Informal settlers' perceptions of environmental quality: A case study of the Mizamoyethu Community, South Africa
R. Ballantyne and
C. Oelofse
Additional contact information
R. Ballantyne: University of Natal-Durban
C. Oelofse: University of Natal-Durban
Environment Systems and Decisions, 1999, vol. 19, issue 3, 203-215
Abstract:
Abstract Informal settlements are an integral part of the urban environment in South Africa. People living in these settlements exist at a close interface with the environment, constantly having to adjust to environmental changes. Urban managers and planners need to find ways of developing informal settlements that enhance residents' quality of life while reducing the settlement's impact on the environment. Central to addressing these issues is the adoption of a participatory planning approach, which recognises and acts upon knowledge of community values, perceptions and needs. This paper reports the results of a case study of informal settlers' perceptions of environmental quality. Fifteen residents of an informal settlement were interviewed regarding their perceptions of their living environment, with the aim of alerting planners to ways in which environmental quality might be improved. Four major themes were identified: aspects of the natural environment; services and facilities; personal and community security; and employment opportunities. The need to unite the community to work together to achieve its own goals was a common thread in all these aspects. The findings indicate that informal settlers have a developed appreciation of local environmental quality which should be investigated and incorporated in the planning and development process.
Keywords: Development Process; Environmental Management; Environmental Change; Natural Environment; Nature Conservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1026446627105 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:envsyd:v:19:y:1999:i:3:d:10.1023_a:1026446627105
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/10669
DOI: 10.1023/A:1026446627105
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Environment Systems and Decisions from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().