Built environment

Women's Month Feature - In pursuit of technology in service of people As an anthropologist who specialises in the areas of water, sanitation, hygiene and housing as well as gender studies, Louiza Duncker conducts research to promote and facilitate efficient, effective and environmentally-sound human settlement development.

New Chief Researcher - Wind engineering expert improves built environment design Wind-tunnel testing of sport stadia, tall buildings or developing design manuals for structural engineers - it is all in a day's work for CSIR chief researcher Dr Adam Goliger, a structural engineer who specialises in wind engineering research.

Spotlight on logistics for regional growth and development South Africa needs to evaluate its high internal logistics costs at all levels and address the issues and challenges, especially those related to inland and cross-border transportation. This is the crux of the fourth State of Logistics survey, released in July by the CSIR.

French asphalt could find application in local roads and airports Significant increases in traffic loads and volumes have led to the need for long-life, low-maintenance solutions for the construction and maintenance of roads. The South African Bitumen Association (Sabita) has identified a French innovation, high-modulus asphalt (HiMA), as a possible technology solution.

Engineering geologist wins JD Roberts Award Dr Phil Paige-Green, an acclaimed CSIR engineering geologist, was named winner of the 2008 JD Roberts Award in July. He received the award for outstanding research and innovation, with an international flavour, in the transport infrastructure field.

From vine to wine: key international issues The Wine Supply Chain Council (WSCC) and the CSIR hosted a seminar in July to look at key issues in the supply chain of wine production. Representatives from the wine industry attended the event, with presentations by the CSIR, Georgia Tech, USA, CSIRO Australia and the Catholic University of Chile.

Towards a spatial development perspective for southern Africa Understanding the role of physical space and spatial structures in economic growth is crucial to ensuring equitable development takes place in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. A recent CSIR scoping study presents a first-cut spatial development perspective on southern Africa.

CSIR staffer gets operations research prize The prize for the best operations research project for students at Honours level was awarded to Elias Willemse of the CSIR recently. Willemse's winning project deals with the design of an optimising algorithm capable of generating patrol routes for security guards.

Spotlight on managing connections among developing communities The promise of Africa and the role operations research plays in achieving that promise were highlighted by Elise del Rosario, president of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS) at the federation's triennial conference held in South Africa in July.