Geography

the focal point of undertakings and surveies refering the betterment and upgrading of these informal colonies was on a local graduated table ( within the colony ) and neglected the betterment in relation to the planned countries around and the whole metropolis, particularly when they become a strategic site in the metropolis and acquire an unreasonable addition in their significance. This wider position which back uping informal colony development on the spacial cloth of the metropolis as a whole is of import for metropoliss are planned in an incorporate manner, while these colonies appear to be random in their location and spacial signifier.

Therefore understanding the consequence of spacial signifier of informal colonies is indispensable as lending issue in integrating of these countries with a more structured and definable form of spacial development of the metropolis, peculiarly factors of spacial signifier have non gained adequate attending until late for betterment informal colonies.

This chapter intends to explicate the background of the survey and discourse several related surveies to place its job statement. Based on these arguments, the survey determines the specific research job. Consequently, the research inquiry, research aims, and research premise will be formulated. Finally, this chapter presents range of the survey, research model, and construction of the thesis.

1.2 Research Background

Recent urban surveies give an increasing significance to the spacial issues of urban countries, particularly in relation to concept of integrating of these countries in the metropolis. Research workers in the field of urban design and urban planning explain that since the urban integrating has a physical every bit good as a societal significance, the spacial signifier of urban countries demands to be understood as a lending factor in organizing form of integrating and segregation in metropoliss ( Hillier and Vaughan, 2007 ) .

The informal colonies are considered as self organized countries in the metropolis which are characterized by illegal inhabiting of the land, inappropriate layout program and un- serviced or minimally serviced land ( Abbott & A ; Douglas, 2003 ) . Informal colonies can be classified harmonizing to location and morphological characters as interior – metropolis colonies and peripheral colonies. UNCHS study ( 1996 ) argued that the peripheral colonies are incorporated to the interior metropolis by urban development.

Recife declaration ( 1996 ) when focused on the country of hapless people in the metropolis considered that the critical issue is the integrating of informal colonies into the metropolis, and confirmed that these colonies are built-in parts of the metropolis which represent a physical portion, but the job facing governments and faculty members in this issue is to recognize the factors that facilitate betterment of informal colonies towards the integrating with the urban cloth of the metropolis. Most of the surveies about betterment of informal colonies have been oriented to the disclosure of societal and economic factors that could impact colonies betterment procedure without sing spacial and location factors which have gained small attending in the literature ( Greene, 2003, Sobreira, 2003 and Karimi et al. , 2007 ) .

Some research workers such as Mukhija ( 2001, 2002 ) and Sobreira, ( 2003 ) argued in the context of their surveies that the spacial factors can impact the success of betterment procedure of informal colonies. UNCHS ( 2003 ) study besides puts frontward that these factors can help the accommodation of more effectual schemes when seeking to better the status of these countries.

the importance and function of spacial signifier is discernible in surveies of urban research workers related to integrating procedure of city`s different urban countries including informal colonies. Nunes da sylva et Al. ( 2001 ) when studied integrating of public infinites as urban countries found that these spacial factors are most critical. : location of the infinite in the metropolis, handiness to the public infinite, the quality of urban cloth where the public infinite exists, the quality of the sites urban design, including its integrating in urban axes.

Costa ( 2002 ) examined the integrating of another type of urban countries – new and old seaport areas- during spacial factors. and when he used town and site degree of integrating he concluded that the chief factors are: propinquity and easy entree, continuity of public infinite ; hinder of the urban barriers ; chief urban axes extension.

The survey of tall edifice urban countries showed that The part of spacial factors considered as important factors for the integrating within the city`s context, and it is revealed that the location ; spacial demands of environing street infinite and entree to the country affect the integrating procedure ( Ali & A ; Aksamija, 2008 ) .

Legeby ( 2008, 2009, 2010 ) argued that handiness to some of public services in residential urban countries ( vicinities ) , considers as a chief spacial factor in integrating procedure which affects the spacial connexion of different vicinities, therefore globally ( at the city`s degree ) integrated residential countries have a better possibility to pull people from outside of the country and more public urban life. Harmonizing Goncalves et Al. ( 2009 ) integrating of vicinities and the urban installations can be enhanced with centrality as spacial factor in the country of transit corridor ; In add-on, a transit system can help handiness and motion between public installations and residential countries.

Urban surveies referred to the function of spacial factors in attacks for betterment of informal colonies which occupy different rates of residential countries in metropoliss of developing states, and how these factors contribution necessary to the integrating of these colonies for the betterment procedure. Hillier et Al. ( 2000 ) explained that spacial factors, particularly the layout of the colony and its relation to its urban context, have played a chief function in consolidation of the informal colonies. The critical spacial factors which facilitates for the colony to incorporate within the context of the metropolis are edge commercial land usage, spacial constellation factors – such as integrating to whole system ( planetary ) , connectivity- and location of the colony. Greene ( 2002 ; 2003 ) presented farther factors in add-on of border motion economic system factor, The factors contain the analyses of syntactic features of the parts of the metropolis including the informal colonies, the distinction between motion in streets and back streets, colonies location in the metropolis: chief metropolis or older territories and the function of the proviso of urban services.

Using spacial informations is indispensable to back up the integrating of informal colonies into the formal metropolis through upgrading procedure ; therefore the informal colonies are required to be operated at a metropolitan degree and at colony degree. At the first degree the impact of the location of the colony is emerged as a spacial component on the broad urban construction, and colony handiness to foreigners which related chiefly with the land usage and interfacing activities.At colony and adjacent countries degree, the soft boundary characteristic demands to be understood and making chief motion corridors as a web if these colonies are to be integrated spatially with the surrounding ( Abbott, 2001, 2002 ) .

In add-on, Abbott ( 2003 ) argued that motion and entree as spacial sphere are cardinal issues that have to be introduced for accomplishing spacial integrating into the environing countries during informal colony upgrading. Supplying spacial linkages to the environing countries by utilizing of GIS system play a cardinal function in making a model for integrating. This attack provides formal roads ( i.e. vehicular entree ) along the chief paths already defined organically within the colony.

Haferburg ( 2002 ) concluded that within the metropolitan spatial development model, for the socio – spacial integrating of informal colonies, it is indispensable return into consideration the factor of location of the informal colony, in add-on the bordering vacant land, which might work good as a topographic point of shared attractive force for the different adjacent countries.

Harmonizing to Mora ( 2003 ) the integrating of informal colonies besides depends on consequence of grid of the colony on building of centrality ; during alterations of handiness of certain countries create strategic locations on the grid for big graduated table commercialism which so can be used as a new signifier of communal centre. In add-on the consequence of the grid of the colony on the integrating of local commercial land utilizations based on formal domestic commercialism located in partly converted houses and the informal economic system represented by street markets.

There is major concentrating on the commercial land usage in big informal colony as an extra chief spacial factor for integrating with the surrounding and the urban cloth of the metropolis as a whole. and this related to interplay between commercial land usage locations and street web properties, The big informal colonies with higher grades of consolidation seems to maximise their economic benefit non merely through stores on their outward borders but besides suiting internal markets which links its local economic system to the wider urban context ( Shafiei,2007 ) .

The major job in informal colonies rises from the atomization and their internal spacial construction ( street grids ) , and this causes inability to associate to their wider context ( environing countries and urban cloth of the metropolis ) . therefore the focal point should be on the path choice scheme ( route filtering ) as the chief spacial factor of the integrating of a strategically placed cardinal informal countries based on comprehensive survey of street features ( most appropriate breadths and street profiles ) and set of be aftering ushers lines ( land usage, edifice tallness, denseness ) ( karimi et Al. , 2007 ) .

1.3 Problem Statement

In recent decennaries a great trade of involvement has been given to the informal colonies in the metropoliss of the developing states. Most surveies on these colonies have focused on procedures and policies related to betterment or upgrading of these countries at the local degree ( within single colony ) , there are small work that looks at the wider impact in relation with the planned cloth of the metropolis and its vicinities ( Abbott 2001 ) .

In add-on Most of the surveies about betterment of informal colonies have focused on disclosure of societal and economic factors that could impact colonies betterment procedure without sing spacial and location factors which have gained small attending in the literature ( Mukhija,2001 ; Greene, 2003 ; Sobreira, 2003 and Karimi et al. , 2007 ) .

The job is that there is a spread between the informal countries and their milieus ( planned ) country of the metropolis in many facets including spacial features, which supposed to promote the economical and societal interaction, and every bit good this spread considered as a barrier to the integrating of these informal countries in the urban cloth of the metropolis. Consequently, a demand arises for surveies send oning farther, and concentrate on the relationship of these countries with the environing spatially.

Based on research background and the old surveies, the spacial issues play a important function in accomplishing the grade of integrating of urban countries including informal colonies in the metropolis ‘s urban cloth. the old surveies, which are related straight to the informal colonies, presented assorted lending spacial factors in integrating procedure of these colonies with the environing countries. The most of import factors included ( inch commercial land usage, internal commercial land usage, motion web features, location of the colony, surrounding land utilizations, soft boundaries, grid form of the colony, constellation factors, distinction between motion in streets and back streets, making chief motion web, centrality, street markets, path ( chief streets ) choice scheme, outsider entree to the colony ) ( Hillier et al. , 2000 ; Greene, 2002 ; 2003 ; Abbott,2001, ; 2002 ; Abbott,2003 ; Haferburg, 2002 ; Mora,2003 ; Shafiei,2007 ; karimi et Al. , 2007 ) .

These surveies were conducted through the procedures of betterment of informal colonies in different metropoliss of developing states including self-improvement attack. It has been observed that the bulk of these surveies addressed the spacial issues in peripheral informal colonies.

The surveies mentioned in the background about integrating of urban countries within the metropolis exemplify how during the undertakings of urban planning and urban design these countries can incorporate locally with the surrounding and the metropolis as a whole. These surveies presented assorted spacial factors such as ( Strategic location, Accessibility, The quality of the sites urban design, Proximity and easy entree, web of efficient public conveyance systems to the country, The propinquity to the new centrality, Pedestrian & A ; vehicular motion forms, Public infinite design continuity, Centrality of the country ) which show the significance of these factors in bettering the quality of infinites of these urban countries and increase their efficiency to incorporate with the surrounding ( Nunes da sylva et Al. ,2001 ; Costa,2002 ; Ali & A ; Aksamija, 2008 ; Legeby,2008, 2009, 2010 ; Goncalves et Al. ,2009 ) , therefore this procedure leads to raise the quality of life of the occupants in the metropolis at local degree ( domestic, vicinities ) and planetary degree ( metropolis, metropolitan ) ( Ribeiro and Holanda, 2007 ) . The survey of theoretical accounts of urban countries integrating during spacial issues assist to obtain assorted spacial factors which contribute in integrating procedure, which support later in finding the factors that had non been addressed in informal colonies surveies.

Through treatments of old relevant surveies on the construct of spacial integrating and the influence of spacial facets on the integrating of informal colonies in the metropolis, the following two important constructs have been detected:

Most of the surveies about integrating of informal colonies was done on the peripheral colonies, and seldom discussed the spacial relationships of interior – metropolis informal colonies in the cloth of the metropolis, which are wholly different from the peripheral colonies. Harmonizing to ( UNCHS, 1982 ) the interior -city informal colonies are situated near to the most incorporate urban countries, largely present high densenesss, and have reached the bounds of growing. These colonies are normally bounded by roads, which are extremely integrated in relation to the whole construction of the metropolis. These colonies face spacial restraint, and hence tend to show a extremely heavy spacial construction. Besides, the propinquity of cardinal sites to occupation chances makes them a more sensible and engorged site ( Sobreira, 2003 ) .

The old surveies on informal colonies have non addressed all the spacial factors that affect the integrating of these colonies, where we see that there is more spacial factors contribute in integrating procedure of different urban countries as revealed in surveies related integrating of different urban countries in the metropolis such as ( existing urban barriers, propinquity and handiness to public installations, handiness to working population, handiness to residential population, propinquity to a new centrality, web of public conveyance to the country, the extension of chief urban axes to the country, the status of next streets, continuity of public infinites ) .

In add-on of deficiency of surveies on spacial features of informal colonies and their betterment in integrating with the environing countries, these two constructs act as index to demo that the spacial relationship of inner- metropolis informal colonies with the urban cloth of the metropolis is non clear, despite the multiplicity and assortment of tendencies sing the consequence of the spacial relationship on the integrating of informal colonies in the metropolis.

This job is truly obvious In instance of informal colonies of Erbil metropolis, which is selected as a instance survey country, where most of the informal colonies has become interior – metropolis informal vicinities or parts of planned vicinities with using self betterment attack. Erbil city`s urban countries in general has passed through rapid development since ninetieth of last century and the Iraq release 2003 accelerated urban development, enlargement of the metropolis, and fixing maestro programs by taking benefits from net incomes of Kurdistan part oil gross, therefore this state of affairs affected the planning of land utilizations and tendencies of enlargements of the metropolis, These rapid developments lead to a province of decomposition of these colonies with the urban cloth of the metropolis.

Based on the job statement, this survey attempts to reply the undermentioned research inquiries:

Make the spacial factors assist integrating of inner-city informal colonies with the environing countries?

What are the perceptual experience of occupants toward spacial relationship of informal colonies and their integrating in the metropolis?

What are the most influential factors which interpret the spacial relationship of interior -city informal colonies with the surrounding?

1.4 Research Aims

The aims of this research are as follows:

To analyze the spacial factors that influences the integrating of interior – metropolis informal colonies in the urban cloth of the metropolis.

To find the perceptual experience of occupants towards the integrating of informal colonies with the urban cloth of the metropolis through a set of spacial factors.

To place the strength of relationship between the spacial factors of interior -city informal colonies and the integrating procedure in the metropolis.

1.5 Rationale of the survey

The chief grounds for carry oning this survey are as follows:

This survey addresses the spacial efficiency of the inner- metropolis informal settlement`s layout to incorporate into the urban cloth of the metropolis, and therefore it deals with the planning and design of these urban countries in relation with environing planned countries. The spacial issues of these informal colonies requires considerable precedence to be studied, that most of the research workers in this field mentioned that small attending paid to spacial topics in informal colonies.

The deficiency of surveies related to informal colonies in Erbil metropolis in general, particularly physical and spacial side, and their province one time considered as inner- metropolis colonies.

The urban planning undertakings of Erbil metropolis such as maestro programs and territory plans- including the last Erbil maestro program undertaking in 2007- did n’t pay adequate attending to betterment of these colonies and their state of affairs in urban cloth of the metropolis.

1.6 Scope of the survey

This survey seeks to understand the integrating of the informal colonies through the spacial relationships of these colonies with the environing countries. It aims to analyze the influence of spacial facets on the integrating of inner-city informal colonies through a set of spacial factors, this integrating is support the betterment of these colonies on the degree of the adjacent countries and the metropolis as a whole.

Erbil metropolis is selected to be the instance survey of the research due to fact that it offers typical instance sing to location of its informal colonies as interior – metropolis colonies, which surrounded with planned incorporate urban countries and streets, so these colonies distinguished by being tangled with the planned urban environment, but with different characteristics of the physical and socio-economic development.

It is important to observe that a new characteristic is reshaping the urban environment in Erbil metropolis during pattern urban planning and urban design mechanisms for development and enlargement of the metropolis. These developments which are represented in land usage and transit planning undertakings, made these informal countries inconsistent with the environing planned countries spatially ( Figure 1.2 ) , hence the research is limited to analyze the spacial facets consequence on the integrating of these informal colonies in this planned urban environment of Erbil metropolis.

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Figure 1.1 Inner-city locations of informal colonies in Erbil City`s Residential Land Use Map. ( Beginning: Erbil Master Plan Report 2008 )

1.7 Structure of the thesis

This research is organized into six chapters as follows:

Chapter one is a preliminary chapter displays the background of the research and discusses old related surveies specifically: surveies about spacial facets in different urban countries including informal colonies. It consists of besides job statement, the research aims, principle of the survey, the range of the survey, research model, and the organisation of the survey.

Chapter two represents the literature reappraisal, which Consists of three chief pillars of the survey: Informal colonies, spacial facets, and Integration procedure. A theoretical survey of informal colonies will be analyzed and investigated from the facets of the subject of the research. A elaborate survey of spacial facets in urban countries in the metropolis and their characteristics in the informal colonies will be presented. The chapter besides discusses the integrating in urban countries in the degree of environing country and in the degree of the whole metropolis, with concentrating on spacial concerns, the integrating as constructs in attacks of bettering informal colonies.

Chapter three intends to specify and explicate proposed spacial factors that affect the integrating of interior -city informal colonies in the metropolis. As good, it surveies and buttockss mensurating tools for these proposed factors. The chapter nowadayss besides the development of informal colonies in Iraq in general and Erbil metropolis in item with concentrating on the selected informal colony Badawa in the survey country ( Erbil City ) and its surrounding planned countries.

Chapter four presents the research methodological analysis and explains the type of methodological analysis that will be used in the survey. It shows in item sampling methods, informations aggregation, and in the terminal determines acceptable methods of analysis can be applied in the following chapter.

Chapter five focal points on the analysis of the informations aggregation. The application of analysis techniques ( quantitative method ) will be achieved. It presents and discusses the consequences, which lead to the decisions and recommendations in the following chapter.

Chapter six includes research decisions and cardinal findings. It discusses the manner in which the survey has answered the research inquiries. The chapter besides shows the scope of part of the research in mensurating the spacial facets consequence on the integrating of interior metropolis informal colonies in Erbil metropolis. The last subdivision outlines the recommendations of the survey.

1.8 Summery

This introductory chapter addressed foremost the back land of the research which dealt with the importance of spacial signifier of informal colonies and integrating with their surrounding within the metropolis context. Furthermore, it focused on the surveies used spacial factors for integrating of different urban countries including informal colonies.

Then, the chapter focused on the job statement of the research and explained the grounds of survey the spacial facets in integrating of inner- metropolis of informal colonies, this led to explicating the research aims and inquiries. The principle and the range of the survey were presented which considered the deficiency of surveies related spacial facets in informal colonies, importance of integrating of informal colonies and the deficiency of surveies on spacial and physical side of Erbil city`s informal colonies as justifications. Finally the model and the lineation of the research were presented which consisted of five chapters.

This first chapter followed by the literature reappraisal which will concentrate on the informal colonies in developing states, infinites in urban countries including informal colonies, and the old surveies related utilizing spacial factors in integrating of informal colonies and other signifiers of urban countries in the metropolis.

Problem Statement

Research Aims

Research Questions

Introduction

The impact of spacial facets on the integrating of informal colonies in Erbil City, Iraq

Datas Analysis

SPSS

Descriptive

Decisions and Recommendations

Factor Analysis aAnnalysis

Key Findingss

Correlation Analysis Analysis

Proposed spacial factors for interior -city informal colonies affect integrating in urban cloth of the metropolis

Literature Review

Theoretical survey of informal settee.

Spatial facets in urban countries

Integration constructs & A ; theoretical accounts ( urban countries & A ; informal. Settle. ) in the metropolis

Data Collection

Questionnaire

Quantitative Survey

Experts

Residents

Figure 1.2 Research Framework

The Geographical Position of Great Britain There are two large islands and several smaller ones, which lie in the north-west coast of Europe. Collectively they are known as the British Isles. The largest island is called Great Britain. The smaller one is called Ireland. Great Britain is separated from the continent by the English Channel. The country is washed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Great Britain is separated from Belgium and Holland by the North Sea, and from Ireland – by the Irish Sea.

In the British Isles there are two states. One of them governs of the most of the island of Ireland. This state is usually called the Republic of Ireland. The other state has authority over the rest of the territory. The official name of this country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But it is usually known by a shorter name – “The United Kingdom”. The total area of Great Britain is 244,000 square km. They say that the British love of compromise is the result of the country’s physical geography.

This may or may not be true, but it certainly true that the land and climate in Great Britain have a notable lack of extremes. The mountains in the country are not very high. It doesn’t usually get very cold in the winter or very not in the summer. It has no active volcanoes, and an earth tremors which does no more than rattle teacups in a few houses which is reported in the national news media. The insular geographical position of Great Britain promoted the development of shipbuilding, different training contacts with other countries.

The Geographical Position of Great Britain There are two large islands and several smaller ones, which lie in the north-west coast of Europe. Collectively they are known as the British Isles. The largest island is called Great Britain. The smaller one is called Ireland. Great Britain is separated from the continent by the English Channel. The country is washed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Great Britain is separated from Belgium and Holland by the North Sea, and from Ireland – by the Irish Sea.

In the British Isles there are two states. One of them governs of the most of the island of Ireland. This state is usually called the Republic of Ireland. The other state has authority over the rest of the territory. The official name of this country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But it is usually known by a shorter name – “The United Kingdom”. The total area of Great Britain is 244,000 square km. They say that the British love of compromise is the result of the country’s physical geography.

This may or may not be true, but it certainly true that the land and climate in Great Britain have a notable lack of extremes. The mountains in the country are not very high. It doesn’t usually get very cold in the winter or very not in the summer. It has no active volcanoes, and an earth tremors which does no more than rattle teacups in a few houses which is reported in the national news media. The insular geographical position of Great Britain promoted the development of shipbuilding, different training contacts with other countries.

The largest earthquake in the world had a magnitude of 9. 5 and took place in Chile. The Valdivia Earthquake, also know as the Great Chilean Earthquake, happened on Sunday, May 22, 1960. It is the largest earthquake currently on record. It occured in the afternoon and the resulting tsunami affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia, and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The epicenter of the Valdivia earthquake was near Lumaco, a coastal city with a population of roughly 11,405.

Various estimates of the total number of fatalities from the earthquake and tsunamis have been published, with the USGS citing studies with figures of 2,231; 3,000; or 5,700 killed, and another source uses an estimate of 6,000 dead. An estimated cost of 2. 9 to 5. 8 billion in damage. The 1960 Valdivia earthquake was actually just a series of many strong earthquakes from May 21 to June 6,1960. The first was the Concepcion earthquake and the strongest was the Valdivia earthquake. The first Concepcion earthquake was on May 21,1960.

Its epicenter was near Curanilahue. The second and third Concepcion earthquakes occurred a few hours apart from each other on May 22. The Valdivia earthquake occurred on May 22. This earthquake affected all of Chile between Talca and Chiloe Island, more than 150,000 sq mi. Most coastal villages disappeared. At Corral, the main port of Valdivia, the water level rose 13 ft before it began to recede. A wave of 26 ft struck the Chilean coast, mainly between Concepcion and Chiloe. Ten minutes later another wave measuring 33 ft was reported.

Hundreds of people were already reported dead by the time the tsunami struck. One ship, Canelos, starting at the mouth of Valdivia River sank after being moved 0. 93 mi backward and forward in the river; its mast is still visible today. A number of Spanish-colonial forts were completely destroyed. Soil subsidence also destroyed buildings, deepened local rivers, and created wetlands in places like the Rio Cruces and Chorocomayo, a new aquatic park north of the city. Extensive areas of the city were flooded.

The electricity and water systems of Valdivia were totally destroyed. Witnesses reported underground water flowing up through the soil. Despite the heavy rains of May 21, the city was without a water supply. The river turned brown with sediment from landslides and was full of floating debris, including entire houses. The earthquake did not strike all the territory with the same strength. The two most affected areas were Valdivia and Puerto Octay near the northwest corner Llanquihue Lake.

East of Puerto Octay in a hotel in Todos los Santos Lake piles of plates were reported to have remained in place. Two days after the earthquake a volcanic vent erupted. Other volcanoes may also have erupted, but none were recorded due to the lack of communication in Chile at the time. The relatively low death toll in Chile, estimated at 6,000, is explained in part by the low population density and by buildings being built taking into account that the region has many earthquakes and volcano eruptions.

Other possible reasons include a high number of wooden houses and that coastal towns also tended to be located on higher ground. After the eruption, began the landslides. The earthquake triggered many landslides, mostly near the Andes. These landslides did not cause many fatalities nor significant economical losses because most of the areas were uninhabited with only minor roads. One landslide did cause destruction and alarm following its blockage of the outflow of Rinihue Lake.

About 100 km south of Rinihue Lake, landslides in the mountains around Golgol River caused this river to dam up and then burst creating a flood down to Puyehue Lake. The Valdivia earthquake led to the formation of the ONEMI. ONEMI is the Spanish acronym for National Emergency and Information Office. ONEMI helps solve problems after earthquakes, large or small. The Valvidia earthquake was also referenced in two fictional novels, and the tsunami following the earthquake was referenced in a Hawaii Five-O episode titled “Forty Feet High and it Kills! “.

Assignment GEO 234 D Sonnekus 2011042526 Flooding In South-Africa A Deeper Insight to What Happens Around Us [pic] Photo: Ivan Sonnekus 2012 Index Page Number 1. Introduction3 2. The Nature Of Flooding3 3. The Main Causes Of Flooding In South-Africa4 4. The Effect Of Development On Flood Hazards in SA5 5. The Effect Of The Economic Status Of People – Regarding Flood Hazards6 6. Conclusion7 7. Bibliography8 1. Introduction

Floods play a major role in our everyday lives, and how we react to the daily changing climate is of course our way of surviving our planetary conditions. Floods determine our building styles and play a very large role in the economy by means of devastating destruction and environmental engineer specialists in terms of flood prevention. The hydrological definition for a flood states that a flood is a rise in water level in a stream to a peak point where after the water level will recede at a slower rate (UNESCO-WMO 1974). Control Key and Word –

A flood event can be described as a flow of water in a stream constituting a distinct progressive rise, culminating into a crest, together with the recession that follows the crest (Linsley, 1942). In this Assignment I will be explaining some key features about flooding regarding a South-African point of view. 2. The Nature of Flooding. Floods can be broken down into different classes or divisions between different types of floods in this section I will explain the main flood types and their nature.

Floods can be divided between major floods, minor floods and flash floods. Major Floods: In the event of a major flood the flooding is caused by the overflowing of rivers and dams by means of breaks in dikes, levees, dam walls and other protective structures; by uncontrollable releases of impounded water in reservoirs and by the accumulation of excessive runoff. In the case of a major flood the floodwaters will cover a wide spread contiguous area and will spread rapidly to adjoining areas of relatively lower elevations.

The flooding will be deep in most parts of the total flooded area and there is a highly perceptible current as the flood spreads to a greater extent. [pic] Minor Floods: In the cause of a minor flood the inundation may or may not be due to overbanking. If there is no bank overflow, flooding happens due to the accumulation of excessive surface run-off in lower lying flat areas. In these cases flooding will mostly be restricted to flood plains along a river channel or low-lying areas or terrain depressions around the direct source of the flood.

The flood water will be shallow and there may not be a perceptible flow apparent or present. Flash Floods: Flash floods is as the name states a flood that happens relatively quick, normally no more than 6 hours to a normal flooding time of 12 to 24 hours or longer. Flash floods is the result of a short concentration time of the drainage catchment or a steep river slope, this means that the precipitation falling on a point in the catchment farthest from the river takes a very short time to reach the river itself and become a part of the stream flow.

Thus the amount of flow will rapidly increase and the water level will rise, when the capasity of the river/stream is exceeded the channel overflows and the result is a flash flood. [pic] 3. The Main Causes of Flooding in SA. South Africa was subject to some intense floods over the last couple of years mainly as the result of cloud breaks and very heavy precipitation in very short time periods which leads to flooding of most small streams and rivers, what then leads to the larger rivers to flood.

South Africa is also a victim of the Southern Oscillation which leads to El-Nino: dry conditions with high surface pressure and; La-Nina: low air surface pressure accompanied by cold and wet weather. See next page for simple diagram illustration [pic] As a result of the Earth surface temperature to keep on rising due to the greenhouse effect the results being a more and more drastically changing macro climate which in turn leads to more rain and eventually will lead Earth into another Ice-Age but that is a topic for another day.

The heavy rains on a constant basis keeps the rivers and dams full up to their limits so in the event of a heavy cloud break the already full rivers and dams cannot enclose all the extra water and all that water needs to go somewhere thus leading to floods, in most cases in South-Africa the floods will be flash floods. But there is also the chance of major floods in the form of a dam overflowing and then breaking the wall or even minor floods like in the December of 2012 the Ncandu River flowing through Newcastle KZN overreaches its banks and fills the Trim park with water at least 1-2 feet deep as the trim park is adjacent to the rivers. . The Effect of Development on Flood Hazards in SA Right around the world the population keeps growing at an alarming rate as the birth to mortality rate is not balanced which leads to a world population always wanting and needing to expand city and/or town borders. In this case the chances are very good that eventually there will be building developments inside flood plains or lower laying terrain in the proximity of a dam or large volume of water.

Thus the engineers of the modern world in developing countries like for instance South-Africa need to come up with new initiatives to improve building techniques to overcome the obstacle of flooding as the floods can be the cause of havoc among the inhabitants of developments within flood plains or beneath the flood level, and also cause a lot of structural and esthetic damage to a city or town. The MooiRivier Mall in Potchefstroom is a classic example of development within a flood hazard. The mall has been constructed on stilt type of tructures that allows the river to flow through underneath the mall but the engineers along with environmental specialists sought to come up with a few ingenious plans to prepare for floods of High hazard (1 in 20 years), medium flood hazards (1in 50 years) and low flood hazard (1 in 100 years) by means of designing a drop away wall where if a certain amount of water flows into a catchment a buoy lifts up and triggers a release on the wall which allows for the brick wall to fall down and allow water to flow into an drainage water way down to the central collection point at the bottom most point of the parking lot back into a stream (the release mechanism works on the same principal as a toilet bowls’ float valve). The parking lot has also been designed on a slope (no flat parking) to act as a funnel leading water away from the mall or danger zone and down into a sub stream or channel. The Mall had a few good tests in the last 5 years of its existence and the engineers and environmental specialists did a good job to overcome the developing in a flood hazard obstacle (Jan-Albert Wessels. IAIA North-West, 2012. ) [pic] Picture: (Viljoen, MF. The Application of flood lines in land use controll. 2009) 5. The Effect of The Economic Status of People Regarding Flood Hazards.

Flooding can and have caused a lot of damage in the past and will continue to do so as the macro climate will keep changing in favor of floods so all we can to do is to prepare ourselves and adapt to the changes of climate, floods cost the head of states and countries a great deal of money to develop in flood plains as well as being prepared to deal with any floods and the cleaning up there after. But it is not just the people on top that lose money, the people who actually live in the house that gets swept away or drive the car that rolls over or submerges, it is them that lead the most damage to their financial stance in life and 80% of the time it will be people from informal settlements or rural areas that lead the damage as they do not follow proper procedure to build their houses and then they build in areas of a high flood risk without them even knowing.

Thus the counties management somehow needs to get it under control as they have tried to do the in the past and actually still trying to do with regard to the housing subsidiary they offer to people of South-Africa. 6. Conclusion My conclusion regarding floods in South-Africa is that our main floods are flash floods that happen as result of heavy rains from the La-Nina time period of the Southern Oscillation, we as the people of our country need to stand together to make a difference in preventing people to build in dangerous high flood risk areas and also need to convince the children of today in developing countries to come up with fresh and new ideas to overcome development issues in flood risk areas. A countries economic development also greatly depends on its readiness for fighting disaster situations and keeping a disaster under control.

A country like South-Africa can suffer great losses financially as result of floods that could have been prevented by means of making use of the right infrastructure on the key areas in developed areas as well as developing areas. Flooding is a natural occurrence and will never be fully under control but the minds of today can shape the ideas of tomorrow with that I leave my mark on the topic of flooding in South-Africa. [pic] 7. Bibliography • Anonymous. 2012. Causes and types of floods. [Web: http://kidlat. pagasa. dost. gov. ph/genmet/floods/cause_types. html]. [Accessed: 14 March 2013] • Department: provincial and local Government. 2009. National Disaster management centre. Flood awareness. PDF 5p. [Accessed: 15 March 2013] • Anonymous. 2011.

La Nina Influenced Flooding in South Africa. AccuWeather. [web: http://www. accuweather. com/en/weather-news/la-nina-influenced-flooding-in/44853]. [Accessed: 13 March 2013] • SAPA. 2013. Floods Cause havoc across South Africa. Mail ; Guardian, Africa’s best read. [web: http://mg. co. za/article/2013-01-20-floods-cause-havoc-across-south-africa]. [Accessed: 15 March 2013] • Anonymous. 2013. Definition and nature of flood. [web: http://kidlat. pagasa. dost. gov. ph/genmet/floods/def_nature. html]. [Accessed: 15 March 2013] • SSC. 2011. The nature of flooding. Sunshine coast council, Queensland. [web: http://www. sunshinecoast. qld. gov. au/sitePage. cfm? code=flooding-nature]. Accessed: 13 March 2013] • Department: Provincial and Local Government, Prof Viljoen. MF, Swiegers. C. 2009. The application of flood lines in land use control. Disaster reduction conference. [web: http://conferences. ufs. ac. za/dl/userfiles/Documents/00000/134_eng. pdf]. [Accessed: 14 March 2013] • Times Live. (2011, February 2). [web: Urgent flood warning along Orange River. ] [Accessed February 14, 2011]. • United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks. (2011, February 10). Southern Africa: Risk of food insecurity in wake of floods. IRIN News. [Accessed February 14, 2011. ] • Anonymous. 2011. Floods in South Africa. Earth Observatory, NASA. [web:

Long before the history of military being recorded, conflicts among humans existed. There will always be different kind of views, ideology, perspectives, needs and greed in every part of the world. The most crucial moment is, when greed overcomes mind. Authority, territory and fame are the common pursued purposes. From those days onwards, military was founded under circumstances that to expand and to conquer others, to defend and to offend; it has indeed became a very important aspect in building an empire or a nation.

Today, speaking about military geography clearly stands for the study on the combination between the knowledge of warfare and the knowledge on earth. In the ancient China, there is a proverb saying that “anyone who controls/ predicts the weather accurately will conquer the world. ” There were a lot of wars or conflicts lost or won because of the geography aspect. It can simply means the weather, terrain, seasons, temperature, water, direction of wind, type of forest and so on so forth. Plenty of examples in the world that show how important is it to master the knowledge of geography and use it in warfare strategy.

A very good example will be Vietnam. A small and used to be underdeveloped country defeated two world developed countries, France at first and next the United States of America. During the two wars, the Viet Congs were armed with much outdated weapons compared to the two countries; however, weapon’s technology was not really their strategy in winning but the guerilla tactic. As we can see on the globe, the location of France and USA are different from Vietnam, every aspects regard the geography mentioned above are different. Vietnam has much thicker and damp forests.

Besides that, the outsiders are not familiar with the geography of Vietnam, the heavy machineries such as tanks and artilleries cannot be transported well and were lacking of warfare experience in thick forests. A few more examples of how important geography is in military are the two most recent wars, which happened in the Twentieth First Century, Afghanistan War and Gulf War Two. Although the USA won in both wars at the beginning, the failure in convincing and to channel liberal ideology to the locals prove the failure of USA in mastering the human and culture geography.

There is another proverb in Chinese says, “Respects were earned through sincerity, no through force. ” The military in both Middle East countries are super high technology and powerful, it still could not stop the ambushes and attacks from the enemies, who are equipped with outdated weapons. The reason behind is, failure in countering the terrain. It is very hard to overcome a person who lives in a mountainous desert, perhaps we can after ten or fifteen years of researches and studies but that will take up millions of dollar just to keep the war going.

It is a very highly risky war. Since the ancient time, our ancestors had make use of knowledge in geography to encounter different obstacles, especially weather. Transporting and travelling on air, water or land, all need to depend on weather’s condition. Furthermore, weather had been used as weapons to jeopardize enemies and even now it can be soon created, like the man made rain, has huge potential to be integrated as storm and send it to the enemy’s location. However, another contradicting example was the Japanese Empire military during World War Two.

The Japanese had gathered a lot of information, sent and placed their spies in the countries or locations they plan to attack like Pearl Harbor, The Peninsula of Malaya, Manchuria, Southern China, Philippines and Australia. Moreover, the spies had been sent to their locations for years, much long before the World War Two starts. This indicates on how much they value about the local geography to make sure their offensive missions will succeed, other than just collecting enemy’s military information.

In the same time, on the other side of the world, the landing date for D-Day mission on Normandy, France had been change a few times due to bad weather. In addition, company of paratroopers were drop far behind enemy line so that they can survey enemy’s activities. All these are not just gathering intelligent information of the enemy but also the local’s weather or terrain that had been altered by the enemy. It is undeniable that geographic information is essential in military warfare tactics.

Even in this peaceful time, long before the Gulf War Two and Afghanistan War, USA had already positioned NMD-National Missile Defense, around the world in the allied countries’ land. The reason is simple, to protect USA. But how we determine where to put it? Just right besides the potential enemy. Most recent example, Ukraine-USA-Russia issue on last two years, when USA wanted to install missiles in Ukrainian land. However, USA also has Her missiles standby in Greenland too.

All these are of course, to protect the beloved nation-state within a certain perimeter, but where and why they put it there will be more to a geographically questions; because it is strategic. In a nutshell, Geography is the study of the earth. It studies humanization, history, nature, environment, weather; it is like another term for science, but broader. Military Geography will be the study of earth in order with the study of military tactics, so that mistakes, casualties and loses can be lessen.

Discuss the future of human geography with reference to the approaches that have emerged since the 1950s. Geography found its roots during periods of exploration when man’s knowledge of the world was still subject to the imagination. For many decades, Europe and the British Empire in particular formed much of what cartography is today, and environmental determinism was widely used to serve imperialist needs. Many ideas and theories were highly influenced and composed by upper class academics and soon critiques were formed. During the mid 1930s, environmental determinism lost much of its support and regional geography fell into to favour.

Soon however, regional geography was also criticised due to its limiting scope and constricting laws. This resulted in post war geography entering a dark period with a dwindling future due the feeling of the subject’s uselessness. Geography progressed well since the founding of the AAG and each well-known definition had its success. These definitions tended to aim to displace one another turn by turn and each definition spoke something true of geography but soon from the vantage point of the future we also saw the failures in them (W. Pattinson, 1964).

Each definition had its own shortcomings and that was a result of professional specialization of certain fields yet still contributing to geography as a whole. But during the late 1950s to early 1960s the quantitative revolution shifted the paradigm of spatial geography. Many saw that geography was losing support and it certainly was in universities, Harvard abolished the subject in 1948. Geography and the disciplines related to the subject needed to turn to physical and engineering sciences for the vitality it lacked (A. Strahler). Therefore the subject entered a far more scientific era and soon gained greater credibility as a result.

Essentially this revolution led to a change from idiographic geography to law-making geography. Two of the leading geographers in the revolution were Richard Hartsthorne and Fred Schaefer. Hartsthorne’s manifesto for the discipline depicted the discipline as a coherent academic subject that used formulae to map landforms as well as to describe areas. However, Hartshtorne was heavily criticised for being overly descriptive and unnecessary. Schaefer argued that there was a need for the subject to be treated as a proper science, in particular he said there was a need for scientific analysis and not “mere description”.

He wanted generalisations to be bought back into geography such as systematic analysis. Soon other definitions were being discredited during this paradigm shift such as military geopolitics (F. Ratzel) because geography had become more scientific. A few definitions were created to try and distinguish what geography was and where it was. Richard Hartsthorne’s publication in 1939 spurred geography on to be far more scientific and law based. Hartsthorne defined 3 variables; humans, landscape and industry which became apart of his overcomplicated formulas that described regions and features.

His findings were still heavily influenced by spatial geography causing them to be restricted by laws that allowed no room for human geographers to present their views. In a sense, you could take this as a positive, in that Hartsthorne was trying to unify geography under one banner but as we have seen over time, this is against the nature of the discipline. This numerical approach sparked other geographers to think of a more descriptive angle that asked more, why things happen. William D. Pattinson’s journal titled the “Four Traditions of Geography” classifies geography into 4 distinctly logical areas.

Originally written in 1964 and then revisited in 1990, Pattinson tries to distinguish geography into to 4 areas, 3 of which are applied to human geography and the 4th is mainly physical yet still linked to the aforementioned 3. The 4 traditions as defined by Pattinson are Spatial, Area Studies, Earth science and man-land and although they are 4 diverse and distinctive they still fall under the same heading of geography. Pattinson hoped “that through a widened willingness to conceive of and discuss the field in terms of these traditions, geography will be better able to secure the inner unity and outer intelligibility” (W.

Pattinson, 1964). This approach to geography aimed to quell the discourse that was prevalent within geography and tried to pave a clearer way for geographies future. On the other hand, thinking in such a law-based manner, restricts dynamic thinking, which is where human geography draws its strengths. I felt that Pattinson still asked more how than why but he certainly helped promote the growth of geography. Subsequently, “The Big Questions” was an article written to try and stimulate thoughts of for the future as well as trying to gain the attention of the media and the public eye. Susan L.

Cutter, Reginald Golledge and William L. Graff wanted to create a dialogue for the future whilst tackling questions that already plagued the discipline of geography. As for the future of geography, this article ask some thought provoking questions such as “when does geography start and finish? ” (S. L. Cutter, R. Golledge, W. L. Graff, 2002) and “what are likely to be the major problems of doing the geography of other planets? ” (S. L. Cutter, R. Golledge, W. L. Graff, 2002) If we are to answer or even begin to answer these questions, we must draw upon the past and in particular what has transgressed over the 60 years.

Over these years of the evolution of geography naturally resulted in a greater divide between physical and human geography. As a result of different approaches to geography emerging from the 50s, physical geography had grounded its roots in the universities of the UK and human geography was also doing well with a similar level of success. Towards the end of the 20th century, physical geography had had a number of successes and was frequently having science group’s works published in the pages of Nature or Science (N. Thrift, 2002).

Human geography was also finding success in its own right. Human geographers were having their works published in numerous credited journals. However the problem that was arising was that geography needed to branch itself out, away from its own circulating community. So in order to evolve and adapt to its every changing environment, geography took a technological leap forward. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, new interest emerged in geographic information systems (GIS) to help with the response to hazardous events (S. L. Cutter, R. Golledge, W. L.

Graff, 2002). As a result of this, large public interest began to become prevalent in geography, maybe not necessarily as an academic subject but as an overall discipline. An example of this can be seen in online phenomenon surrounding the Haiti earthquake of 2010. Within days of the hazard occurring, the people of Haiti created a real time map via Openstreetmap thus allowing the emergency services to act quickly to effect areas. This is an impressive display of how geography is being used to engage the mass audience as well as being an effective tool in saving lives.

Geographic information systems are now playing a vital role in hazard response and in devising hazard maps. Nigel Thrift thoroughly supports the idea that in order for geography to flourish it needs to move away from traditional mapping techniques and into the realm of the media, social networking and politics. This means widening geographies scope and broadening its audience. Thrifts example of this involves aligning professional geography and pedagogical geography. He talks of the combination of technology and geography to enhance the learning of school children and therefore give geography a greater impact in the educational system.

The geographers Ian Cook and Peter Jackson and the anthropologist Danny Miller are in the process of trying to get commodity chains introduced into schools (N. Thrift 2002). These commodity chains allow students to gain an appreciation of where they products they buy, come from. I feel that projects like this one are important for the future of geography, as education is key in producing the next generation of geographers. This concern is dominant in Ron Johnston’s “Reflections on Nigel Thrift’s optimism: political strategies to implement his vision”.

Johnston reflects on what Thrift has written and flags up the concerns of geographies future in oppose to Thrift’s optimistic ideas of the future. He opens his article by stating “The future of an academic discipline” after which he goes on to devise three factors that underpin a subject’s survival. What I derived from Johnston’s review of Thrift was that for geography to thrive, it needs to be constantly vigilante in its up keep with other academic disciplines as well as public interest. If we look to the past we can see this is true, numerous definitions were devised and adapted to keep up with the changing times.

Overall, I feel the future of geography needs to define and ground itself, as a discipline whilst at the same time being dynamic in its approach to the future. Concerns have been raised as to the sustainability of the subject in an academic sense but if we look to the past we can see that geography has always adapted and moved on. But if we move away from the sustainability of the subject, I think that technology is the way forward, especially in grasping the attention of the mass media as well as its audience. It has shown in recent times it can be very effective in hazard response as well as everyday life.

Representation of data has never been easier with new software constantly being developed to make this task easier. To ensure the vitality of their discipline, geographers are going to need to take a more political approach if they want sustained funding and interest. Word Count – 1568 References Cutter S. L, Golledge R. , Graff W. L, (2002) ‘The Big Questions in Geogarphy’, The Professional Geographer, 54:3, 305-317 Hartshorne R 1939 The Character of Regional Geography in Agnew J, Livingstone DN and Rogers A (eds) 1996 Human Geography: an Essential Anthology Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. 388-397 Johnston, R. 2002) ‘Reflections on Nigel Thrift’s optimism: political strategies to implement his vision’ Geoforum 33 421-425 Ratzel, F. (1894) ‘Volkerkunde’ vol. 2 Schaefer F K 1953 Exceptionalism in geography: a methodological examination Annals of the Association of American Geographers 43: 226-249. Strahler. A, (1952) ‘Dynamic basis of geomorphology’,The ‘Quantitative Revolution’, GG3012(NS) Lecture 4, University of Aberdeen, 2011, webpage: http://homepages. abdn. ac. uk/n. spedding/pages/gg3012/qrev. html Thrift, N. ,(2002) ‘The future of geography’. Geoforum 33, 291–298. Pattinson, W. (1964) ‘The Four Traditions’, Journal of Geography pp. 202 – 206