Browsing by Subject "Urban"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Environmental factors associated with atopic dermatitis in children in urban and rural South Africa
    (2025) Dewar, Janine; London, Leslie; Todd, Gail
    Background: Environmental exposures related to modern urban living, and the absence of protective rural exposures, may contribute to the high prevalence of childhood atopic dermatitis (AD). Objectives: To identify environmental exposures associated with AD in children living in three residential areas of South Africa. Methods: A total of 3144 children aged 3 to 11 years participated in 1999 in a cross-sectional study involving a suburban area, peri-urban informal settlement, and several villages in a remote rural district in South Africa. Caregivers of children within a modified case control subset of 739 children, consisting of 253 cases and 486 controls, completed a researcher-led 57-point questionnaire on environmental exposures. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine statistically significant associations between environmental exposures and AD. Results: A total of 387 children in the urban area, 59 in the peri-urban area and 293 in the rural district were included. Mean age of participants was 6.8 years, and 53.9% were female. Multivariate analysis found that current exposure to mould (aOR 2.79; 95% CI 1.58 – 5.00), pesticides (aOR 1.73; 95% CI 1.24 – 2.42), stress events (aOR 2.37; 95% CI 1.19 – 4.75) and home infestation with fleas (aOR 1.73; 95% CI 1.24 – 2.42) increased odds of AD in our study population, as did weaning after 4 months (aOR 1.83; 95% CI 1.31 – 2.56), compared to earlier weaning. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the need for targeted interventions addressing indoor environmental air quality, use of indoor pesticides, and the impact of psychological stressors on the development of AD.
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    Fighting the sprawl: restructuring the seam between the rural and urban landscapes through consolidation, integration and intensifcation in Cape Town
    (2025) Louw, Pieter; Ewing, Kathryn
    The central theme of this research project is the relationship between humanity and the environment. Specifcally where this relationship is at its biggest confict, where settlements and open space meet, on the peripheries of cities. Traditionally, the settlement form of the Cape maintained a dynamic balance between the landscapes of society, wilderness, rural and urban. This balance was disrupted through Modernism and Apartheid planning which lead to segregated, fragmented and low-density urban landscapes. Through outdated planning policies, engineering standards and speculative development models, this balance is still increasingly disrupted, manifested in the form of lateral sprawl. The urban landscape, which is considered by the status-quo as the dynamic landscape, places growing pressure on the rural and wilderness landscapes. The need to restrict the lateral growth of cities is globally recognised and one unsuccessful tool utilised in the Greater Cape Town Metro to prevent urban sprawl, is the urban edge policy. This research project argues that a line that exists only on paper, such as an urban edge policy which promotes compaction, is not a suffcient mechanism to address urban sprawl. Compaction is only one aspect of mitigating sprawl. It argues that the edge is a landscape, not a line and explores the notion that a spatial proposition is necessary that consolidates and integrates the rural and urban interface zone and restructures the peripheral urban landscape. That this landscape could, through consolidation, integration and intensifcation, target and mitigate the drivers of sprawl
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    Innovative Financial Inclusion for migrants and refugees living in urban areas: Practical lessons for Southeast Asia from Africa
    (2019) Tongboonrawd, Baranee; Alhassan, Abdul Latif; Makoni, Patricia
    The purpose of this study is to examine the innovative financial inclusion for the under-served urban migrant and refugee population in Thailand, respectively. The increasing number of urban migrants and refugees in Thailand requires innovative financial inclusion and livelihood interventions. Many migrants and refugees do not have access to formal financial services due to their legal documentation, although their demands for financial services still exist and remain unsatisfied. The evidence from Kenya in Africa could provide implications and viable options for Thailand in implementing financial inclusion and livelihood programmes in different ways. Using data from the migrants and refugees residing in Bangkok, Thailand through individual interviews, the discourse and narrative qualitative analytical methods were employed to analyse data. The key findings from this study include financial needs, financial inclusion options, livelihood assets and strategies, financial literacy, as well as the livelihood approaches that can support the wellbeing of urban migrants and refugees in the host countries. The findings also revealed the difference in financial needs between urban migrants and refugees in Thailand due to their unique needs and livelihood goals. The data analysis suggested that the financial inclusion and livelihood interventions in Kenya could be applicable for refugees and migrants in Thailand. The roles of financial technology and innovation also have a positive impact in accelerating the financial inclusion of refugees and migrants. The recommendations from this study can help to create the enabling environments for financial inclusion of migrants and refugees in the urban context of Thailand. A comprehensive needs assessment on livelihoods and financial inclusion could explore the actual needs of the migrant and refugee population in in Thailand. The coaching sessions for new arrival groups of migrants and refugees can help them to adjust their livelihood strategies while residing in the host country. The innovation and technology will promote the cost-effective informal banking and open up employment and economic opportunities. The advocacy for the rights of migrants and refugees should be strengthened, including the legislations regarding basic healthcare and education. With a dramatic increase in migration, a better understanding of urban contexts will help develop workable interventions for financial inclusion of urban displaced persons, eventually building resilience and reducing poverty among migrants and refugees.
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    The anatomy of access: re-imagining essential service provision in complex urban neighbourhoods
    (2025) Jackson, Lizelle Kay; Ewing, Kathryn; Crooijmans-Lemmer, Hedwig; Truter, Georgina Jani
    Nearly three decades after end, the spatial legacy of Apartheid still scars the Cape Town landscape. Large urban centres remain the key destinations for peripheral suburbs and townships placing increasing pressure on the landscape as rapid urbanisation is underfoot, constantly altering the urban fabric both on the edge and within lower-income accessible neighbourhoods. These shifting states of existence produce vulnerabilities that make it difficult for access by the state for effective service provision in these neighbourhoods. This project looks at this reality of access for people living in Dunoon, a dense residential area that sits immediately south of the junction of the N7 and Malibongwe Drive. Dunoon is investigated in relation to the larger Blaauwberg District and the greater Cape Town Metropolitan and this macro analysis is paired with the more micro analysis gained from contextual nuances of the neighbourhood. The project will make proposals for reimagined service provision that claims space within the public realm as a common amenity in the dense character of the neighbourhood. I look to scholars of the Global South where, relating to this concept of peripheral urbanisation and self-constructed neighbourhoods, writing includes work by Bayat (2013); Caldeira (2017) and Roy (2011) which become crucial to grounding the research in real-world Dunoon life. Further writing on systems and infrastructure that offer deeper understanding of existing access & service models and their shortfalls in provision in a South African context are also explored (Hanyurwumutima & Gumede, 2021; Jaglin, 2014; Larkin, 2013). Building on the academic conversations surrounding these topics, the research explored the spatial implications of individually driven neighbourhood making processes on the spaces of collective occupation in Dunoon? From the research, which was undertaken using critical theory, desktop study, site visits, model building and storytelling, findings directed the question of how urban design intervention could reimagine the way in which state and user interact in complex urban environments to allow for safe and equitable conditions within these diverse urban realities. Proposal for neighbourhood structuring intervention that combines scalable spatial strategies of pricks, points, clusters and centres with scalable ownership strategies, allowed a reimagined way of working in complex urban environments like Dunoon and offers new ways for city making in the future that accommodates rapid urban growth.