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Item Open Access The alignment between spatial planning, transportation planning and environmental management within the new spatial systems in South Africa(Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, 2015) Schoeman, CarelEnglish: The debate and discourse for the need to integrate spatial planning, transportation planning and environmental management strategically, functionally and operationally is ongoing since the early 1990s. This includes the articulation of the planning instruments used by the professionals within these functional fields and the way in which it is coordinated and applied as to enhance planning, development and delivery in an integrated fashion. With the approval of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) (Act 16 of 2013) and the SPLUMA Regulations (23 March, 2015), the last bastion of spatial and statutory planning legislation reform from the previous political dispensation within municipalities was transformed (RSA, 2013, 2015). Although this process is still being concluded at provincial and municipal levels of government by formulating its own new transformation structures, guidelines, policies and regulations, the question remains as to whether the disjointedness in municipalities and lack of alignment between spheres of government of the past will be addressed efficiently and effectively on strategic, functional (planning) and operational levels within the new policy and legislative provisions and frameworks underpinning improved alignment processes within the new spatial systems in South Africa?Item Open Access An exploration of social systems as informative for urban regeneration in Potchefstroom Central Business District(Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, 2015) Puren, Karen; Meiring, GertEnglish: The future of cities undoubtedly spells change on many levels due to urban growth. One of the mechanisms used in cities to cope with change is urban regeneration. Urban regeneration has mainly been addressed through economic and planning policies geared towards physical renewal, with hardly any understanding or acknowledgment of the social dynamics underlying the physical process. Social dynamics are important to consider in urban regeneration, as they form the underlying driving forces of cities. However, little is known about these underlying forces. The aim of this research is to explore the role of social systems in the Central Business District of Potchefstroom. An ethnographical approach is used to guide the methodology, while qualitative methods (observations and interviews) are used to capture data about the social systems that are present in the study area, how these social systems interact with one another, and how they can be included in urban regeneration initiatives. The findings suggest the existence of three interactive social systems that reflect pro-social behaviour and cultural relativism which, in turn, create vitality in the study area. Social systems play a multi-levelled role in the study area. Their role can possibly inform urban regeneration by being proactive in terms of attracting new and maintaining existing social relationships; being creative in terms of adapting and changing the physical environment to address needs, and being supportive in order to unlock internal resources such as local knowledge, creativity, commitment, energy and ownership.Item Open Access The South African functional metropolis - a synthesis(Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, 2015) Geyer, Herman; Geyer, Philip; Geyer, ManieEnglish: Confusing usage of terms such as metropolis and metropolitan region in planning policy in South Africa has led to the need for a fundamental investigation into the morphological and functional properties of the country’s three largest cities. Using Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban as examples, the article distinguishes between different elements of functionality of metropolitan areas linking urban function to urban form. Starting at the global level and zooming in, the article examines metropolitan functional space at the national through the regional to the local level. Semantically, it distinguishes between the terms metropolis and megalopolis; daily and weekly urban systems; and between urban monocentricism, multinodality and polycentricism. Based on morphological differences, it classifies Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and the Witwatersrand as metropolitan areas, but regards the sprawled urban agglomeration in Gauteng as a megalopolis. A case is also made for greater recognition of the daily urban regions of the three primary cities of South Africa as part of the larger urban system of each. Planning has focused for too long on metropolitan space inside the urban edge and too little on those parts of the cities that lie outside the edge.Item Open Access From green to gold: a South African example of valuing urban green spaces in some residential areas in Potchefstroom(Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, 2015) Cilliers, Juanee; Cilliers, SarelEnglish: Recent scientific studies identified multiple benefits of green areas in terms of liveability and sustainability. As such, the need to value green spaces within residential areas is increasing, especially in developing countries. This article summarizes current approaches to green space planning, and introduces the Potchefstroom case study as example where 1) the value of green spaces were determined by means of hedonic price analysis and 2) the impact of green spaces were evaluated on site-scale and neighbourhood-scale, also identifying certain uses and benefits, described as ecosystem services. Five sites in the more affluent residential areas in Potchefstroom were selected to investigate the impact of proximity to green spaces in relation to residential property prices. This research illustrated contradicting results to most international case studies. Green spaces were found to have a negative impact on site-scale, but a positive impact on neighbourhood-scale. Similar studies need to be conducted in more areas to make evidence-based conclusions in this regard. This article can serve as point of departure for such.Item Open Access More explicit regional policy for South Africa, please Mr President(Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, 2015) Drewes, ErnstEnglish: South Africa has a long and well-documented history with regard to the design and implementation of national development and regional policy. With the first official policy initiatives in the 1960s, it was decided by the then National Party that a policy of separate development (apartheid) of ethnic groups had to be implemented in the national space economy. In this sense, there is no doubt about the explicit nature of this policy, as it had very specific spatial objectives and implications from the national level down to neighbourhood level. With the democratisation of the Government in 1994, this negative policy connotation led to the establishment of numerous spatial development policies without any significant ‘spatial’ application. At the moment, however, numerous national government departments implement spatial investment programmes on a spatially explicit basis, with little coordination between these spheres and sectors of government. Research has shown that, on a global level, national and regional development policy increasingly has to be focused on a selected number of cities with inherent economic agglomeration benefits. This article aims to provide a scientifically based perspective on what the policy approach of the Presidency’s envisaged National Spatial Framework (RSA, 2012) should include, i.e., an explicit and spatially selective approach focused on cities with existing agglomeration economies.