional research network should have a Secretariat, operate as a broker between funding agencies and researchers based in other institutions, be ‘home-grown’ or...