Planning support: Case studies and successes

The CSIR has used its customised approach to accessibility modelling to support social facility location planning across South Africa and in many different contexts. This has ranged from projects that have involved a comprehensive audit of access to and the availability of many social facility types for an entire municipality (for instance eThekwini Municipality and the City of Cape Town) to projects which looked at a particular social service such as fire services, Home Affairs offices and sports facilities services for a specific region or province (i.e. Thusong Centres for the Western Cape, Home Affairs offices for RSA).

In the case of eThekwini Municipality and the City of Cape Town in particular, decision support has been provided over a number of years to planners which has enabled the accessibility modelling to support the integrated planning of social services and provide input to social facility investment plans. This relates to long term as well as short term planning initiatives and builds on previous studies of social facility provision as well as allowing for the measurement and evaluation of changes in provision over time.

A study for the DPSA (Department of Public Services and Administration), namely the Geographic Accessibility Study of Social Facility and Government Points for the Metropolitan Cities of Johannesburg and eThekwini undertaken in 2012, is an example of an extensive auditing process of social facility service provision across a metropolitan area to determine backlogs in service provision, identify areas of most need for services and locations for social facility investment which would best serve this need in future.

This integrated study focused on developing multi-department integrated facility plans that covered all three tiers of government in each to the metropolitan areas. This provided support for the achievement of more equitable and affordable access to a range of services in all parts of the two cities. A strong emphasis of the study was the promotion of the clustering of facility service provision which can then be supplied more efficiently from centralised points. Click to read more.

Some past initiatives

• Thusong Service Centres: Accessibility analysis and proposed service delivery plan for the Western Cape Province, 2012
• Geographic accessibility study of social facility and government service points for the metropolitan cities of Johannesburg and eThekwini, 2011/12
• Analysis of early childhood development facilities within the City of Cape Town, 2011
• GIS-based sport facility planning support system for the Provincial Government of the Western Cape, 2011
• eThekwini accessibility mapping and optimisation of community social services for eThekwini Municipality, 2010
• Survey of park usage and residents' perceptions of park space in eThekwini for eThekwini Municipality, 2010
• Evaluation of community social facilities and recreational space in City of Cape Town: current and future provision for 2016 and optimal location of new facilities, 2010
• eThekwini accessibility mapping and optimisation of community social services for eThekwini Municipality, 2009
• Accessibility mapping for community social servicesfor eThekwini Municipality, 2006
• Conducting a pilot project for site location of South African Revenue Services (SARS) office in Ekhuruleni, Polokwane and Giyane municipalities for South African Revenue Services, 2005
• The development of a supply and demand model for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, 2003
• Accessibility mapping for community social services and public facility investment around transport nodes for eThekwini Municipality, 2001
• A case study of the micro-level testing of AccessMap: an evaluation of alternative sites for the relocation of Umhlanga fire station from a traffic and accessibility perspective for Durban Unicity, 2001
• Accessibility mapping for the Fire Services in the Cape Metropolitan Area for City of Cape Town, 2000
• Klipfontein Corridor Langa Planning project - GIS mapping and accessibility software for City of Cape Town, 1997

Current initiatives

The CSIR is involved in a study for the City of Tshwane which aims to provide the City with an integrated plan to address social facility backlogs as input to its Social Facility Investment Plan. To this end, an audit and evaluation of the current facility backlog is being undertaken to determine the need for future provision, including both new builds and the expansion of social facilities, in terms of the projected population demand of 2021.

For more information contact:

Pryaska Naidoo, CSIR
pnaidoo8@csir.co.za

Gerbrand Mans, CSIR
gmans@csir.co.za