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A few of the postgraduate students who met at the CSIR for the IPDM introductory seminar, with IPDM project manager Maria Coetzee of the CSIR (second from right) and DST representatives (left) Dr Sagren Moodley and Dr Simphiwe Minnie |
Twelve Master's students busy with their course work were introduced recently to real-life applications of integrated planning development and modelling tools and systems at the CSIR. These recipients of studentships sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), as part of a bigger initiative, were introduced to the studentship programme and research conducted by the CSIR and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The DST-funded Integrated Planning Development and Modelling (IPDM) programme has a capacity building component to enhance the quality of postgraduate research in this field.
The students' research fields include integrated urban and regional planning, geography, geo-modelling and sustainable development. They are from the universities of North West, KwaZulu-Natal, the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
The IPDM studentship programme provides the students with the opportunity to meet relevant team members of the DST, CSIR and HSRC. They shared their research interests and selected research themes, while identifying possible contact points and persons within the IPDM project.
Students were provided with access to the IPDM project portal on the web and relevant resource material. The seminar fulfilled its purpose in providing an opportunity for students to gain insight into the realities and challenges of development, the value of integrated development planning and modelling, and recognise the value of related planning support systems and the IPDM project in particular. The students also had the opportunity to explore the Toolkit for Integrated Planning (TIP), its applications and supportive tools such as the Geospatial Analysis Platform (GAP2) hands-on.
The IPDM project is an expansion on the working prototype of TIP, which was also a DST-funded initiative. TIP is a CSIR-developed demonstrator that shows the simulation of urban growth scenarios in future and presents various development patterns and past trends. Maria Coetzee, IPDM project manager of the CSIR, explains: "It is an electronic information platform, developed to provide enhanced information and better evidence as input into spatial analysis and integrated development planning processes, and to support the evaluation of alternative planning decisions."
TIP consists of two main components:
The profiler, which is a collation of cross-sectoral spatial and temporal information on current patterns and trends, limited to the period between 1995 and 2007. The information is represented at various scales in the form of interactive maps and/or quantitative tables.
The simulator - a set of illustrative urban growth scenarios that were formulated to demonstrate the simulation capability that is being developed, including a set of illustrative indicators and indices to measure the impact of these scenarios.
"The students now understand the broader IPDM project within the context of the challenges facing integrated municipal planning in South Africa. They were also given an overview of the planned activities for the IPDM project over the next two years," concludes Coetzee. The postgraduate students will receive financial support for one year, as well as opportunities for various interactions with the CSIR and HSRC researchers.
Enquiries: CSIR Communication
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