College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences 2011 Highlights ...

Challenges facing African urbanisation
The Department of Geography hosted the Africa Scholar series at the Genmin Auditorium on Florida Campus. Dr Shuib Lwasa
delivered a paper titled ‘Rowing the tides of a changing World; implications for Africa’. The focus of his lecture was on global
environmental change, its impacts, challenges to Africa and possible pointers to tapping opportunities and role of research and
education. In his paper he looked more at the global changes and its local impacts.
He said that change presents opportunities but
change has also presented challenges for Africa.
“Africa’s development predicament with a mix
of development models, human security issues,
environmental risks and climate change impacts
raises new questions on how, which direction and
what is needed to paddle through the changing
world,” said Lwasa. He added that there is a need to
look at the role of research, education and training.
Lwasa mentioned that most parts of Africa that
could have been used for food production have been
taken over by expanding cities or are centred in the
midst of wars. He said that change in respect to
demographics, economic, environmental, climate and
geopolitics with impact is felt more at local level.
Signing a Memorandum of Agreement with Mogale City
The College of Agriculture and Environmental
Sciences and Mogale City signed a Memorandum
of Agreement on the 23 March 2011 at the
Florida Campus. This MOA seeks to advance
knowledge in the fields of Environmental
Management and Ornamental Horticulture so that
the city can make informed decisions regarding
its development. The university benefits through
this by giving its students access to an array of
pressing and relevant environmental research
questions. We therefore believe that the signing
of this Memorandum of Agreement confirms the
commitment of the city and Unisa to contribute to
research and advance knowledge.
Visiting scholar Dr S Lwasa and Department of Geography staff
He suggested that if the rural areas can experience infrastructure development, which creates job opportunities, that would reduce
the influx of people to urban areas. “However, not all people who move to urban areas go there for jobs,” said Lwasa.
Lwasa acquired his PhD in Urban Geography at Makerere University in 2007. He has over 10 years research and teaching
experience at Makerere University and Islamic University in Uganda. He has tutored at international institutes including, HIS
of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, and IGS in conjunction with UN Habitat. His research interests are in human and natural
systems, innovative urban planning, land management, indigenous knowledge systems, land use and land cover change vulnerability
assessment and adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.
Prof Maggi Linington; Ms Morakane Mokoena; Prof Reta Maré
The current research of Ms Karin de Bruyn into Package Plants is highly relevant in this regard. Whilst this technology offers a
service solution to developers who are unable to connect to municipal services due to cost and locality, several questions are still
unanswered regarding effluent quality and standards. This research project will hopefully highlight some of these concerns and
led towards a regulatory framework and standards for package plants.
It is hoped that many similar research projects will emanate from this collaboration. Research into the fields of open space planning,
urban agriculture, acid mine drainage, air pollution, recycling and methane gas projects are some of the city’s current pressing
challenges and opportunities.
community engagements
Community Engagements
World Environment Day: Think green, live green
An awareness of sustainable living should be a priority, and World Environment Day helps to gauge what is being done and what
still needs to be done. Department of Geography, in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, and the Greater
Rustenburg Community Foundation (GRCF) hosted discussions and creative performances to highlight environmental concerns
on Friday, 3 June 2011.
This year’s theme “Forests: nature at your service” is a call to action to protect forests and move towards a greener economy.
A panel discussion looked at the harsh realities of environmental issues and what humanity stands to lose if destruction
continues at its current pace. Plant ecologist and academic in Unisa’s Department of Environmental Sciences, Prof Leslie Brown,
emphasised our contribution. ”We have lost our contact with nature and we don’t realise what nature is doing for us. We
cannot afford to ignore our collective impact on the earth and we have to become responsible citizens by educating people
and sharing expertise”. Sharing these sentiments was Dr Nellie de Crom from the Department of Nature Conservation at the
Tshwane University of Technology. “Most of us walk through life in a state of disconnectedness from the nature around us. What
is needed is a mind shift in terms of the fragility of the environment.”
Assisting Teachers in the Bojanala Region to teach Geographical
Information Systems
The Department of Geography launched a pilot workshop in mid-February, with teachers in the Bojanala Region, specifically
related to Geographical Information Systems (GIS). GIS has been part of the grade 10 to 12 curriculums for high school learners
since 2004. It has become more and more apparent, that teachers are struggling with this part of the teaching of Geography.
The aim of the pilot workshop was to identify the challenges faced by teachers and learners alike. According to Mr Chris Vlok
of the Department of Geography, “the main problem with GIS, is that teachers and schools in the rural areas do not always have
access to technology such as computers and the correct programmes. We realised that an approach different from what we had
in mind, was required”. By the end of the pilot workshop, the participants suggested that one should rather present the theory of GIS
around real world problems with which teachers and especially learners can associate. The group also agreed that a paper-based GIS
project developed around the theme of water provision would make a lot of sense in the majority of the rural schools.
This workshop triggered a follow-up workshop in the village of Mathopestad, with high school learners from Lesele Secondary
School. The reason this village was chosen, was that the Department of Geography had been involved in the village since early
2010, by promoting vegetable farming in the community, and the reality was that there were very few households that had
running water to or in their homes. Water thus needs to be carried in containers from the communal water points to the houses
or gardens. The aim of the workshop was to show teachers how to engage Geography learners with fieldwork aimed
at mapping all the properties, water points and vegetable gardening initiatives in the village.
As is always the case when working in rural communities, being creative and adapting to the circumstances and challenges
on the day of the Mathopestad workshop was the name of the game. Due to the number of learners interested in the day’s
activities, the school’s stoep and courtyard had to serve as a temporary classroom to explain the purpose of the survey and the
logistics of the day. The courtyard was soon buzzing with activity as the learners were divided into nine groups to survey the nine
zones. After appointing a group leader for each group set off with the group leaders to one of the zones for a training session
on how to complete the survey forms and plot the water points and property boundaries on large scale aerial photographs.
Believe me it is not easy to plot a specific house on an aerial photograph when all houses (the training was in the zone of RDP
houses) are of the same shape and size and there are no trees or tarred roads than you can use as reference points. The cooperation
from the learners was really special. Within a week they completed the survey and Ms Konopi (their teacher) could
pass the aerial photographs and survey sheets on to the GRCF office. The next step would be to start capturing the information
in a GIS. Hopefully we can share maps of water points and where vegetables are being grown in Mathopestad in a future edition
with them. The intention is also to go back to Lesele Secondary School to give the learners the opportunity to capture the
information they have gathered in a GIS. The learners have provided us with experience on how to map other communities in
the Bojanala district and authentic material which can be used in the teaching of Geographical Information Systems. Of even
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