Alexis Schaffler

Alexis Schäffler is a researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory. She holds a Masters in Sustainable Development, Planning & Management (Cum Laude) at the Sustainability Institute at Stellenbosch University. She also has an Honours degree in Sustainable Development, Planning and Management (Cum Laude) and a triple-major degree in Economics, Politics and Decision-Making. Alexis was the project manager for the Green Strategic Programme for Gauteng, a programme that informs the objectives of departments and municipalities working in Gauteng to build a sustainable city-region economy. Her academic interests lie in green economic development paths, social-ecological systems and valuing ecosystem services as central to the transition to sustainable economies and cities. Within this her current work focuses on‘green infrastructure’ as a strategy for enhancing the resilience of people and nature in urban landscapes and expanding conceptions of infrastructure. She is currently collaborating with internationally acclaimed authors on resilience, ecosystem services and green infrastructure, work that will be published in 2012. Alexis is also investigating food security and the material and resource inputs that affect food flows in the city-region. She will be expanding her Masters into a PhD.