Land, Environment, and Sustainable Development

The research theme of land, environment and sustainable development focuses on the complex relationships between human societies and their natural environments. Research in this area examines a wide range of topics, including land use, natural resource management, climate change, and sustainable development. A further dimension of focus is on the Anthropocene, in which the intersection of the Anthropocene, environmental humanities, and literary studies provides a dynamic and interdisciplinary field addressing the impacts of human activity on the planet. This area of study explores how literature, philosophy and the arts can engage with, and reflect upon the environmental crises associated with the Anthropocene epoch. This research area also explores how environmental issues intersect with social and political issues such as poverty, inequality, and conflict. One key area of focus within this theme is the study of sustainable development, which seeks to promote economic growth and social well-being while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. This includes an analysis of the social and economic factors that contribute to sustainable development, as well as an exploration of the mechanisms through which sustainable development can be achieved.

Research Clusters

Poverty, Inequality, and Development

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies

Race, Culture, and Identity

Language and Society

Health, Welfare, and Human Security

Politics, Governance, and Citizenship

Ethics, Social Justice, and Human Rights

Land, Environment, and Sustainable Development

Conflict, Violence, and Reconciliation

Science, Technology, and Communication

Performance and Visual Arts

Department	Researcher	Areas of focus
Afrikaans and Dutch	Prof Andries Visagie	Literature involving human-animal relations, the environment, and the Anthropocene.
Ancient Studies	Dr Annemarie de Villiers	Animals and the environment in classical literature.
Centre for Applied Ethics	Dr Almas Mazigo	Climate Change Ethics; African approaches to environmental issues.
CREST	Dr Lauren Wildschut	African evaluation landscape, evaluation competencies.
CREST; DSI-NRF SciSTIP	Dr Corlia Meyer	Environmental communication; social and environmental movements; environmental campaigns.
CRUISE	Ms Lodene Willemse	Urban planning and development: urban form & function, sustainable urban development, urban liveability and quality of life, open space systems in urban areas, application of statistics in the field of Urban Regional Science, and contemporary planning processes and methodologies.
	Dr Anele Horn	Social and spatial transformation through community-based planning and design.
	Dr Danie du Plessis	Innovation in urban planning systems; urban spatial transformation; spatial statistical analysis; modelling of cities and urban systems; climate change and urban planning.
English	Prof Louise Green	Nature and environmental crisis.
	Dr Tilla Slabbert	Environmental Humanities; literary-cultural productions of the environment.
	Prof Meg Samuelson	Anthropocene studies; environmental humanities; oceanic humanities; coastal studies.
	Dr Smuts Eckard	Ecocriticism, environmental literatures, environmental humanities.
	Dr Eve Nabulya	Understanding how literature negotiates and articulates philosophical and practicable contributions to development, specifically the interface between literature and discourses of ecology and the natural environment.
	Ms Lodene Willemse	Urban studies, including Urban planning and development: urban form & function, sustainable urban development, urban liveability and quality of life, open space systems in urban areas, application of statistics in the field of Urban Regional Science, and contemporary planning processes and methodologies.
Extended Curriculum Programme	Dr Taryn Bernard	Focus on critical approaches to incorporate sustainability discourses and environmental communication.
Geography & Environmental Studies	Dr Suzanne Grenfell	Processes of sediment transport in rivers and wetlands; Processes of wetland formation; Quaternary sedimentology of wetlands; Impact of climatic variability and climate change on geomorphic processes; Geomorphology of estuaries and coastal wetlands.
	Mr Curtis Bailey	Specialized focus areas includes GIS-based modelling of socio-economic and environmental patterns and processes including climate change, biodiversity dynamics, and sustainable development.
	Dr Jan de Waal	Physical geography; Water resources; Ecosystem services; Climate.
	Mr Kyle Loggenberg	Application of earth observation, particularly hyperspectral data, and machine learning to support decision-making in natural and built environments.
	Dr Samantha Williams	Human dimensions of small-scale fisheries in the global south and the sustainable governance of natural resource systems.
	Prof Manfred Spocter	Education, geographic information systems, environmental management, and small-town economic planning. Research focuses on histories of South African geography, small-town geographies, urban materialities, urban environmental issues, and geographies of infrastructure.
	Ms Lodene Willemse	Spatial evolvement of decentralised developments; Urban socio-environmental sustainability.
	Prof Ronnie Donaldson	Studying various socio-spatial processes of urban change in small towns (heritage, gentrification, social segregation, tourism development, etc.).
	Dr Danie du Plessis	Urban planning & governance innovation; urban spatial planning & transformation; cities and climate change; spatial statistics; urbanisation and migration.
	Dr Kenwinn Wiener	Sediment nutrient dynamics in fluvial ecosystems; Quaternary geo-eco-hydrological interactions in fluvial landscapes; Impact of environmental disturbance events on fluvial geomorphology.
Geography and Environmental studies; Centre for Geographical Analysis	Dr Jaco Kemp	Applications of aerial and satellite earth observation, particularly using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and machine learning, to mapping and monitoring of the natural and built environment.
	Prof Zoltan Szantoi	Artificial Intelligence based image classification, land cover characterization; Geospatial big data processing, cloud application; Cash crop mapping for food security, vegetation phenological cycles estimation.
	Dr Eric Mashimbye	Remote sensing of agriculture; digital soil mapping; soil degradation; object-based remote sensing; hyperspectral remote sensing; land cover & land use dynamics.
	Mr Theo Pauw	Remote sensing: GEOBIA, classification, automation, radar, photogrammetry, pre-processing; GIS: Web-based GIS, cartography; Applications: land cover, vegetation, wetlands.
	Dr Herman Geyer	Economic geography, i.e. the morphological development of urban regions over time; economic and spatial effects of policy in terms of its effect on population settlement patters and location in a dual-sector economy; Social Geography, i.e. Informality, Customary land use management, segregation, and neighbourhood change.
	Prof Adriaan van Niekerk	Remote sensing techniques to support decisions concerned with land use, bio-geographical, environmental, and socio-economic problems.
	Dr Tara Southey	Climate modelling in the Western Cape; Building a sound climate database for the Western Cape; Climate & Grapevine modelling in the context of climate change for adaption and mitigation; Water resource management.
	Dr Zahn Munch	Application of remote sensing techniques to land use change, biodiversity, environmental, and socio-economic problems; relationship with ecosystem services and associated uncertainty.
History	Prof Sandra Swart	Socio-environmental history of southern Africa, with a particular focus on the shifting relationship between humans and animals.
Modern Foreign Languages	Dr Doret Jordaan	Ecocriticism, Geocriticism, Literature, Comparative Literature, Landscape, Deserts, Foreign Language Teaching.
Philosophy	Prof Johan Hattingh	Environmental philosophy & ethics.
Philosophy	Prof Louise du Toit	Eco-phenomenology and environmental philosophy more broadly.
Political Science	Dr Derica Lambrechts	Environmental Organised Crime.
RADAR	Dr Patricia Zweig; Dr Robyn Pharoah	Sustainable development, risk-averse planning, design, and development.
Social Work	Prof Lambert Engelbrecht	Social development and social work practice
Sociology & Social Anthropology	Prof Khayaat Fakier	Women and Care for the environment.
Ton & Anet Vosloo Chair in Afrikaans Language Practice	Prof Ilse Feinauer	Translation and the environment.
Visual Arts	Ms Joani Groenewald	Land; Landscapes in Translation.