Environmental Determinism in the midst of Poverty Statistics

Environmental Determinism in the midst of Poverty Statistics South Africa Free State Isibalo Symposium (Symposium on evidence based decision-making) 10 -11 October 2013 Tuscan Rose, Bloemfontein 9300 Theme: The environment Presenter: Yandisa Mashalaba (Ph. D) yandisa@ybmac. co. za

Acknowledgements Presentation compiled from data collected in Galeshewe Township, Northern Cape Part of a Ph. D Research from the University of the Free State, Department of urban and regional planning I would like to thank the following people, Prof Verna Nel (UFS); Mr Tshepo Mekgwe; Mr Agreement Malanka; Ms Boitumelo Moheta; Ms Yolande Meas; Ms Rosemary Riet; Mrs Pabalelo Mokgosi and Mr Jerry Mholo for without their contribution this study would not have been finished.

1. Introduction Various theories of urban open space provision in human settlements Ecological Determinism: Main purpose is to achieve an ecologically rich urban environment based on the following 5 principles • Ecological content; • Ecological context; • Ecological dynamics; • Ecological heterogeneity and • Ecological hierarchy Two variants of this approach 1. Smart conservation and 2. Green modernism In practical terms: encourage the provision of urban open spaces, as one of the few ways of improving environmental sustainability within a developed human settlement setup

1. 1 Question 1 Is this possible under any socioeconomic condition?

1. 2. Urban open space: a perpetual challenge? 1. Current realities include 1. Increase in housing densities 2. Public open space is non-revenue generating and its provision is costly (Tang & Wong, 2008, p. 259). 3. Urban Open Spaces do not enjoy the same importance in city plans and development programs as that of other infrastructure plans and they do not have similar budgets and is it seems as if it is unimportant. (Beer, Delshammar, & Schildwacht, 2003, p. 133). 4. Poor quality open spaces affect the moral and self esteem of local residents and poor quality also promotes the takeover of neglected spaces and it enhance anti-social behavior.

1. 3 Galeshewe Township, Sol Plaatje, Northern Cape

1. 3 Environmental Determinism

1. 4 Socio-economic conditions in Galeshewe

1. 4. 1. Socio-economic conditions (cont) According to Stats. SA 2001, 86% of the people of Galeshewe earn less than R 3200 per month whereas only 4. 7% earn more than R 6400 per month with the Galeshewe Household Survey of 2009 estimating this high end amount to be R 9126 per month for the top 4. 7%.

1. 5 The practical challenge of achieving an improved open space provision 1. Limited research in Townships and how open spaces have been planned; used and supplied 2. Limited research in open space planning, South Africa 3. Complexity of attributes 1. Township user profiling 2. The most favorite open spaces 3. Frequency of open space use 4. Open space user satisfaction 5. Factors that affect the functionality of urban open space 1. Ecological; social s and economic factors 2. Planning and design issues, i. e. , distribution and accessibility

1. 6 Question 2 How does the socio-economic condition of township dwellers affect the frequency of township open space use, and the preference to stay in close proximity to public open spaces?

1. 7 Research Methods 1. Survey research 1. Population: 21257 2. Probability Sampling 3. Sample size (645 Households) 4. Sample Size Formula: Square root of (N-20) x 20. Where n is the sample size and N represents the population (Stoker, 1981) 5. Pilot of 5%= 32 6. Respondents: 595, i. e. 92% Response Rate 7. Stats Analysis: Frequency tables; Percentages and Cross-tabulations; measure of statistical significance; strength of the relationship between two or more variables

1. 8. Analysis Cross-tabulations: used to measure the degree of association between variables. Once a relationship has been established and explained, the question would be the test of statistical significance and the strength thereafter. 1. A Chi-square is a test of the significance of association and it is used to examine the relationship or association between 2 nominal variables. 1. Uncertainty co-efficient -a directional measure of the degree of association (strength) between 2 nominal variables. 2. The Cramer’s V statistic- a symmetric measure of the degree of association (strength) a between two nominal variables. 3. The Contingency Co-efficient-another symmetric measure of the degree of association (strength) between two nominal variables. 2. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was used for ordinal variables

1. 9 Summary of factors that affect the frequency of open space use and open space user satisfaction

1. 9. 1 Summary of factors that affect the frequency of open space use and open space user satisfaction

1. 10 Conclusion The results proved that there is enough reason to believe that the current approach to urban open space planning in Galeshewe is out of context, i. e. , it does not respond to the community’s values and needs. The results also showed something that is contrary to existing literature about the benefits of urban open spaces in urban areas, i. e. , the value of urban open spaces. The community of Galeshewe Township does not regard urban open spaces as valuable, both in ecological; social and economic sense

1. 11 Conclusion In such a case, how does achieve the principles of environmental determinism if this is not linked to the values and needs of the urban poor?

Thank-you yandisa@ybmac. co. za