Intersection between disaster vulnerability and sustainability

There is currently limited understanding of some of the prevailing disaster risks facing the GCR, the levels of potential resilience of communities and households to a major disaster, and how the vulnerability of the region is being exacerbated by a range of factors, including the way we are designing human settlements, within the context of the growing variability of the earths’ climate. This project analyses disaster related vulnerabilities in the GCR and how resilient the region may be in the face of these.

A framework for the project was developed, defining objectives and proposed research focus areas until March 2014. In 2011/12 research will focus on three key areas, namely low income human settlements on dolomitic land; settlement development on floodplains and flood prone areas; and air-pollution related to in particular the burning of fossil fuels in the city region. 

Research has begun with the preparation of a paper by Senior Researcher Maryna Storie, entitled: ‘Representations of space: a case of karst, community and change in the urban landscape’. The paper was prepared and delivered at the ACC/CUBES Cities Conference at UCT 7-9 September 2011. More recently, a policy dialogue related to low income human settlements on dolomite land was held on Tuesday 22 November 2011. The workshop engaged national role players such as the Department of Human Settlements, provincial stakeholders, local municipalities (notably infrastructure & service delivery, planning, environmental and disaster management departments), consultants, community-based organisations and entities such as the Council for Geoscience (CGS) and National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) around the concern of settlement expansion and densification on dolomite in and around Gauteng.

A second investigation under this project examines human settlement development on flood plains and in flood prone areas, especially given the effects of climate change on storm severity and duration. These changes may require different approaches to flood plain delineation and storm water management. A special interest is the intersection between areas underlain by dolomite and flood-plains, given that there is a potential increase in the level of hazard on dolomitic land that is affected by greater run-off and increased ponding of water.

In a third study for 2011/12, Maryna Storie will work with David Kimemia at the Sustainable Energy Technology and Research Centre (SeTAR) at the University of Johannesburg, on a paper around air pollution in the GCR. The paper will specifically examine the long-term human health consequences, and in turn economic impacts, of a large number of GCR households continuing to use traditional fuels such as wood, charcoal, anthracite and paraffin for cooking and heating.

Documents:

• Representations of space: a case of karst, community and change in the urban landscape
• Background and methodology