Contents of December 2007

COMMENT
What makes a creative city?

UPFRONT
What’s new and happening?

CITY VISIT
Nelspruit: is it bursting at the seams?

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & DESIGN
Permeable paving promises profits.  

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & DESIGN
Can sustainable settlements be defined?

WASTE AND POLLUTION MANAGEMENT  
Waste management: profitable for people and the environment

PLANNING PERSONALITY
The South Africa Environment Outlook is not all good news

BATTLE OF THE ’BURBS
Stellenbosch: Town Centre South v Kayamandi

INSPIRATION
Earthworms make compost from restaurant waste

INSULT
Litter: the scourge of South Africa

TREE OF THE ISSUE
Heteropyxis natalensis

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COMMENT

Creative cities
Cities could be part of a solution as centres of innovation.

Well-known environmentalist Steward Brand has come up with what he refers to as ‘environmental heresies’ in the hope of influencing a new generation of ‘pragmatic greens’. Brand has identified three issues that many oppose as issues that should rather be embraced on environmental grounds: genetic engineering, urbanisation and nuclear power.

I find his perspective on urbanisation refreshing. As we are all aware, the human species now resides primarily in urban areas for the first time in history. Although this might suggest increased air pollution, resource consumption and the like, Brand argues that megacities will increase the earth’s carrying capacity for humans. Cities are localities of economic growth and, in general, greater prosperity promotes the environmental cause. He also believes cities unleash innovation. I completely agree with this perspective but, unfortunately, as with many worthwhile endeavours, it will take some effort to realise this. The innovative potential of cities needs to be discovered and nurtured. The traditional (some call it Fordist) pattern of control and governance will not be able to cope with faster cycles, instant changes and immediate challenges. Creative and innovative responses are, therefore, non-negotiable. A creative city hosts creative actors. These include not only the obvious actors, such as artists, but also those who are capable of negotiating borders and abandoning secure lines and inherited truths.

It takes time to change perceptions but, through innovative actors, the process could be accelerated. A case in point, that has met with some resistance, is the installation of permeable paving (see page 12) but, as the process of urban densification gathers momentum and the need to conserve water becomes increasingly apparent, more players will participate. As with any new technology or building system, the more popular and accessible it becomes, the more concerns around cost-effectiveness and a shift in mindset will fall away until the system is accepted as an industry standard. From everybody on the Urban Green File team, we hope all our readers enjoy a safe and joyful festive season. We look forward to a green and prosperous 2008.

A new outlook
Environmental indicators form the basis of state-of-the-environment reporting. Not only do they indicate the state or condition of the environment, they also show trends and, thereby, enable assessment of the effectiveness of efforts to manage environmental pressure. If you cannot measure impact, you will struggle to master it. The South Africa Environment Outlook looks at environmental indicators but also studies human vulnerability from an integrated perspective. - Engela Meyer

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UPFRONT

Local expo success
Letter from Carol Carver, Overstrand Conservation Foundation

Amid a growing interest in sustainable technologies, a local expo attracts visitors and exhibitors.

In response to a letter from Louw van Biljon, expressing his disappointment with the Sustain exhibition, in the October 2007 edition of Urban Green File, although I did not attend the event so I cannot comment on it personally, I think it would be interesting to draw attention to the Design for Sustainable Living Expo. It took place alongside the annual Hermanus Whale Festival in September 2007.

The organiser, Overstrand Conservation Foundation, is an umbrella organisation representing the interests of more than 60 environmental interest groups in the area. Noting the steady build-up of media interest in climate change and the need to make lifestyle adjustments along with growing public concern, we identified a need to host a comprehensive display of sustainable lifestyle choices targeted at the greater home-owner. We wanted visitors to experience a range of services, solutions and products and, most importantly, interact with the product owner or service supplier so that a thorough understanding and costing could be achieved. Our belief is that, if you can persuade a change in attitude, there is a real hope that decision-making and behaviour can be shaped productively. In short, we wanted to create an expo of ‘do-able’ solutions and a mind-changing experience.

Entry was free and we had 45 paying exhibitors, as well as a total of 58 exhibitors altogether – non-profit organisations and small entrepreneurs with a sustainable message or product did not have to pay to exhibit. The response to our expo has been extremely favourable and we are looking forward to being bigger and better in 2008. We welcome enquiries about our activities (www.ocf.co.za) and we are willing to share information with other organisations.

Please note that this letter has been edited in the interests of brevity and clarity.

Green lung remains
The Sandton Central community can rest assured that Mushroom Farm Park will be fully reinstated after tunnelling and construction work for the Gautrain is complete in 2009, thanks to the environmental management plan imposed on Bombela and Gautrain as well as a complementary plan developed by the Sandton Central Management District, the Mushroom Farm Bird Sanctuary, Johannesburg City Parks and Region E, as well as local ward councillors.

“Initial plans to build an above-the-ground route for the Gautrain over Mushroom Farm Park threatened the existence of the park,” says Irene Campbell, chairman of the Mushroom Farm Bird Sanctuary.

The sanctuary, together with Innesfree Park, enlisted the services of Arup to investigate alternative underground routes that would ensure the preservation of Mushroom Farm Park during construction of the train route.

Industrial park
Royal Canin South Africa has developed its factory gardens in Kya Sands, Gauteng, as an ‘eco industrial park’ and has been awarded the annual Pam Golding National Botanical Institute’s Gardens of Pride Award for 2007.

The industrial park was entered by Eco Scapes with a local biodiversity model that served as the basis of the garden design and creation. John Masson of Eco Scapes explains: “To accomplish this sustainable objective, we assessed the local plant communities and re-established their topographical features.

The park complies with sustainable resource principles, including recycling and re-use of water, a non-chemical approach to weed control and maintenance of all natural features critical to healthy ecosystems.

Air quality
Bohlweki Environmental has completed the last of four air-quality projects in the Vaal Triangle assigned to it as part of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) conducted on behalf of Arcelor Mittal SA.

“The Vaal Triangle and surrounding areas have been declared national air-pollution hotspots — or priority areas — in terms of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act,” explains Bohlweki’s Dr Raylene Watson, an air-quality specialist. “This area, known as the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area, is the first in South Africa to be declared as such. The Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism has subsequently introduced special interventions to improve air quality in this area, including the development of a Priority Area Air Quality Management Plan.

Going underground
The Underground Waste Containerisation Project in Johannesburg’s objective is to provide a large, hidden receptacle to hold vast quantities of waste, which could be collected conveniently at night.

The waste system consists of a 5 m³ waste vessel (the main waste container) positioned underground within a concrete sleeve and metal frame housing a safety platform. The top part of the system includes an external refuse bin equipped with a swivel lid. Waste is disposed into the system by sliding the lid open.

Once full, a Pikitup truck will collect the waste by hooking a crane onto the top of the input tower and lifting the input tower, steel platform and steel waste vessel as one unit out of the ground.

The system is intended for high-density and high pedestrian traffic areas.

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CITY VISIT

Nelspruit: is it bursting at the seams?
Surrounded by wide open spaces, Nelspruit struggles to manage near double-digit growth in a tightly-constrained urban area.

The capital of Mpumalanga, Nelspruit, lies comfortably between Witbank and Komatipoort with the N4 highway bisecting it. The town developed over time after a train station was constructed adjacent to the Nel brothers’ farm to service the region in the late 19th century. The train station still stands on the same site today and the original farm is now the CBD.

Agriculture remains the main industry of the town, which actually grew as farmers sold land to others who settled there and established businesses. It became the provincial capital in 1994 and has undergone a period of increasing densification since then. Even the name of the municipality, Mbombela, means a lot of people in a small space.

No more land
Much of the area remains farmland, which makes growth of the city a major challenge.

Lack of abundant water renders agriculture a rather expensive business and farmers certainly feel the pressure to sell land to developers. When they sell, developers are more inclined to build highend residential estates than high-density, low-cost rental housing so people who work in Nelspruit – even civil servants – find they cannot afford to live there.

Nelspruit has much bigger problems with integration than many other communities of a similar size. The former homelands and township settlements where farm workers historically lived continue to exist today up to 50 km to the east of Nelspruit.

Workers have been transported by bus to work on farms or into Nelspruit for decades. About 15 000 workers take the bus into town every day. Others come by train, taxi or private vehicle. As the town is surrounded by farmland and no other state land, there is no opportunity to bring people from the townships and settlements closer to Nelspruit, and not much opportunity to develop the settlements into self sustaining communities.

The Mbombela spatial development framework puts it succinctly: “Rapid growth in development has resulted in haphazard development taking place without any regard to existing social or engineering infrastructure. This includes the uncontrolled settlement of people in areas, the sub-division of agricultural land for residential purposes and leapfrog developments taking place.”

Institutional constraints
“The new demarcation of the municipalities is such that you now have wall-to-wall municipalities,” says André van Niekerk, director of land administration for Mpumalanga. His office focuses on land use, rights and reform issues in the province, including the land around Nelspruit. “We won’t allow development on high-potential agricultural land and Nelspruit is surrounded by high-value agricultural land.”

Van Niekerk knows that this constraint puts pressure on the town but there’s not much he or anyone else can do about private land deals between farmers and developers – except perhaps Garth Batchelor.

Batchelor is director of environmental impact management for the province and the person in charge of authorising any development applications.

On a few occasions, he has turned down applications but, for the most part, he imposes conditions on development. He is a keen advocate for the environment and speaks earnestly about the importance of the fragility of the topography and importance of maintaining existing water courses.

“There seems to be little strategic planning to make provision for conservation and biodiversity like biodiversity corridors,” he says. “We’ve got very sensitive geological formations. Our granite outcrops are aesthetically beautiful and we’ve got very attractive water courses but we seem to have trouble keeping development out of those areas because they are so attractive. This is the real conflict. There’s little strategic policy on where we’re going with this development.”

Planners feel constrained by legislation, which is the only real way the various departments can work together. “We still sit with fragmented and outdated planning legislation, which makes it difficult for certain developments to take place,” Van Niekerk says.

Co-ordination between departments boils down to the legislation: the town planning ordinance in the case of the municipality and the Development Facilitation Act in the case of the province. It is then co-ordinated depending on the leading agent. But it’s not the ideal situation, according to Van Niekerk.

“We need to have one set of rules that applies to everybody. That’s not even speaking about the former homelands. You have to deal with ownership rights before you can deal with land use.”

Notwithstanding legislative constraints, there have been efforts to move forward.

Sandile Manikela, senior town planner for Mbombela cites the city’s spatial development framework document as a step in the right direction. Van Niekerk and Batchelor agree the municipality is taking the right steps.

One private planner in town disagrees. This consultant, whose work involves dealing with government departments, prefers to remain anonymous. He believes there is a lack of strategic leadership and vision in the municipality.

Because of Nelspruit’s hilly landscape, development is very expensive in terms of basic infrastructure. Our anonymous source acknowledges that the municipality doesn’t really have the funds required but he also sees a lack of action on the part of the municipality.

For this, he places the blame squarely on the heads of senior management. “There are policies but they lack proactive leadership,” he says.

3 development trends
1 Active integration – affordable housing
A project cited by the private consultant, as something the city is doing right, is development in an extension area of the city called Mataffin where inclusionary housing is being planned. It’s a 967 ha piece of land largely owned by a previously disadvantaged community surrounding the 2010 stadium. “If they can bring in water, sanitation, electricity and other services then, for many years, the land problem will have been relieved,” he says. “That will bring some social justice into the town.”

Manikela says the municipality has to struggle to make efforts like this one work. “The Nelspruit community is part of the constraint because they don’t want it,” he says. This is a by-product of all the high-end and luxury developments under construction. The more expensive the developments are, the less likely social housing will be accepted nearby. Phumlani is another example of the municipality trying to bring people from faraway settlements closer to town. A development of low-cost housing on state-owned land is coming up north of Rocky’s Drift, which is just north of Nelspruit but still in the municipality of Mbombela. The original number of planned stands was reduced to meet environmental impact-assessment recommendations.

It is envisaged that the development will now comprise 771 stands for high income, 403 stands for medium-income and 286 stands for low-income groups.

The exact number of stands is subject to the final approval of the layout plan.

2 Return to th e city – CBD revitalisation
“The council took a decision to stabilise the CBD,” Manikela says. They halted some of the development in the northern parts of town where a single developer was continuing a string of residential estates as well as commercial, office and retail developments – the latter including the town’s biggest shopping centre, the 50 000 m² Riverside Mall.

But they didn’t stop there. The council also extended the CBD, allowing some of the residential plots to be used for offices or commercial space. The development of such mixed-use zoning has had a positive impact on the CBD, which doesn’t have the safety and security issues it did only a few years ago. Additional densification is also taking place in the form of small blocks of flats going up on plots that previously held only a single home.

Zoning improvements in the CBD are also attracting developers. The Nelspruit Splice will be a 14-storey, mixed-use development.

The luxury apartment building will offer tenants valet parking, an in-house gym and spa, as well as 24-hour concierge service.

While some people doubt its success, Manikela says he voted for it because he feels that Nelspruit is ready.

Batchelor is all for developments like the Nelspruit Splice. He says vertical developments have less impact on the hydrology of the landscape than large concreted areas.

“I know it’s not that popular,” he says.

“But I think we often forget about the impact of hardening vast surfaces of land. It changes the geohydrology, the underground water sources and I think it’s a luxury to go the other way when land is so scarce. To me, it’s just a mindset change.”

And, presumably if there were more taller residential buildings in the town centre, there could be fewer residential developments impacting the fragile environment in rural areas.

3 Living on the edge - residential estates
Batchelor admits that many of the new, expensive developments – particularly those on the southern edge of town – are being planned in an environment-friendly manner. The latest is The Rest Eco & Nature Estate, which is being developed to afford minimal environmental impact of the development and maximum freedom for wildlife. Shandon Estate is another ‘natural’ development that sold out quickly due to its progressive ideas about preserving the landscape.

Van Niekerk reiterates that these expensive developments only worsen the problem of exclusion. “I think government must make an intervention not only in the poorer section of the spectrum but also in the middle range,” he says but he is quick to add that he thinks the municipality is doing more than one or two things right.

The future
“I think Nelspruit is good in proactively trying new things,” says Van Niekerk. “Like giving incentives to people to start businesses in Kanyamazane and other settlements.

I think they need to be applauded for this because it will at least influence people’s decisions to go there. Where we’ve succeeded, as provincial government, is in getting people tenure rights and we’ve upgraded this. We succeeded in protecting the agricultural land – not all but some of it.”

Batchelor is optimistic about Nelspruit’s future. “I’m positive. I think we have the environmental frameworks to complement and guide the integrated development plans and we have capacity to monitor compliance. It can only get better.”

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ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & DESIGN

Flood reduction made easy
Permeable paving is still very much in its infancy in South Africa. But, as a system that offers obvious benefits in terms of water conservation and infiltration, it promises to save costs.

Permeable paving has only recently made an appearance in South Africa al-though the system has been used in Australia for 10 years, 15 years in the UK, and 20 years in Germany and Austria. According to an article, ‘Permeable paving – the green option’, “One of the world’s leading experts on the subject, Professor Brian Shackel of New South Wales University in Australia, said during a recent visit to South Africa that the main reason for permeable paving’s tentative beginning was resistance from engineers, Australian and South African, most of whom were taught that paving should prevent rather than promote water infiltration”. According to Shackel, the essential motivator for the use of permeable paving in Europe was not water conservation but the taxes levied on water run-off into stormwater-drainage systems.

System benefits
Permeable paving has two major advantages – it relieves pressure on existing stormwater infrastructure, rivers and dams by increasing the time it takes to return to the watercourse, allowing water to seep back into the ground and thus replenishing the groundwater table; and it can be harvested and stored underground for future use as a greywater source (irrigation of landscaping, for example).

“Australia and South Africa need to con-serve all the water they can,” Shackel emphasises. “Large parts of both countries receive little rain and much of the Australian continent is experiencing a record fifth year of drought. New housing plans are only approved if they can show a 40% reduction in water use and, in many areas, a rainwater tank is mandatory.

“By channelling water into storage tanks or the underground water table, permeable paving can certainly help alleviate water shortages and, at the same time, remove most pollutants from the water,” adds Shackel. “However reducing loads that would otherwise be placed in urban stormwater systems through urban densification, is a more pressing role for the system.”

Shackel points out that the flooding of major European rivers such as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe has more to do with the extensive paving of urbanised areas than it has with excessive rainfall. Germany and other European countries levy a tax on estimated water run-off and, as a result, permeable paving is finding increasing favour among Europeans.

John Cairns, director of the Concrete Manufacturers Association (CMA), says both motivators for the deployment of permeable paving apply in a South African context where water is in short supply and storm-water-drainage systems in some areas were designed for lower than existing and projected urban densities. “Developers will see the economic benefits when they realise that they no longer have to build storm-water drainage and can add extra accommodation units to their developments,” he observes. “Roads can also be built with permeable paving, which again saves on storm-water drainage. And roads will remain dry even if they are completely level.”

Taco Voogt, product manager for Concor, explains: “When an infiltration system is required, the rainwater may be stored in the subbase for a period of time as it slowly seeps into the sub-grade to replenish the groundwater. When an attenuation system is required, the rainwater may be stored in the sub-base for a period of time as it is slowly released into the municipal sewer system through a small outlet.

Rainwater may also be stored in the subbase for future use as a greywater source.

Heavy metals and other pollutants are removed from the rainwater as it filters through the gravel matrix and the geosynthetic membrane before it is stored in the subbase. In addition, pavements may be laid level, without falls, as no surface runoff facility is required. This is very popular with container depots in the USA, Canada and the UK, as the containers may now be stacked high without the risk of a stack falling over and without impeding access to stacks by transtrainers and other container-handling equipment”.

Piet Vosloo of KWP Landscape Architects adds: “Downstream stormwater runoff quantities are reduced; resulting in less-hazardous downstream conditions, and smaller and cheaper infrastructure.

The system also allows and promotes the establishment of vegetation (mostly turf grasses) on the paved surfaces. This also mitigates water pollution and creates more aesthetically-pleasing and thermally comfortable areas of paving”.

Chris Brooker of CBA Specialist Engineers elaborates on the ecological advantages of permeable paving. “Conventional paving produces surface run-off from very small rainfall events (2 mm or 3 mm is enough to wet the surface and start runoff).

This has a highly detrimental effect on the ecology and erosion resistance of the receiving watercourses. Permeable paving reduces the total volume of stormwater quick flow into streams and hence the amount of erosion that occurs in the stream channels. Storage afforded by the permeable paving also prevents large slugs of very warm or very cold water from entering the streams.

System A: total infiltration
All water falling onto the pavement infiltratesdown through the joints or voids between the concrete blocks; passing through the constructed layers below and eventually into the sub-grade. The sub-base layer may act as a temporary storage device.

System B: partial infiltration
Similar to System A but with a series of perforated pipes or fin drains at formation level to allow the remaining water to be drained to other systems such as sewers, swales or watercourses.

System C: no infiltration
Allows for the complete capture or attenuation of the water using an impermeable flexible membrane placed on top of the formation level. Pipes or fin drains transmit the water away as in System B.

Pioneering installation
Inadequate stormwater-drainage capacity led to the construction of South Africa’s first permeable-paving contract at an affordable housing complex in Johannesburg.

Installation and maintenance
According to Brooker, the sand in the gaps between the blocks is a very efficient filter (it has to be or the permeable reservoir will quickly clog) so the water leaving the permeable reservoir can be very high-quality.

“All sediment and other particles, and most hydrocarbons, are filtered out. If a filter fabric that supports a bacterial slime layer is incorporated into the layers between the blocks and the underlying permeable reservoir, the water soaking through can be of almost potable quality.”

Permeable paving provides a trafficable, hard surface (for pedestrians and limited vehicular traffic) that allows the penetration of surface water into the underlying layers of the system via gaps in the joints between the paving blocks or through slots/openings in the actual paving block.

The underlying layer works must be specifically designed and constructed in order to accommodate the flow and storage of water in the layers.

Brooker explains: “Permeable paving allows stormwater to sink through the surface layer into a porous base from where it can either seep away into the sub-grade, be released gradually into the stormwaterdrainage system or stored for future use. In normal paving, the blocks are laid on a sand bed about 25 mm thick and underlain by structural layer works of compacted soil.

The depth of the structural layers depends on the expected traffic loading and on the strength of the underlying soil. “The structural strength of permeable paving has to be designed in exactly the same way as it would be for ordinary paving. The traffic loading and strength of the underlying soil must be taken into account but the structural layer works are replaced by a compacted permeable base – usually clean, single-sized stone. The minimum thickness of the structural layers will depend on strength requirements but the final thickness of the permeable base will depend on the volume of storage required. If the base is to be used as a reservoir for water storage, it may be up to 1 m or more thick but, if it is to be used for temporary detention storage in a stormwatermanagement system, its depth will depend on the design rainfall depth and may be as little as 150 mm to 200 mm to store half of the 25-year rainfall depth. Design tools are available to calculate the balance between rainfall rate (inflow), storage and peak outflow to achieve the desired design objective. If the design objective is to reduce the total volume of run-off by allowing water to soak away into the soil below the permeable layer, careful design and selection of the sub-grade will be required to take account of the reduced strength of the underlying soil. The depth of the stone base may have to be increased to spread the traffic wheel loads over a greater area of sub-grade. The paving blocks are shaped to allow them to be installed with gaps filled with sand. The blocks are specially designed so that the gaps do not adversely affect the structural strength of the paving layer. The sand-filled gaps allow water to drain into the permeable base very quickly at a rate of about 300 mm/hour on a well-constructed, newly-installed pavement”.

As far as maintenance is concerned, the sand filters in the gaps between the blocks will gradually block up over time. The rate depends on the dirtiness of the area (with dust, oil and grease). The blockage typically only penetrates the top 10 mm to 15 mm of the sand so the permeability of the paving can easily be restored by cleaning out the dirty sand and replacing it with clean material. In countries where labour is expensive, this is done with a high-pressure water jet and vacuum cleaner but it can just as easily be done manually by labour-intensive methods.

To date, only four projects in South Africa have employed solid, concrete, permeable-paving blocks – at the time of writing, three were still under construction in Johannesburg: Reedsview in Fairlands, Shamgelo Estate in Terenure, Ravensklip X7 in Benoni and an industrial park in Witfield.

Inadequate stormwater-drainage capacity led to South Africa’s first permeable paving contract – the driveways and yard areas of an affordable housing complex, Reedsview, in Johannesburg. Permeable rather than conventional paving was chosen because the stormwater drainage system in this part of Fairlands was built about 35 years ago and it lacked capacity to handle any additional run-off.

“The system was constructed by removing 500 mm of top soil and then covering the exposed surface with an SABS approved BIDIM A5 geotextile membrane manufactured by Kaytech Engineered Fabrics,” explains Cairns. “Rockfill, comprising 160 mm stone and 500 mm deep, formed the next layer followed by a second layer of geotextile membrane. The stone was non-friable to avoid breaking up too much when graded by a 10 t roller. Once compacted, the rockfill was covered with 80 mm of coarse, washed, river sand and this, in turn, was compacted. Another 20 mm of washed, river sand for bedding was added to this. The same sand was used for jointing between the paving blocks, which are rated at a compressive strength of 30 MPa.”

Voogt and Vosloo note that two types of permeable paving are available on the South African market:
*            Grass grids, which are actually reinforced grass surfaces and not necessarily hard pavements. Examples include Armorflex (holed concrete blocks tied together with cables or nylon rope), Terrafix (holed concrete-paving blocks used to stabilise slopes), Congrass and BG Grassblocks (concrete blocks with openings for vegetation).
*            Hard pavements like the Formpave Aquaflow sustainable urban-drainage system (SUDS), which is a British product favoured by Concor Technicrete or UniEcoloc manufactured under license by Infraset.

Reno mattresses can be considered in certain low-use areas, and porous pavements are available from the asphalt industry, but these surfaces are generally used for sound abatement and not necessarily to embrace the SUDS philosophy.

Resisting a new concept
Permeable paving, as a new system, requires an understanding of the scientific principles involved, as well as close supervision of contracting teams without experience in this field, at least initially, in order to ensure a successful end result.

“This concept has been tried in numerous smaller projects over a long time,” says Vosloo. “Often they have failed as a result of insufficient engineering design and supervised construction of the supporting layer works; resulting in failure of the layer works from the movement and accumulation of water, and sagging or uneven settlement of the paving layer. As a result, the application of the system in South Africa is often rejected by developers or their consultants based on the perception, although unfounded, that this method invariably results in paving failures.

It is my strong conviction that appropriate permeable-paving materials, used with correctly-designed and – constructed layer works, have larger-scale environmental benefits that cannot be denied.”

Brooker adds three other pointsof resistance:
*            Cost – the clean, single-sized stone for the permeable reservoir is much more expensive than sub-base quality fill used in the structural layer works of ordinary paving.
*            Material balance – sub-grade material must be excavated out and discarded.
*            Topography – for optimum use of materials, the paved area needs to be flat.

“Permeable paving is a well-tried and very effective stormwater-management tool but there is a lot of developer resistance,” says Brooker. “Nobody wants to be on the vanguard of trying out something that has not been well-tested in South Africa despite positive experience overseas.”

Cairns agrees. “Until now, local engineers have resisted the system mainly because they mistakenly believed that water and sub-base material don’t mix. However there are engineers in this country who are prepared to use the system and more permeable-paving contracts are likely to follow as the process of urban densification gathers momentum and the need to conserve water becomes increasingly apparent.

In addition, local councils are likely to begin approving new building projects with the proviso that some or all the paving is permeable.”

Permeable-paving systems are clearly the way forward. The benefits are obvious and the challenges can be solved. As with any new technology or building system, the more popular and accessible it becomes, the more concerns around cost-effectiveness and a shift in mindset will fall away until the system is accepted as an industry standard.

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ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & DESIGN

The quest for sustainability
What is a sustainable human settlement? Revisiting some grounding principles opens the debate again.

As an avid reader of many design and architectural journals, I am often surprised by the projects that appear under the headline of ‘sustainability’. More often than not, these projects only incorporate one or two sustainability features and can hardly be classified in this manner.

If our professional journals celebrate unsustainable developments or ascribe sustainability to those that are not, we have a problem. Every planning document that I have read in the past few years has a vision, mission and string of objectives ‘sprouting’ sustainability. However, soon after stating this, most of them lose the plot. I am aware of only two planning programmes where sustainability is actively and diligently pursued:
*            The Theewaterskloof municipality’s strategic framework for Grabouw has a poetic set of principles for sustainability; wonderfully formulated, inclusive and maintained further throughout the plan.
*            The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Council’s Sustainable Community Planning Guide is another example of active, purposeful pursuit of sustainability in planning.

One of the most laudable policy statements of all, the national Department of Housing’s Breaking New Ground (BNG), is a well-formulated piece of work, obviously written by people who know what needs to be done.

However, in spite of the BNG strategy and the fact that we have the relevant technical know-how, we still plan new townships like Cosmo City in ‘old-mode’ thinking and hail it as sustainable! The townships and suburbs mushrooming all over the South African veld clearly indicate that we haven’t the foggiest idea what we’re doing.

Definitions and deliberations
What is a sustainable human settlement? I propose the following argument for debate:

Sustainable development requires a cyclic planning process rather than a linear one. It requires the habitats-to-be to have capacity for learning. Houses do not have such capacity. Communities have.

Communities are alive, cyclic and self-renewing. So the thrust of our approach should be geared towards the creation of communities instead of the production of houses.

Through reduction of pressure on resources, the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) is slowed down so that less energy is embedded in the process of the creation and maintenance of human habitation.

The modern, motorised society is so structured and biased against sustainability that an extraordinary change of mindset will have to happen to establish sustainable communities. We will have to accept changes in lifestyle and a much more prudent use of resources. We will also have to apply our grey matter much more rigorously – sustainable development is not for lazy planners!

A community consists of beings who co-exist in a habitat. Habitation is so much more than just living in houses. Urban habitation would ideally translate into communities-within-the-city. The latter would be made up of an interconnected web of sustainable human settlements instead of suburbs and townships, which cannot function as real communities because they are not made that way. They function by grace of the CBD, industrial commercial areas and commuting. They are dependent on externalities for their survival: resource import, waste export and extensive transportation systems.

Let me be clear: no community can thrive in isolation. None can be so self-reliant that no external inputs are needed.

All communities are interconnected and should function as part of the larger urban system. However each community must be planned as a self-sustaining entity.

For this, specific planning and design principles must be applied. I have identified 10 principles – eight of substance and two of procedure.

What is the substance of sustainability? Sustainable development will nurture the triple bottom line: the environmental, social and economic domains.

10 principles for sustainability
1 Introduce diversity
This entails an ecosystem that maintains the highest possible level of biodiversity. Construction impact on the local, indigenous biosphere is restricted. After construction and during operation, an augmentation or nurturing programme is followed to restore ecological integrity and biodiversity. It also means economic and social diversity.

2 Produce zero waste
Waste management is crucial to sustainable development. Up to now, waste has been seen as a nuisance to be eliminated. But waste should be seen as a resource. The only waste that could be exported for safe storage is toxic but only on condition that it is well managed from source to destination.

3 Import no resources
Every place has some local, in-situ natural resource that could be utilised: a clay or a dolerite deposit, good agricultural soil, a wetland and a forest, among others. This must be identified during the planning phase so that the local economy can be planned accordingly. Other resources are:
*            Energy: Start with demand management. Passive architecture results in buildings with less energy demand. Alternative energy sources decrease demand from the grid. Passive architecture must be standard, solar-thermal installations and photovoltaic panels must be mandatory on every roof.
*            Water: South Africa is a water-stressed country. We must introduce eco-sanitation alternatives. The harvesting of rainwater must become the norm: rain tanks and greywater systems should be mandatory in every building. In terms of social aspects, the opportunity must be created for a variety of income groups to settle in a community, inter alia, to prevent the creation of ghettos. Areas of residence and work must not be segregated. To become vibrant, sociable and economically viable, a community has to have a gardener, cook, plumber, bus driver, sangoma, teacher, manager, clerk, lawyer, doctor, politician, businessman and policewoman – all resident!

Stormwater must be managed: minimum run-off must be pursued through permeable paving, attenuation and retention of run-off through swales, wetlands and ponds.
*            Labour: The people who will live in a new settlement should be used as the labour pool when the habitat is built (and managed). Training of the local labour pool should be obligatory.
*            Knowledge and wisdom: Local expertise and knowledge of crafts, the terrain, customs, traditions and symbols must be employed during planning and nurtured for the operational phase of the settlement.

4 Prioritise safety and health
Through proper waste management and care for the environment, pollution will be prevented, thus ensuring a healthy habitat. Designing against crime is also a requirement. A locally employed community is resident and non-commuting so it is a lived-in, vibrant place with high levels of informal surveillance of the public domain. This should inhibit crime.

5 Promote equity
Generational equity is probably the most overlooked aspect of community planning. The elderly are respected and valuable members of traditional societies. In modern society, they are seen as superfluous although their knowledge and wisdom is indispensable. A sustainable settlement must provide opportunity for the elderly to take an active part in community life by providing places in the public domain for them to socialise and add life to a place.

We also neglect to plan for the needs of children, such as healthy, stimulating and safe playing facilities; an explorable natural environment; safe places for hanging out; and well-placed and accessible crèches.

Access to facilities, schooling, training and quietude contributes to an equitable environment. So does access to a variety of tenure options.

6 Ensure control
It is essential that people are able to control the environment. They must be able to influence the creation and management of their habitats. An organisational structure, with a local ’community council‘ accountable to the people, running the local show is imperative.

Naturally it will have to be subservient to the city council but it must have delegated powers on all local matters.

7 Nurture identity
The settlement’s structure must be legible with a distinct centre reinforced by a hierarchy of landmarks, nodes, edges, gateways and channels of circulation. Before planning, we have to discover the site’s special qualities. This is informed by ancestral graves, archaeological artefacts and places, symbols and distinct natural features. These elements must be incorporated into the design with the purpose of imbuing a sense of place. The symbolic or spiritual level, which is the least recognised, is the most important in the sense that it defines the quality of the whole.

8 Establish an economic base
Every community or settlement we plan must be regarded as an independent entity (albeit part of a larger whole, such as a city or region, some will be more independent than others). It logically follows that this entity must have an economic reason for existence; it must be an economically-viable entity otherwise it will be parasitical. An economic base should be based on the primary sector: agriculture or mining. A concerted effort must be made to identify natural resources to establish a fledgling local economy. The aim is to ‘grow’ the local economy to eventually include all economic sectors. This underpins, yet again, the notion of diversity.

9 Plan and design

An enabling framework for sustainability – to nurture a community and its habitat – can be created through robust, rigorous and sensitive design.

This is often called ‘capital design’ with reference to social, economic and environmental capital facilitated through a capital framework or structure (what integrated development plans should be). Capital designing is the creation of a settlement’s physical structure, comprising public facilities and infrastructure. The structure must be resilient, meaningful and in harmony with its natural environment. Capital designing also entails the creation of an institutional structure to afford residents opportunities. The planning and design team has to assume an intergenerational responsibility.

It must be stressed here that sustainable development should not be confused with the ’new urbanism‘ concept. The latter has, as its major aim, the creation of sociable places through quality design and revival of the neighbourhood concept. This is not necessarily sustainable.

10 Integrated management
The most effective means to implement continuous management will bean environmental management system (EMS) in compliance with SANS/ISO 14001. It is important to note that an EMS is not a planning tool and not a substitute for an integrated development plan, a strategic development framework or a land-use management scheme. An EMS is a management tool required by our National Environmental Management Act (Act 107 of 1998) to attain sustainable development.

So diligent management, as a logical consequence of planning, is required. Every process will have to be managed during construction and operation. This will all have to be facilitated through council and local, community-driven structures.

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WASTE AND POLLUTION MANAGEMENT  

Rewards from rubbish
Waste management has become beneficial not only to the environment but also to individuals’ pockets.

South Africans have become more conscientious about waste management.

Not only are people becoming increasingly aware of the undeniable environmental value of waste management but there is now a realisation that there is money to be made. Recycling offers definite financial rewards, even riches, while it provides a means of achieving economic-social-environmental balance as represented by the sustainability interdependence model. This potential for economic success via waste management is being explored and realised by vibrant South African entrepreneurs as well as organisations.

Roles reversed
A company at the forefront of corporate and residential waste management is Resolution Recycling, founded by Justin Needham and based in Jeppestown, Johannesburg.

This recycling company evolved in 2004 from the Paper Bin, which focused exclusively on the collection and classification of waste paper to a total waste-management company, which removes and recycles a wide variety of products, including plastic, paper, metal, glass and miscellaneous items in and around Johannesburg. Needham is happy to state that financial roles in the waste industry are reversing and mindsets are being altered. Previously, the recycling system relied on the recycling company to fund all infrastructure, collection, transport and sorting expenses. The only remuneration to the recycler was, therefore, the returns on the recyclable materials from buy-back centres. This old-style system has evolved into a service-driven industry whereby Resolution Recycling charges the client regular collection and reporting fees. Although no tangible rewards are being delivered to the client, this service is rapidly becoming sought-after by businesses wishing to improve their environmental consciousness while efficiently maintaining ISO 14001 status.

Corporate Waste collection forms part of Resolution Recycling’s original initiative and the process commences with an analysis of a company’s existing and prospective waste-management needs. Thereafter a suitable collection solution is formulated that includes basic education of the applicable employees, namely a walk-through of the process and information regarding materials that are recyclable, and the strategic placement of collection ‘wheeli’ bins. Resolution Recycling’s client base has rapidly expanded to include the collection of waste from private residences. This residential service, primarily initiated in the northern Johannesburg suburbs, entails that clients purchase a 240 l blue and lime-green wheeli bin, as supplied by Resolution Recycling, to gather all recyclable waste. A client database, logging all collection points, is created and a routing schedule is developed to ensure that the bins are promptly emptied on a reliable and fortnightly basis.

All recyclable waste is sorted and identified at Resolution Recycling’s warehouse in Jeppestown. Much of this sorting is done by members of the surrounding low-income community. Furthermore recyclable waste is procured from individual collectors, therefore, acting as a buy-back-centre purchasing material according to weight from smallerscale, waste-collecting entrepreneurs. Finally the different waste materials are sold to independent buy-back centres and recycling partners that transform it into useful and reusable materials.

Branding exercise
Needham admits that it was initially a tough industry to enter, especially with large companies like Mondi, Nampak and Sappi monopolising the waste-paper recycling market but now the company is developing from strength to strength. Needham describes our society’s two views on recycling as the rich and well-off partaking to feel good while the poor see it as a ticket to the next meal. No matter what the reason for recycling, it is necessary and admittedly financially-viable, and it is Resolution Recycling’s dream to create a waste-management brand, which becomes a household name. Needham’s primary goal within this industry of big players is to provide a diversified service, which acts as a ‘onestop shop’ for recycling. Emphasis is placed on convenience, the promotion of recycling as trendy and not just ‘good practice’, a constant mode of living and a contemporary commitment for all. One of the ways this innovative company is striving to change mindsets is through information technology: its ‘green’ website displays a myriad of information, including quick facts about the pros of recycling, green facts focusing on the relationship between global warming and recycling, and green goods describing the recycling processes of paper and cardboard, plastic, metal and glass. Furthermore, the website offers a function to analyse personal ‘green rating’, as well as information regarding connection to other worthy causes Resolution Recycling has supported with fund-raising campaigns through recycling.

Another company at the cutting edge of waste management is Go-Awaste Management Services. This black economic empowerment business enterprise focuses primarily on waste in the mining industry by providing integrated waste-management services, which envelop the entire process from collection to recycling, re-use and disposal.

Go-Awaste was conceived from a decision by Anglo Platinum to outsource its waste-management requirements. Go-Awaste was established in July 2002 as a joint venture between Zimele, Anglo American Empowerment Initiative, with previously- disadvantaged partners, Basetsana Magano as chairman and Peter Seepi as managing director, as well as Onyx SA, an international waste company. Furthermore Larox, a Finnish company innovative in solid/liquid separation solutions was included as a technological partner to add value due to the vast global technological experience in this field. In a similar manner as Resolution Recycling, Go-Awaste is involved in the collection, sorting and distribution of the waste derived from mines and according to Seepi, waste from these mines that would normally be trekked to landfill sites has been diminished by 60%. Even items like scrap metal, old conveyor belts and electronic material have value in the recycling industry. The Rustenburg section of Anglo Platinum was the starting point for Go-Awaste, which has also expanded rapidly to offer services in four provinces, including Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West Province.

Challenging communities
Go-Awaste supports local, emerging subcontractors by recruiting individuals indigenous to the socio-demographics of a region.

This policy of partnering with, or employing locals, traced via unemployment agencies, stimulates and positively influences communities. Seepi believes recycling can only be truly successful as a community effort with much emphasis on team work and unification in this common goal. He believes that the cornerstone of efficient and successful waste management rests in proper education, encouragement and elevating awareness about our environment in general. His dream is to live in a community where litter is not just thoughtlessly tossed away, and each household takes responsibility for its own waste, and observes the financial possibilities in previously-discarded items. Seepi acknowledges that the waste-management industry is challenging this due to its service- and not product-related nature.

He states that it is difficult to enter the large-scale, mining-waste market as it is capital-intensive with expensive equipment, such as skip trucks, which are built according to specific requirements and cost approximately R1-million.

Potential calculated
Save Our Universal Land (SOUL) Foundation, a non-governmental and non-profit organization registered in 1998, avidly advocates the financial rewards achievable through recycling. Kim Kieser, chief executive officer and founder, corroborates this belief with figures that reflect the potential income from recyclables: recycler compensation ranges from R270/t to R1 600/t for recyclable waste. A conservative rate of R250/t applied to the national waste statistics, which reveals that domestic waste generation averages at 1 kg/person/day with approximately 70% (30% organic waste excluded) recyclable. By applying a corporate model of 1 000 staff members, each with three people per home, the potential recyclable waste, which includes institutional and domestic waste, recovered rather than dumped to landfill is 2,8 t/day. The potential income estimated from the sale of recyclables is R700/day, R21 000/month and, therefore, R252 000/annum.

With the positive financial implications of recycling in mind and in conjunction with her dream to unite South Africa through nature, specifically by cleaning up our environment, Kieser and the SOUL Foundation team have formulated an approach to integrated river health and waste management, which focuses on stopping waste at the source. The importance of waste recycling is justified by the figures – more than 95% of urban solid waste in South Africa is disposed at landfill sites, causing a large spectrum of negative environmental impacts, including global warming from methane generation.

Unmanaged or poorly-controlled waste systems directly impact the health and living environment of humans and the natural environment. Abovementioned national statistics reveal that the average South African household generates 1 t of domestic solid waste per year so a total national figure of more than 16-million t of domestic solid waste is accumulated in our country every year. It costs South Africa R6-billion/year to transport and dump waste at landfill sites and rubbish dumps. By recycling the abovementioned 70% of waste, the country could potentially earn up to R5-billion/year. An efficient system whereby waste is managed and financial returns are realised is essential.

SOUL Foundation’s overall strategy is based on partnerships (core interests), defined roles (responsibilities) and sustainability.

Much focus is placed on the creation of sustainable, community-owned and corporation driven, micro-enterprises, which instigate and/or operate recycling buy-back centres.

Up to 2006, the drive of the SOUL Foundation was the initiation of multi-partnership environmental round tables based on the registered SOUL eco-sanitation give and gain model. This franchise focuses on recovering and recycling solid waste, and converting this from an environmental burden into an income stream while creating employment in impoverished communities, as well as providing basic services and environmental improvement. These initiatives subsequently lead to community upliftment and environmental education. The governing principle of the round table model is that ”the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” and that each stakeholder derives benefit in its core interest area on a ‘give-and-gain’ basis. In applying this model, SOUL Foundation developed significant working partnerships with, inter alia, the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism; Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Environment; Sappi; Consol Glass; Wits University; Johannesburg Metro; the Wildlife & Environment Society of South Africa; and many others.

Soulful pilots
SOUL Foundation is assisting Toyota SA Motors with the initiation of a pilot ‘employee waste-from-home’ system at Toyota’s head office in Sandton. This system comprises a simple, practical and efficient inhouse, waste-separation model, which endeavours to promote domestic recycling rather than disposing among the 1 000 employees.

Employees are requested and encouraged to separate domestic waste into clearly-marked, colour-coded by waste type (paper, cardboard, plastic, metal and glass), re-usable, poly-prop bags supplied by Toyota, bring the filled bags to work on designated waste-collection days and then empty them into the corresponding colour-coded, waste-receiving bins positioned within the employee car park. Concurrently the office cleaning staff is being trained in the separation and collection of recyclable office waste and adding it to the recycled waste flow. All the collected waste is stored in purpose-designed recycling stations and then sold to recyclers. Toyota aims to utilise its share of the financial proceeds in future environmental projects. The success of this project is greatly influenced by employee encouragement through ongoing communication and internal education, which includes a poster campaign with a character ‘Binny’, informative emails, information brochures on waste and practical waste-from-home fridge magnets.

Furthermore employee encouragement is achieved by demonstrations and talks, as well as a weighing-in exercise and competition with incentive prizes for people who bring in the most properly-sorted waste.

This model focuses on creating an environment, which is conducive to recycling, by providing equipment and resources easily accessible to users. On proof of the success of this scheme, it can be applied at other Toyota operations around the country.

A similar SOUL Foundation scheme, known as the Joint Waste Recycling Project, launched in September 2007, is being tested as yet another exciting in-house pilot project in conjunction with the Wits medical faculty, with 3 500 students and 1 500 employees. This project’s goal is to streamline the medical campus’s wastemanagement strategy with potential recyclables, canteen and office waste, estimated at 5 t/day with a minimum value of R20 000/month. This income will be split among the stakeholders – the students and staff community – to be used for suitable social projects, Wits University and SOUL Foundation for funding future river clean-ups. Similarly, when proven successful, the scheme can be duplicated in other Wits faculties.

Kieser is optimistic about a round-table project to be established in Alexandra whereby Construction Education & Training Authority education, such as a diploma in waste management, is made available to community members. By receiving guarantees from recyclers, the Alexandra community, if only recycling 10% of waste generated, can earn up to R500 000/month. This financial return has the potential to help with numerous social issues within this struggling community.

A bright future
There is a definite belief that the waste-management industry is active and rewarding, financially and environmentally, with great potential for entrepreneurs at all levels and phases of the processes. A requirement by all is improved communication and interaction with local, provincial and national government, and a common desire that laws should be created and implemented to enforce recycling by penalty or, preferably, incentives. It has been suggested that waste regulators, similar to the Green Scorpions, should be introduced to police but Seepi hopes that society will renew traditional values and realise that recycling is a rewarding and pleasant responsibility. A request by recyclers is that South African infrastructure, via planning and design, should be altered to create an environment conducive to recycling while designers should explore and experiment the possible unctions and uses of recyclable waste.

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PLANNING PERSONALITY

A new outlook
Although all is not good news, the authors of the recently-published South Africa Environment Outlook hope it will help address human impact on the environment.

In 2007, a group of environmental NGOs, including the Endangered Wildlife Trust, BirdLife South Africa and the Botanical Society of South Africa called on government to release certain long-promised strategic national planning reports. The NGOs emphasized that the absence of two important strategic planning reports – the National Environmental Outlook (formerly the State of the Environment Report) and the National Framework for Sustainable Development (formerly the National Strategy for Sustainable Development) – and accompanying inadequate access to information often impedes the work of NGOs and, indeed, officials of the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism (DEAT) from achieving reasonable goals.

However, in June 2007, a brand new South Africa Environment Outlook (SAEO) was published with the official definition:

“The SAEO is a detailed analysis of the past, present and future condition of South Africa’s environment”.

Urban Green File talked to two members of the project-management committee, Darryll Kilian and Donald Gibson, both of SRK Consulting, about the challenges involved in this lengthy and ever expansive process.

South Africa’s first State of the Environment Report was published in 1999 by the CSIR for DEAT. It was an Internet-based report with a summary version in hard copy.

The drive to formulate a State of the Environment Report is part of a global initiative by the UN to make countries keep tabs on the impact they have on the environment.

Several global reports, as well as African reports, have been completed. The process of finalising a State of the Environment Report for the SADC region is under way.

New ideas
“As far as we know, South Africa is one of the first countries to publish an environment outlook, which is more forward looking than the previous State of the Environment Report,” says Kilian, principal environmental scientist at SRK Consulting. “It takes state-of-the-environment reporting a step further and questions the outlook for the future. Past trends as well as existing trends are taken into consideration. The idea is to determine where the country should be heading.”

The project team also added other components to the document – one is a focus on ‘human vulnerability’. “The concept of human vulnerability has not yet been addressed from an integrated and holistic perspective for the country as a whole,” asserts Kilian. “Due to very little available data, we decided to follow a case-study approach and identify certain themes, such as flooding, droughts, climate change and food security.”

Process followed
In 2003, a decision was made to do a follow-up on the 1999 version. It took the DEAT six months to draft terms of refer ence. SRK won the tender in 2004.

“Over a period of two-and-a-half years, we worked very closely with the department and a range of specialists to compile this book,” says Gibson, principal scientist and manager of the environmental business unit at SRK. A project-steering committee was established and, in the inception phase within the first few months, the terms of reference were revised. A national planning workshop kicked off the process.

Kilian says: “The idea was to understand exactly what we should be reporting on and to refine how it should be done”.

A resource CD was compiled, containing documents such as the existing national, provincial and local state-of-the-environment reports as well as other global reports of importance. Specialist studies were commissioned on certain topics.

According to Gibson, SRK has commissioned a six-month study on the report’s impact in order to understand its usefulness and to identify areas that can be strengthened for future updates – administered through feedback questionnaires and targeted interviews. The result of the impact study will be published on completion.

Various versions
In addition to a 371-page publication, a 40-page summary is also available with the main positives and negatives of the findings. The report is aimed at a wide audience.

A youth-specific version is also available, as well as an Internet version that provides a snapshot with downloadable statistics, maps, chapters and links to more information.

So-called ‘issue summaries’ are being prepared and a DVD has also been produced. The products can be downloaded from DEAT’s environmental information portal (http://soer.deat.gov.za), which went live in mid-August 2007.

Environmental business
SRK Consulting’s environmental department provides management consulting services to stakeholders in the sustainable utilisation of human and natural resources.

Principal scientist and SRK environmental business unit manager, Donald Gibson, has an MSc in resource conservation biology from Wits. He has been involved in the fields of sustainability reporting, policy research and strategy and integrated environmental considerations for the past eight years. Having worked in Tanzania, Zambia, the DRC, Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia, he has wide experience in southern Africa.

His research interests include strengthening decision-making for sustainable development and mainstreaming environmental considerations into economic planning and policy setting.

Darryll Kilian qualified with a masters degree in environmental and geographical science at the University of Cape Town. He is an environmental management practitioner with 14 years experience in environmental consulting, and research and development work in a number of countries in southern Africa. He has been working for SRK Consulting for close to three years. Prior to assuming this position, he worked for four years as an environmental programme officer for DANCED and DANIDA at the Royal Danish Embassy in Pretoria and senior environmental manager in the environmental evaluation unit at UCT from 1995 to 2001. His research interests include the socio-economic implications of innercity renewal, environmental-policy development and sustainable-development practice.

4 major priorities
Some environmental priorities require urgent intervention and concerted effort in the immediate future.

1 Water availability and quality
As South Africa is a semi-arid country, water availability is one of the key limitations to development. Since 1994, there has been significant progress in the development of policy and legal frameworks dealing with water resources. A range of management tools is being developed and institutional restructuring is separating water supply from resource-protection functions.

Despite positive changes, according to the SAEO, South Africa now has less water available and its quality is poorer than ever before.

Use of available water resources has been increasing, with almost all exploitable sources tapped, and this has decreased freshwater flows in rivers.

2 Climate change
According to the SAEO, climate change, mainly caused by human activity, is considered the most significant global environmental issue facing humanity today. The increased concentration of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere, mainly caused by generation and consumption of energy, is driving climate change. South Africa emits more greenhouse gases per person than many industrialized countries. Reasons for this lie in our dependence on coal for ‘cheap’ electricity and this is expected to continue in the short to medium term. As much as 92% of South Africa’s electricity comes from burning coal.

According to the SAEO, response to global warming is not expected to reverse trends in the near future so interventions are changing to include strategies that focus on how to adapt to climate change, as well as measures that aim to reduce or mitigate the effects of climate change.

3 Human vulnerability

Vulnerability is not the same as poverty, but poverty does make people more vulnerable. Other factors that increase vulnerability in South Africa include changes in the environment and exposure to environmental hazards. Major changes in the South African environment, that are making people more vulnerable, include increasing variability in the climate, declining air and water quality, degraded land and declining natural resources due to over-exploitation.

The SAEO indicates that environmental change, for many of the parameters that influence vulnerability is increasing, while there is an erosion of human capability to manage risks and maintain resilience.

This dangerous combination threatens to rapidly escalate human vulnerability.

4 Loss of biodiversity
While South Africa has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, the SAEO reports that the general state of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is not good.

Conditions differ from one ecosystem and region of the country to another. Human pressure on ecosystems is increasing, particularly in areas of high biodiversity. As an unfortunate consequence, natural resources that support the livelihoods of people are rapidly declining because of overexploitation.

This is particularly prevalent in forests, grasslands, along the KwaZulu-Natal coastal belt and the Cape Floristic Region.

According to the SAEO, of all our natural systems, aquatic ecosystems are the most degraded and experiencing a rapid loss in functioning.

The future
In the final chapter of the SAEO, data is interpreted with the question “What are we to do?”.

Options for action are identified and different plausible scenarios for the future are explored. The chapter postulates four possible scenarios for the future – the most desirable is ‘Laduma!’, which shows sustainable development while the worst, ‘Skorokoro’, is a collapse in the functioning of an ecosystem and human well-being.

“Sustainable development must be a shared responsibility,” says the report.

“Moving towards sustainability cannot be solely a governmental responsibility. Civil society, industry and business all have key roles to play if we wish to approach a future of greater sustainability.”

Challenges and obstacles
Compiling a report of this magnitude requires difficult decision-making.

Environmental indicators form the basis of state-of-the-environment reporting. Not only do they indicate the state or condition of the environment, they also show trends and, thereby, enable assessment of the effectiveness of efforts to deal with environmental pressure. One of the challenges faced by the authors of the SAEO was the availability and quality of data. “The data we used went up to the end of 2005,” says Kilian. “We were therefore restricted to the best available data up to this point.

Where possible, new and updated data appearing in the first half of 2006 was referred to prior to the report going to print.”

Another challenge was to decide what to include and what to leave out. “DEAT wants people to have access to all the information so to decide what went into the report was a trade-off exercise,” adds Gibson.

“The ideal would be to compile this report based on provincial state-of-the-environment reports, which were based on local state-of-the-environment reports. But they all report on different sets of data so it is difficult to integrate them.”

Issues concerning human activity and environmental impact in urban and rural settlements were also broached. More information is available on urban areas mainly from the sector report The state of our cities by the South African Cities Network.

“Given the bias towards the urban settlements, the team made a point of reminding the reader that settlements are found in different contexts and not necessarily only urban,” Kilian points out. “The content of the broad nature of the human-settlement section necessitated that our investigation covered a range of inputs (water, land and energy for example) and outputs (air, water and solid waste and urban sprawl for example). Specialists were commissioned to undertake certain sector investigations.”

On the right track?
There are several parallel national-planning and policy-formulation processes. “We tried to identify what they were and brought them together. The idea is that the SAEO serves as a portal to relevant organisations and documents. If we do a similar study in a few years’ time, as is obviously the plan, will the results be any different? “We have a solid legal framework in place and we believe awareness about climate change and the link between the environment and the well-being of South Africans is growing,” says Gibson. “It’s definitely not all bleak; the major positive being that there have been major advances in environmental governance by all stakeholders in South Africa over the past 15 or so years. Given the lag between instituting management measures and realising on-the-ground change, these advances will take time to affect the condition of the environment.”

Kilian adds: “The amount of media attention and political debate on issues such as climate change is an indication of changes in perception. The reality is that many of our natural systems are struggling. And we don’t know where the threshold level is. To address this, we need to improve the environmental information available for decision-making. We do highlight the areas where research is needed in the document. One of the generic areas in ‘options for action’ is the improvement of environmental information”.

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BATTLE OF THE ’BURBS

Stellenbosch: Town Centre South v Kayamandi
Development for density
Although there has been a decline in density in most areas of Stellenbosch, two ’burbs have experienced an increase in population density.

The town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape faces the typical South African tension between compaction and urban sprawl, according to Simon Nicks of CNdV Africa, which assisted the municipality in compiling its spatial development framework (SDF). Since the 1960s, Stellenbosch has seen significant low-density development with new suburbs sprawling into the valleys (Die Boord) and high up the mountain slopes (Brandwag, Idasvallei and Onderpapegaaiberg). Although Stellenbosch town’s population has grown considerably since 1900, the density of the town had decreased – there were less people per ha in 1980 than there were at the beginning of the past century. This was corroborated by research done in Cape Town where the same pattern was found. This suggests that higher densities are part of the historic character of Stellenbosch and not a new idea that is being forced on the town. Studies also reveal that the average town density is 12 dwelling units/ha. Only two suburbs in Stellenbosch town, Kayamandi and Town Centre South achieve densities of more than 25 dwelling units/ha. Although very different, both areas are vibrant and have a large number and a variety of activities integrated with residential accommodation.

This edition’s ‘battle of the ‘burbs’ takes a look at the differences and similarities of two high-density neighbourhoods in Stellenbosch.

Land use
Town Centre South 7/10
*            Mixed use
*            Retail core
The southern part of the CBD has a truly mixed land-use character with retail facilities, restaurants and apartments. As the users of the area range from students at the nearby Stellenbosch University to tourists, there is a variety of land uses to cater for their needs. The town has an acute need for affordable housing and one of the obvious ways to provide this is to build apartment-style, multi-storey units. Although much of Town Centre South consists of four- to five-storey buildings, it is also the heart of the historic core of the town and pressure for the area to increase its density even more introduces issues relating to heritage management and maintaining the quaint character of the town.

Kayamandi 6/10
*            Housing backlog
*            New retail development
According to Lester van Stavel, manager of new housing for Stellenbosch Municipality, there are about 30 000 people living in Kayamandi and a housing backlog that is being addressed by various means. Most of the retail development in Kayamandi is informal by nature.

However the municipality has taken the initiative to establish a formal business precinct at the entrance to the suburb. According to Widmark Moses, acting LED manager, the new development will not only serve a retail function but also provide community facilities, such as an amphitheatre, a museum and additional public space.

Environment
Town Centre South 8/10
*            Open space
*            Established character
In addition to the beautiful, existing, centuries-old oak trees associated with Stellenbosch, the environment is also enhanced by the many buildings of historic significance found in the CBD. Some of them have been turned into museums while others, in line with international trends, have been awarded national heritage status although they are used to conduct modern-day business and to provide accommodation.

Kayamandi 6/10
*            Litter
*            Overcrowding
As would be expected, the older part of Kayamandi also has more established gardens and greenery. Trees are scattered throughout the township but there is an obvious absence of public (and even private) open space. Litter is a potential threat to quality of life.

Accessibility
Town Centre South 7/10
*            Pedestrians
*            Parking
As densities increase, the pressure for parking increases. Many of the apartment blocks have to provide basement parking for tenants.

Businesses also have to provide for their employees as many commute from out of town. People move around on foot and the facilities for pedestrians, such as pavements and zebra crossings, are adequate.

Kayamandi 6/10
*            Taxis
*            Pedestrians
As it is located about 4 km from the town centre, most of the residents of Kayamandi work in town or elsewhere. The predominant mode of transport is, therefore, a minibus taxi. Locally people move around on foot. Facilities for pedestrians are, however, not well-developed and it is sometimes difficult to get around, especially as Kayamandi has a steep gradient.

Sense of community
Town Centre South 8/10
*            24/7 activity
*            Security
There is an attractive and strong ambience in the Stellenbosch CBD – not least because of the 24/7 activity with tourists and students mingling in the area at all hours of the day and night. The gardens and open spaces are wellmaintained.

Security has become an issue and the Stellenbosch Municipality is installing CCTV cameras in town.

Kayamandi 8/10
*            Informal activity
*            Social problems
Urban Green File visited Kayamandi in the afternoon. Children were playing on the sidewalks and there was a real buzz in the streets with retailers preparing for commuters due at peak hour.

Reportedly, crime in the area takes the form of social and domestic problems.

Conclusion
Town Centre South 30/50

Kayamandi 26/50
An official municipal document ‘Towards a growth-management strategy of a specific area’ defines densification as “the process whereby residential densities (the number of dwellings per hectare) are increased in a planned and meaningful way within the existing boundaries of a specific area”. If additional densification happens in one of these suburbs, the municipality has to ensure that it takes place in a meaningful and planned way. The challenges in Town Centre South and Kayamandi are probably around management, urban renewal, formalisation and, in Kayamandi’s case, creating jobs and finding land for housing.

The idea is to eventually integrate Kayamandi with the rest of the town of Stellenbosch.

This might, however, prove difficult as the geography does not lend itself to this type of integration.

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INSPIRATION

Towards a recycling economy
Local initiatives will become a driving force in kick-starting a recycling economy.

Urban Green File has met an inspirational group of people in the Western Cape.

Full Cycle, a Cape Town-based company committed to reducing waste through innovative products and services, has launched an initiative to collect food waste from three restaurants in Noordhoek Farm Village. Full Cycle has a large vermicomposting site at its base nearby.

According to Roger Jaques of Full Cycle, as much as half of the waste that goes into landfill is organic and could be easily recycled. The Noordhoek food waste is collected daily and fed to earthworms, which can eat their entire body weight in a day. The earthworms devour the waste and turn it into a rich, organic fertiliser known as ‘vermicompost’.

In keeping with Full Cycle’s commitment to low-technology, low-energy solutions (and converting waste into a beneficial resource), the waste is collected by bicycle and trailer, and the vermicompost and ‘vermitea’ are used in the gardens of the village.

Phumlani Dlongwane rides the bicycle and trailer to Noordhoek Farm Village, collects the food and cares for the worms.

Phumlani is well-qualified for his job – he runs a Bicycle Empowerment Network workshop in Masiphumelele and the Masiphumelele Youth Cycle Club. He collects about 20 kg of kitchen waste daily.

What makes the Full Cycle initiatives truly inspirational is that the aim is not only to be environmentally-conscious but, according to Mary Murphy of Full Cycle, the idea is to kickstart a recycling economy.

There is money to be made while looking after the environment.

Another widely-publicised initiative of Full Cycle is the ‘worm factory’ that was installed at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town. Located only 50 m from the entrance of this famous hotel, it has become quite a tourist attraction!

Full Cycle is reportedly also in discussions with the Westcliff Hotel in Johannesburg to install a similar system.

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INSULT

Campaign fatigue?
Litter remains a major concern despite numerous anti-litter campaigns

Although there are, at local level, initiatives to get recycling programmes working and to get individuals involved in the quest to minimise waste, it seems that, in South Africa, we still get the basics wrong. Visit most taxi ranks, pedestrian routes, open fields, inner-city sidewalks and, probably most shockingly, urban river banks and you will probably find the area littered with plastic bags and wrappers, cold-drink cans and beer bottles.

What measures have been put in place to combat litter?

The most popular is an anti-litter campaign. Gauteng launched one in June 2007, the Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire launched a clean-up campaign in August, Tshwane Metro launched a litter-free campaign in October, Durban launched a ’Love the Beach – Don’t Litter‘ campaign in November, Mogale City launched a clean-up campaign aimed at 2010 in November, to name but a few.

These are all commendable and well-advertised efforts but are we making any progress? Are we addressing symptoms or causes? Solutions are difficult to find but this is a serious issue that we probably need to address from another angle.

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TREE OF THE ISSUE

Heteropyxis natalensis
Year-round interest
Rich colours, a neat compact shape and the striking mottled trunk ensure that Heteropyxis natalensis or the Lavender Tree provides year-round interest, writes Dawie Coetzee of Eco Consult Landscape Architects.

Heteropyxis natalensis or Lavender Tree owes its name to the strong lavender scent it emits, especially when the leaves are crushed.

It is a lovely, open-structured ornamental tree with a rounded crown of glossy, dark-green leaves, which contrast well with the colour of the lighter bark on its trunk.

The tree is well-represented throughout KwaZulu-Natal and this explains the ‘natalensis’ in its name. Here it occurs naturally on the margins of evergreen forests, as well as in riverine vegetation and on rocky slopes, especially where these niches overlap. Additionally it is also dispersed around Gauteng and Mpumalanga, and up into Zimbabwe.

The Lavender Tree is a small, deciduous to semi-deciduous tree, which attains a height of 6 m to 7 m with a spread of about 4 m. The distinctive, crooked stem grows in either single or multistemmed fashion – smooth and white in colour when young, and light gray when mature. The trunk has flaky patches that reveal a pale orange-brown colour underneath.

This is similar to the Ochna pulchra (Peeling Plane or Lekkerbreek). This characteristic appearance is particularly valuable in the winter months when surrounding vegetation may become dull and unappealing in appearance.

Additionally, the mottled appearance of the bark, accompanied by the slightly drooping open structure of the crown, makes the Heteropyxis natalensis an excellent indigenous alternative to the Betula pendula that is commonly used in landscaping.

The Lavender Tree is fairly slow-growing and moderately frost-sensitive. Young trees need to be protected in their first year. However they usually recover very well from any frost damage in the following spring. They are also fairly drought-tolerant as they are able to withstand up to six months of moderate to severe drought.

The tree produces very small and fragrant yellow flowers from December to March.

These flowers attract bees, wasps and butterflies and other insects so the tree is a good choice to attract insect-eating birds to a small garden or to enhance the general associated diversity of larger landscapes.

In the urban context, the tree has great versatility as it can be used as a focal point in a small residential garden where space is limited or grouped together in clumps in larger landscapes.

The Lavender
Tree should be planted in full sun but it is moderately shade-tolerant. The crown has a sufficiently open texture so that sun-loving plants can be planted at its base. The leaves develop a rich red, orange and purple colour in the autumn.

This colour is retained throughout winter before leafing just before spring. The new leaf growth in the spring is also deep red in colour. Although the Lavender Tree will thrive in either high or low rainfall areas, the autumn and spring colours are the most vivid in dry areas.