scholarly journals Sedimentological evidence for seiching in a swell-dominated headland-bay system: Table Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Woodborne ◽  
Burg Flemming
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Standing Wave ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Logarithmic Spiral ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Sediment Distribution ◽  
Maximum Period ◽  
Hydrodynamic Processes ◽  
Robben Island

AbstractTable Bay, South Africa, is a typical headland-bay system with a shoreline that can be described by a logarithmic spiral. A peculiarity and unique feature of Table Bay is the juxtaposition of Robben Island opposite its headland. As a consequence, the bathymetry defines an ellipsoidal basin which was postulated to potentially resonate in the form of long-period standing waves (seiches). One aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate whether any evidence for such resonant oscillations could be detected in the geomorphology and sediment distribution patterns. Indeed, the ellipsoidal shape of the basin can be framed by two converging log-spirals with their centres located opposite each other, one off Robben Island and the other on the Cape Town side of the bay. The so-called apex line, which divides the two spirals into equal parts is aligned SW–NE, i.e. more or less parallel to the direction of ocean wave propagation. The distribution patterns of all sedimentary parameters were found to be characterised by a strikingly similar trend to either side of the apex line. This supports the hypothesis that the basin of Table Bay appears to resonate in the form of a mode 1 standing wave, with the node positioned above the apex line in the centre of the bay. The maximum period of such a standing wave was calculated to be around 37 min. The study demonstrates that large-scale sediment distribution patterns can reveal the existence of specific hydrodynamic processes in coastal embayments. It is recommended that this phenomenon be investigated in greater detail aimed at verifying the existence of resonant oscillations in Table Bay and, in the event, at establishing its precise nature and trigger mechanism.

On the 10-year anniversary of the Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade South Africa: A conversation between parade creative directors Aja Marneweck and Sudonia Kouter

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aja Marneweck
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Original Performance ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Rural Town ◽  
Puppet Theatre ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University

2020 marks the tenth anniversary of the Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade, a large-scale, experimental annual public puppetry event and performance in a small rural town in the Klein Karoo of South Africa. This multifaceted, collaborative puppet theatre-making process, which results annually in the creation of a parade and large-scale original performance, is co-organized by Net Vir Pret (a children’s school aftercare non-profit organisation based in the town of Barrydale) and the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects (LoKO) at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (CHR@UWC). The following conversation between the author (a Theatre Research Fellow at the CHR@UWC and creative director of the parade since 2014) and Sudonia Kouter (the Net vir Pret Aftercare manager and a key artistic contributor in the parade creative and directing teams) explores some of the experiences of meaning-making that arise in such a multi-layered and ambitious project.

scholarly journals Large-scale distribution patterns of carnivores in northern South Africa: implications for conservation and monitoring

Oryx ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Thorn ◽  
Matthew Green ◽  
Mark Keith ◽  
Kelly Marnewick ◽  
Philip W. Bateman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Distribution Data ◽  
Acinonyx Jubatus ◽  
Baseline Information ◽  
Local Range

AbstractAccurate assessment of carnivore population status is frequently hindered by insufficient distribution data. For northern South Africa we address this deficit by mapping new records from landscape-scale sign surveys, questionnaire interviews, problem animal records and camera trapping. The black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas and caracal Caracal caracal remain common and widespread. Ranges of the serval Leptailurus serval and brown hyaena Hyaena brunnea were much larger than previous estimates, reducing the risk of simultaneous extirpation across all occupied locations. The proportion of range area occupied was larger for several species, notably the leopard Panthera pardus, cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and serval. We conclude that the serval continues to recover from historical threats and is expanding into new areas. A larger brown hyaena range and less fragmented pattern of occurrence probably confers greater resilience to threats than was suggested by previous data. Reduced extinction risk arising from the increased area occupied by the cheetah and leopard is tempered by probable local range contraction. Our maps provide baseline information for monitoring the distribution of these six species, which is essential in managing ecological issues that have a spatial component such as responses to changing land use. Our results also demonstrate the utility of detection/non-detection surveys in rapid assessment of carnivore populations at large spatial scales.

The 1st ‘Advanced Academy on International Studies in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’ on Robben Island, Cape Town (S.A.)

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
New South ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
To Come ◽  
Robben Island

“ROBBEN ISLAND IS A VERY SPECIAL PLACE in the new South Africa. No one in South Africa [and few elsewhere] refuses an invitation to come here“; with these words Justice Pius Langa, Vice-President of the South African Constitutional Court, aptly alluded to the symbolic significance of the place chosen as the venue for this first International Human Rights Academy. Indeed, it turned out to be quite an ingenuine idea on part of the Academy's organisers -namely Prof. Jeremy Sarkin from the University of Western Cape (UWC), Prof. Leo Zwaak from Utrecht University, and Prof. Johan Vande Lannotte from Ghent University, as well as Prof. Asbjorn Eide from the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights- to bring, for the first time ever, thirty-five participants from twenty-two countries to the place where Nelson Mandela served eighteen of his 27-years in prison and about which one of his fellow inmates, Ahmed Kathrada, who is now the Chairperson of the Robben Island Council, said that “we [the ex-prisoners] would want Robben Island to reflect the triumph of freedom and human dignity over oppression and humiliation, of courage and determination over weakness, of a new South Africa over the old”. As such, it was, perhaps, the ideal place to devote a good two-and-a-half-weeks (from April 3 to 20) to human rights in all their shades and colours.

scholarly journals Challenges to disaster risk reduction: A study of stakeholders’ perspectives in Imizamo Yethu, South Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Sofie Roth ◽  
Per Becker
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Scale Development ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Western Cape

South Africa is a complex and dynamic society, with overwhelming and increasing problems with disaster risk in the vulnerable urban communities in and around its rapidly growing metropolitan centres. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the challenges for disaster risk reduction in such communities. It focuses on the case of Imizamo Yethu, in the Western Cape, in order to build theory that is grounded in the empirical realities of stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction there. The result points towards five interrelated key challenges, which must be concurrently addressed through large-scale development efforts. Without such investments, it is unlikely that disaster risks can be reduced to tolerable levels.

Re-evaluation of groundwater residence time using a combined 3H/3He, 14C and 222Rn approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodie Miller ◽  
Zita Harilall ◽  
Yaa Agyare-Dwomoh ◽  
Laszlo Palcsu ◽  
Ryno Botha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Residence Time ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Turnover Time ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Residence Times ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Aquifer Systems ◽  
Groundwater Residence Time

<p>The TMG aquifer is one of the largest aquifer systems in South Africa and is currently targeted as a potential source of potable water for the City of Cape Town (CoCT) which recently experienced a period of extreme water stress. Groundwater in the TMG aquifer typically has very low total dissolved salts, on the order of 50 mg/L of less, making it challenging to constrain the groundwater residence time. However, residence time is a key parameter to provide proper constraints on turnover time of groundwater in the aquifer system before large-scale abstraction takes place, in order to evaluate the sustainability of the resource. This study used the <sup>3</sup>H/<sup>3</sup>He system to date modern water (<100 years) and <sup>14</sup>C to date older groundwater (>500 years). Groundwater residence times were determined for the TMG aquifer and five associated aquifer systems in the Western Cape of South Africa, namely the alluvial, Witteberg, Bokkeveld, Cape Granite Suite (CGS) and Malmesbury aquifers. Good correlation between <sup>3</sup>H/<sup>3</sup>He and <sup>14</sup>C ages indicate relatively short residence times for the alluvial and TMG aquifers whereas groundwater from the Witteberg, Bokkeveld, CGS and Malmesbury aquifers indicate mixing of older water bodies with modern recharge resulting in distinctly different ages derived from the two dating systems. In an attempt to better constrain the mixing relationship with modern precipitation, <sup>222</sup>Rn was used to assess the interaction between precipitation and groundwater after rainfall events. The basis for this approach comes from the assumption that precipitation has little <sup>222</sup>Rn in it, with groundwater <sup>222</sup>Rn derived from interaction with the groundwater host rocks. This should result in groundwater <sup>222</sup>Rn activity being diluted through recharge with precipitation. However, since the half-life of <sup>222</sup>Rn is only 3.82 days, <sup>222</sup>Rn activities should respond rapidly to recharge, and should also recover rapidly from this recharge. Three behavioural characteristics were established; (1) groundwaters where the <sup>14</sup>C activity was of ≥ 100 pMC (TMG and alluvial aquifers), and where an immediate dilution in radon’s activity was recorded due to direct recharge. (2) groundwaters where the <sup>14</sup>C activity was 80% – 90% pMC (Malmesbury aquifer) where a delayed response in the dilution of radon’s activity was recorded; and (3) groundwaters where the <sup>14</sup>C activity was ≤ 70% and radon activities were stable indicating little or no recharge. <sup>222</sup>Rn thus proved an important mechanism for evaluating the validity of residence times derived from both <sup>3</sup>H/<sup>3</sup>He and <sup>14</sup>C.</p>

scholarly journals Male-biased migration from East Africa introduced pastoralism into southern Africa

BMC Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mário Vicente ◽  
Imke Lankheet ◽  
Thembi Russell ◽  
Nina Hollfelder ◽  
Vinet Coetzee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
African Ancestry ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
East African ◽  
Genome Wide

Abstract Background Hunter-gatherer lifestyles dominated the southern African landscape up to ~ 2000 years ago, when herding and farming groups started to arrive in the area. First, herding and livestock, likely of East African origin, appeared in southern Africa, preceding the arrival of the large-scale Bantu-speaking agro-pastoralist expansion that introduced West African-related genetic ancestry into the area. Present-day Khoekhoe-speaking Namaqua (or Nama in short) pastoralists show high proportions of East African admixture, linking the East African ancestry with Khoekhoe herders. Most other historical Khoekhoe populations have, however, disappeared over the last few centuries and their contribution to the genetic structure of present-day populations is not well understood. In our study, we analyzed genome-wide autosomal and full mitochondrial data from a population who trace their ancestry to the Khoekhoe-speaking Hessequa herders from the southern Cape region of what is now South Africa. Results We generated genome-wide data from 162 individuals and mitochondrial DNA data of a subset of 87 individuals, sampled in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, where the Hessequa population once lived. Using available comparative data from Khoe-speaking and related groups, we aligned genetic date estimates and admixture proportions to the archaeological proposed dates and routes for the arrival of the East African pastoralists in southern Africa. We identified several Afro-Asiatic-speaking pastoralist groups from Ethiopia and Tanzania who share high affinities with the East African ancestry present in southern Africa. We also found that the East African pastoralist expansion was heavily male-biased, akin to a pastoralist migration previously observed on the genetic level in ancient Europe, by which Pontic-Caspian Steppe pastoralist groups represented by the Yamnaya culture spread across the Eurasian continent during the late Neolithic/Bronze Age. Conclusion We propose that pastoralism in southern Africa arrived through male-biased migration of an East African Afro-Asiatic-related group(s) who introduced new subsistence and livestock practices to local southern African hunter-gatherers. Our results add to the understanding of historical human migration and mobility in Africa, connected to the spread of food-producing and livestock practices.

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