RESOURCE PRODUCED BY CSIR BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY & CSIR ROADS AND TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY
RESOURCE PRODUCED BY CSIR BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY & CSIR ROADS AND TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY |
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Improving transport accessibility for people with disabilities A cost-benefit approach to the identification of well-located land for low-income housing developmentWater services: is franchising feasible? Improvement of the aggregate interlock equation used in the cncPave software package Building quality index for houses CSIR's fire investigation team in demand SB'04 Africa - Regional Conference on Building and Construction Sustainable building workshops CSIR's Dr Sharon Biermann nominated for prestigious national award E N Q U I R I E S |
Gauteng is experiencing a population growth rate of twice the national average; unemployment rates, on the other hand, have doubled, resulting in a significant increase in the number of urban poor. In an attempt to keep pace with the growing demand, and within the funding and legal constraints of the national government's subsidies housing programme, the provincial government has, over the last ten years, focused on housing and service provision on the urban periphery, adjacent to existing low-income settlements, where land acquisition is a relatively cheap and easy process. While this approach has been successful in delivering a significant quantity of housing units, it has been at the expense of the built quality of the house itself, the immediately surrounding settlement and in terms of location of the settlement in relation to the wider urban region - all necessary elements for sustained livelihood development. Continued peripheral subsidised housing delivery at scale, on poorly located land, perpetually marginalises poor people in terms of access to urban opportunities including employment, amenities and social networks. In addition, those that can least afford it need to spend a disproportionate amount of time and money on transportation, with the associated cost to the environment in terms of resource use and greenhouse gas emissions. As part of a concerted drive by key departments in the province to institute a directional change in the location of subsidised housing delivery, a cost-benefit assessment model has been developed to guide decision-makers to direct low-income housing delivery to localities which are least costly to develop, maintain and operate over the longer term, but which at the same time yield the greatest benefit in terms of sustainable livelihood capitals or assets which allow individuals to improve their livelihood condition, in turn leading to economic growth and increased household income levels. The model is multidisciplinary in nature and incorporates engineering services, transportation, social amenities, retail goods and services, environmental resources, land and house top structure costs and benefits, including both once-off or capital and recurrent costs, to both government and households. Based on the results of this empirical assessment of locality costs and benefits, it is concluded that:
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E M A I L
The CSIR, led by a high-level team from Gauteng province (the heads of Department of Development Planning and Local Government, Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Housing and Transport) in partnership with African Development Economic Consultants, have produced a cost-benefit model for assessing locality options for delivering sustainable low-income housing development.
