News
Meet Benjy Oliver
Benji Oliver studied extreme wave events as part of his Master’s and is now dedicated to finding methods to improve the wave forecast for South Africa’s major ports, with a view to improving the operations at ports.
Meet Mlungisi Gumede
Gumede says that a professional career in ports and coastal engineering is less known in comparison to mainstream careers. However, this area of specialisation has caught his attention because, “Approximately 90% of international trade takes place via seaports, mostly because it is the cheapest transportation mode.
Meet Vuyo Ndayi
Ndayi is a Capetonian who grew up near the ocean and Cape Town harbour. He combined his love for his environment and for all things engineering to first train as a marine instrumentation technologist, and to now work as a metocean and marine instrumentation engineer for the CSIR Coastal Engineering and Ports Infrastructure group in Stellenbosch.
Exciting projects are always in the pipeline at the CSIR’s Coastal Engineering and Port Infrastructure Model Hall in Stellenbosch. The facility, which boasts the title of being the largest physical hydraulic modelling facility in the southern hemisphere, is home to Rosco Platen and his colleagues. Their primary task is to construct two and three-dimensional physical scale models on behalf of clients, enabling a comprehensive understanding of how dynamic ocean waves impact critical infrastructure.
The Alliance for Collaboration on Climate and Earth Systems Science (ACCESS) programme at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in collaboration with the South African Weather Services (SAWS), will host the 37th Annual Conference of the South African Society for Atmospheric Sciences at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
Ports are catalysts for economic development critically needed in Africa, but they are also significant features of coastlines undergoing rapid urbanisation, where access to natural resources is increasingly contested. In the African context, coastal communities are deeply dependent on coastal resources for food, building materials and their livelihoods. Ports must account for this or face the consequences of losing their social licence to operate.
Gusting winds in Cape Town are not a new problem; however, they are a persistent problem at one of the busiest ports in South Africa where, anecdotally, the frequency and intensity of the wind, and associated environmental conditions, are an ongoing challenge. The CSIR, as part of a research consortium, will now examine the problem and seek solutions for wind disruptions in the Port of Cape Town, in collaboration with the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA).
Is the Port of Cape Town becoming windier? Answering this question is the task of Khangale Khuthadzo, a young PhD candidate who is dedicated to developing the climatology and providing future projections of the wind field over Cape Town, South Africa. He has transitioned from the northernmost parts of South Africa to the southern tip of the continent to collaborate with a team of CSIR researchers working on understanding the impact of extreme winds on the Port of Cape Town.
“There is no industrial development without innovation. Science and technology must ensure that the established parts of our economy continue to innovate in an increasingly competitive world so that we can derive the greatest benefits from our geographic advantages and resources,” said Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. Minister Nzimande was speaking at the launch of the CSIR commercialisation enterprise (speech), CSIR C3, which took place on Wednesday, 25 October 2023 in Sandton.