WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT ON THE WEB SITE ?

The web site firstly provides an introduction that includes:

• An overview of the overall environmental quality of Greater Johannesburg,
• Johannesburg in context,
• Background to the Cities State of the Environment Project,
• The team contributing to the project,
• An introduction to the CSoE-Project and the DPSIR (driving force, pressure, state, impact, response)-model used to describe each issue,
• A list of all the maps used, which is linked to the relevant maps,
• All references cited,
• Some Local Council information and maps, and
• The Methodology and Concept of the Project.

Once the reader understands the context of this project, the detail information on the issues is more meaningful.

The State of the Environment in the Greater Johannesburg area, is analysed according to six environmental priority issues (all described according to existing information):

• Pollution
• Waste
• Parks and Open Space
• Conservation
• Poverty and
• Environmental Health.

These issues were identified in the Local Councils’ Land Development Objectives (LDO’s) of 1997. The information is analysed according to the DPSIR-model, described in the introduction.

Each issue is subdivided into sub-issues that contain all the detailed information:

(* International Indicators selected to measure environmental quality in South Africa-described below)

The issue of the soil and geotechnical development potential of Greater Johannesburg is also addressed, and contains information on the natural and human factors contributing to soil degradation. Maps on the geology, dolomitic land, landforms, slope categories, agricultural potential and geotechnical constraints, are used to compile a map on the engineering geotechnical development potential of the area. Human activities like agriculture, mining, population growth, development and poverty of especially informal settlements are also addressed.

There are also some contextual maps in the list of maps, including regional land use, population, geology, development potential, conservation potential, agricultural potential and GJ in relation to Gauteng. The supporting information is the basis for the development of the analysis done for each issue and sub-issue. The analysis is done by putting the supporting information through a GIS-analysis, which devides it into grid-themes. The maps are then overlayed to achieve the analysis of all the sub-issues, and aggregated into the analysis of each issue. The six main issues’ analysis maps are then added together to form an analysis of the overall environmental quality of Greater Johannesburg. Each issue, sub-isssue and the overall environmental quality is represented by maps and textual information. The vector information of the analysis maps can be viewed by the Internet-user, by downloading ArcExplorer from the web site. Additional cadastral information is available for the Intranet-user, but could be made available on CD to all users.

An education chapter provides environmental education tables based on the DPSIR-model, for each of the issues. Each table shows the driving forces and pressures of the issue, as well as policies, technical and educational ways in which to improve the impacts they have on the environment and on human living.

Although the circumstances in Greater Johannesburg differs completely to that of the international environment, international indicators have been cross linked with the relevant indicators in GJ in the above table with a (*). All indicators, measuring environmental performance in GJ, are also listed in the web site. The indicators are represented by a geographical map of the specific indicator information, and in some cases, it is linked to tabular and geographical representations.

Different perspectives to the CSoER was formulated to represent the information in a different format for different types of readers and users, for ex. a Sustainable Development view, Local Agenda 21 overview, and separate views of all the Driving Forces, Pressures, State, Impacts and Responses to environmental issues and problems in Greater Johannesburg.

The action bar provides the reader/user information on how to get involved in environmental issues, environmental management and current research.

For further information visit our web site at:
www.johannesburg.gov.za/csoe or
www.johannesburg.csoe.co.za
or contact the web editor (jminnie@mj.org.za).

The Geographic Information files are WinZiped and  best viewed with ArcExplorer - (Click to download)