Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
School of Architecture and Planning
Introduction to Environmental planningARPL2018A
EIA Project
Siyabulela Ndude
Introduction
Project overview
The targeted field of concern includes Pieter Roos Park in Parktown, Johannesburg, which is located across from the Wits Education Campus. St Andrews Rd, Queens Road/Street, Victoria Avenue, and Empire Road are its boundaries. This is currently a public park with development permission of 50% of the park. Despite the present use of the proposed property, this new residential complex attempts to alleviate housing challenges faced by Wits students and staff. In this project, an EIA will be conducted on the new development and an EIA report will be produced to better understand the impacts of the development in terms of sustainability.
Need for a project
This project that will be developed on the 50% coverage of the Pieter Roos Park in Johannesburg-South Africa will serve the right to adhere to constitutional rights to whom it is being developed to in terms of Section 26 of the South African Constitution of 1996 is renowned for enshrining a broad range of judicially enforceable socioeconomic rights, including the right of everyone to adequate housing and protectionfromarbitraryevictions(Strauss&Liebenberg2014).Universityisoftenayoungperson's first living and working away from home. Foreign students will have to leave their home country to adjust to a new environment. As a result, it is critical that all students feel safe and comfortable in their living quarters, as poor living conditions can negatively impact a student's academic engagement.
Numerous students spend the significant amounts of time in student housing, either dining, resting, socializing, or researching. Institutions must provide adequate student housing. Similarly, if the institution owns the housing, it must be distributed properly and on time, as failure to do so may have a significant impact on the students. Students may find it difficult to focus on their schoolwork or develop friendships if they do not live in a pleasant atmosphere.
A study summarizing a round table debate on the relationship between student housing and mental health was produced in 2019.
Several experts describe why accommodation benefits students a "sense of belonging and security," which might motivate them to "take on the risks and challenges of higher education and to accomplish the related academic and life development," according to the paper.
In other words, experiencing at ease in one surrounding can reduce stress, boost confidence, and allow one to achieve success in other aspects of one’s existence.
It should also be noted that many students use their student housing as a place to study, as not all students perform best in a library setting.
The nature of the proposed project
The project will be developed a 20 residential property for wits students and will cover 50% of the wholepark.TherelevantmunicipalityofJohannesburgforthedevelopmentistheCityofJohannesburg. The project will be used to address housing issues for students and employees. Condominiums would be a better proposed development for the site.
Individual apartments that are part of a larger complex or community are known as condominiums. Condominiums normally share a hallway or two with certain other units and are governed by homeowners' associations, which levy monthly or annual fines. They're popular in densely populated cities with a lot of restaurants and enterprises.
A tenant is only responsible for a small portion of the maintenance and repairs. If your roof leaks, for example, you can split the cost with your neighbours rather than paying for the entire repair. In addition, some condos include amenities like as gymnasium, lounges rooms, swimming, as well as other amenities that you wouldn't be prepared to purchase or accommodate into a private dwelling.
The types of remodelling you can conduct, as well as pet and rental limitations, are typically imposed by condominium homeowners' associations. You don't want one person replacing glass doors that aren't up to code or done correctly; you want uniformity and safety.
The nature of the affected environment
Pieter Roos Park, one of Johannesburg's oldest gardens, was established in 1912. It was once a peaceful haven, but most locals now avoid going there. Its old trees coexist with public art, an outdoor gym built by Radio 702 a decade ago, and other relics left by history and time.
The Braamfontein Spruit runs through town before joining the Jukskei River and then the massive Limpopo River.
According to Luke Lamprecht, a child development specialist and lay historian of the inner city, the parkis"atthepinnacleofallthedistinctJoburgs";itissandwichedbetweenHillbrowandoldHoughton, Braamfontein, and Constitution Hill. Pieter Roos Park has fallen victim to gangs and drugs in recent years; it is a spill over area from Hillbrow's congested homeless shelters, which Lamprecht refers to as the "centre of poverty." Its vegetation is strewn with drug and sex paraphernalia, contaminated with human excrement (Hellywood, 2020).
The human excrement is mainly due to homeless peoplelivinginthatparktobe and they use one of the open drainages as a source for sanitation and a place to secrete their human faces within the drainage.
The area has a basketball guard which has been vandalized to the extent that it is no longer used for its intended purpose. Activities conducted on the basketball are indigenous games such as jump rope and other well-renewed sports in South Africa such as soccer.
The park has a shocking amount of accumulated sewage and waste that is not being managed in a responsible fashion, such as the use of trashcans and dustbins. The park has lost some of its playful form for people to relax in, and it now has a lot of wasted space with benches and chairs. Picnic tables are strewn with filth, graffiti, and weed and cigarette stains. Neighbourhood friendliness and the pattern
of the development should follow the surrounding areas of Pieter Roos Park which is will give us an insight on it should be developed ( Kearney,2006.)
Identification and Impacts of a proposed project
The Pieter Roos Park residential development will have social and environmental consequences. Many environmental issues, such as air pollution, water pollution, and the loss of natural areas, have been linked to urban expansion. Urban storm water frequently contains fertilizers, silt, and dangerous toxins, which can cause not only water contamination but also significant changes in river flow and weather in the park's surrounding areas. This development might cause biodiversity decrease due to it being an open with a power station. The major causes of biodiversity decrease and species extinction have been recognized as forest degradation, dispersion, and modification related to urban expansion (Czech, Krausman, and Devers 2000; Soulé 1991). The negative environmental, social, economic, and other related impacts that are likely to come from this development, considering the area's location and present use will come to result in climate impacts (Agrawala et al,. 2011).
a)People who live in these spaces which are mainly homeless people will have to find other habitats to occupy. Learners who are nearby the park won’t have an open space to play and partake in their youthful social activities such as tournaments, concerts, and playdates. Old people won’t have space to enjoy their respective social life.
b)The development in the park will result in a small increase in urbanization. In the event of stormwater/ rapid increase in runoff, the natural water cycle will not be able to be in full motion because the infiltration of water on the Earth's surface will be reduced due to pavements and building footprint. (Lee & Bang 2000). This will give rise to high rapid peak runoff and major floods will eventually cause inconvenience within the area in terms of business and other economic operations (Tsihrintzis & Hamid, 1997)
c)The development might destroy the minimum natural habitat that is already there mainly due to the decrease of the ecosystem caused by the residential development (Czech et al ,.2000)
The residential development constructed by the University of Witwatersrand will harm the typology and positive impact on the surrounding areas of the park. The I&APs as I mentioned will be affected such as the surrounding areas which the McDonalds, Regus-Johannesburg, Parktown public school, Roseneath primary school, the residential areas ( Park Lane Village, Argyle House). A systematic frame of climate change to adapt the development will need to implement in order to minimize any inconvenience (Moser & Ekstrom, 2010).
Now in terms of the proposed development of the Condos will likely impact on the area's development? A research that was done to find out more about condominium is titled “Possibilities and challenges of sustainable condominium development in Thailand: an analysis through the circle of blame concept”
The primary goal of this study is to gather information on the opinions of developers, financiers, users (both current and prospective buyers), as well as architects associated with the production of sustainable condominium buildings. The concept of the circle of blame was employed to conduct qualitative research on sustainability, with data collected through structured interviews in four areas: ecological, financial, social participation, and artistic and utilitarian. According to the data, if economic sustainability was as predicted, the majority of respondents did not reject the concept of sustainable development (such as the project value, rent, return, and cost saving). As a result, creating sustainable condominiums necessitates economic sustainability. The project's stakeholders will now focus on environmental, social, and community issues, as well as aesthetics and functional sustainability. The study's findings show that higher development costs and risks are the biggest roadblocks to sustainable expansion in Thailand's condominium industry. This study shows that if we apply these to our development in Pieter Roos Park, then development costs and risks will happen (Rattanaprichavej, 2020).
Evaluation of alternative and Mitigation
Unfortunately, traffic noise is unavoidable. Only attempts to lessen it can be made. One of the most essential noise-reduction techniques should be implemented throughout the construction phase.
Nevertheless, a few are related to the stage of installation and management: picking pavement surfacing that is noise-free (Biesbroek et al ,. 2013). The quietest types of surface, on the other hand,
When wet, which frequently has a fine texture, does not provide much grip, with porous macadam, which is both silent and provides a decent grip, is an exception.
However, it is pricey and has additional drawbacks. Operational efforts to reduce traffic issues, which significantly increase noise levels generated by car traffic, or to reroute HGV traffic away from vulnerable areas places.
The development of the project in Pieter Roos Park would require users to use different policies to have a direction in terms of mitigation within the project. The disaster management act 57 of 2002 policy has an overarching goal to help communities become safer and more resilient by increasing the use of and
accessibility to knowledge regarding disaster preparation and handling at various stages of civilization (Uys, 2005).
Disaster risk management encompasses a wide range of activities aimed at limiting disaster effects.
These are they:
● Prevention entails reducing potential consequences.
● Preparedness entails being ready to deal with disasters.
● post-crisis management; and response
● Restoration - recovery
The National Environmental Management Act No. 107 of 1998 (NEMA) is another act that encourages residential consideration (Mbaeze & Eneasato, 2019). The environment is held in public trust for the people, the beneficial use of environmental resources must serve the public interest, and the environment must be protected as the common heritage of the people. The polluter must bear the cost of resolving pollution, destruction of the environment, and negative health consequences. To achieve better mitigation for brief policy recommendations to achieve this goal are given below:
Incorporate this same technological route map for reductions in emissions depending on a multidimensional data statistical system of energy and emissions, particularly the twofold objective of potential residential building energy demand ( Fan et al,. 2020)
Conclusion
The project will be developed a 20 residential property for wits students and will cover 50% of the whole park.
The relevant municipality of Johannesburg for the development is the City of Johannesburg.
The project will be used to address housing issues for students and employees.
Condominiums would be a better proposed development for the site.
Disaster risk management encompasses a wide range of activities aimed at limiting disaster effects. The project in Pieter Roos Park would require users to use different policies to have a direction in terms of mitigation within the project. It aims to help communities become safer and more resilient by increasing the use of and accessibility to knowledge regarding disaster preparation and handling.
Reference List
Agrawala, S., Kramer, A.M., Prudent-Richard, G. and Sainsbury, M., 2011. Incorporating climate change impacts and adaptation in Environmental Impact Assessments: Opportunities and Challenges.
Biesbroek, G.R., Klostermann, J.E., Termeer, C.J. and Kabat, P., 2013. On the nature of barriers to climate change adaptation. Regional Environmental Change, 13(5), 1119-1129.
Czech, B., Krausman, P.R. and Devers, P.K., 2000. Economic associations among causes of speciesendangermentintheUnitedStates:associationsamongcausesofspeciesendangerment in the United States reflect the integration of economic sectors, supporting the theory and evidence that economic growth proceeds at the competitive exclusion of nonhuman species in the aggregate. BioScience, 50(7), 593-601.
Hellywood, M, 2020. Let the Children Play – The start of reclaiming a Hillbrow park. Dailymaverick, at URL:https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-11-20-let-the-childrenplay-the-start-of-reclaiming-a-hillbrow-park/
Fan, C., Sun, Y., Xiao, F., Ma, J., Lee, D., Wang, J. and Tseng, Y.C., 2020. Statistical investigations of transfer learning-based methodology for short-term building energy predictions. Applied Energy, 262, .114499.
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Mbaeze, N.C.and Eneasato,B., 2019.National EmergencyManagementAgency(NEMA) and Disaster Management in South East 2009–2016. ESUT JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, 4(2).
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Rattanaprichavej, N., 2020. Possibilities and challenges of sustainable condominium developmentinThailand:ananalysisthroughthecircleofblameconcept. Pacific Rim Property Research Journal, 26(1) .19-40.
Strauss, M. and Liebenberg, S., 2014. Contested spaces: Housing rights and eviction law in post-apartheid South Africa. Planning Theory, 13(4), 428-448.
Tsihrintzis, V.A. and Hamid, R., 1997. Modeling and management of urban stormwater runoff quality: a review. Water resources management, 11(2), pp.136-164.
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