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CSIR researcher and project leader of the Investment Potential Atlas 2009, Helga Goss |
Limited resources are available for South Africa's housing needs, while housing development pressures emerge in diverse locations. To make well informed and justifiable investment choices that will promote the development of sustainable human settlements, CSIR Built Environment was commissioned by the Department of Human Settlements to update research contained in the Human Settlements Atlas 2009.
"The overall aim of the atlas series is to provide a spatial interpretation of current policies regarding the establishment of sustainable human settlements and specifically settlement locality," explains CSIR project leader Helga Goss.
The atlas can be used to:
- Give a spatial dimension of national housing policy
- Give input into integrated settlement planning at a national scale
- Set provincial and district settlement planning in a national spatial context.
The Investment Potential Atlas 2009 is published by the Department of Human Settlements.
"The main spatial challenge in South Africa continues to be the spatial exclusion of the poor from the main socio-economic facilities of cities and regions. Locations close to employment areas, opportunities and services are not accessible to all people because of issues such as high land costs, limits to planning instruments and subsidies, and limited bulk infrastructure in appropriate places," Goss comments.
"The outcome of our analyses is an investment potential profile, to say what shelter type and supportive services should be built where, in the most suitable location that is likely to have the highest potential to support sustainable human settlements," says Goss.
The three main outputs are:
- A spatial quality of life index (productive life; shelter; safety; health)
- A spatial quality of place index (viability; diversity; accessibility; efficiency and protection of resource use)
- A differentiated settlement investment potential profile, linked to recommended types of housing and supportive service investments for each type of area.
The atlas features a comprehensive set of spatial maps of the country, showing different circumstances and potentials of provinces and regions.
The maps show whether a specific area has a relatively high demand for
employment, i.e. whether more economically active people live there
compared to job opportunities in the area, or vice versa |
For further information about the Human Settlement Investment Potential Atlas 2009, email Victor Rajkumar at info@dhs.gov.za.
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