Investigation into consumers’ perceptions of advertised retail brands within black urban areas of South Africa

The main aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions consumers’ of Black urban areas of Tshwane, South Africa hold in relation to advertised retail brands and branding. The importance of Black urban area consumers’ perceptions in relation to advertised retail brands is that in the era before independence these communities were generally regarded as being lower income and not brand loyal due to financial constraints. The number of shopping malls and branded stores were limited in these areas but since 1994, when South Africa became a democracy, things have changed. The income in these communities has steadily risen thereby attracting the attention of retail developers (Ligthelm, 2008:37; Tustin & Strydom, 2006:48-49). With the increased retail development in these communities, consumers residing in these areas have become more exposed to branded merchandise and the advertising thereof. This has led to new perceptions towards brands being formed and in the process opening possible new opportunities for retailers. In order to satisfy the research objectives of the study, a self-administered location based survey was distributed to the residents of Shoshanguve, Mamelodi and Attridgeville; Black urban areas within the Tshwane region of South Africa.

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Brand loyalty: are black urban area consumers’ more loyal?

Corporate Ownership and Control ◽

10.22495/cocv11i1c6art2 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 548-555

Author(s):

Michael Colin Cant ◽

Melanie Gopaul ◽

Leanne Manley

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Urban Area ◽

Public Transportation ◽

Brand Loyalty ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Social Setting ◽

Retail Development ◽

Considerable Portion ◽

Retail Outlets

Black urban area consumers’ are a major economic force in the South African economy and represent a considerable portion of the economic and social setting of South Africa (Hummel, M, In: McCann World group, 2008). However this segment has long been neglected by marketers due to the segregation that was experienced within the country pre-1994. Prior to independence, black urban area communities were mostly catered for by ‘spaza’ shops, or informal retailers run from inside a home that presented residents with a limited variety of products. Residents in traditional black urban areas mostly purchased at these retailers due to financial constraints and limited accessibility to other larger retail outlets as well as due to security fears, and in so doing formed a loyalty towards brands offered by spaza shops. Post-1994 however has seen a dramatic increase in black urban area income, enhanced public transportation and greater retail development within these areas, which has allowed for many residents to become more exposed to alternative brands. The primary aim of this study therefore was to examine the degree of brand loyalty consumers’ of black urban areas of Tshwane, South Africa hold today in relation to retail brands. In order to satisfy the research objective of the study, a self-administered location based survey was distributed to the residents of Shoshanguve, Mamelodi and Attridgeville; black urban areas within the Tshwane region of South Africa.

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The Status of Livelihood Vulnerability and Its CopingCapacities of Urban Squatters in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Nepal

Patan Pragya ◽

10.3126/pragya.v5i1.30433 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 19-32

Author(s):

Chhabi Ram Baral

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Urban Area ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Quantitative Methods ◽

Urban Poverty ◽

Rural Poverty ◽

Poor People ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽

The Status

Urban poverty is one of multidimensional issue in Nepal. Increasing immigration from the outer parts of Kathmandu due to rural poverty, unemployment and weak security of the lives and the properties are core causes pushing people into urban areas. In this context how squatter urban area people sustain their livelihoods is major concern. The objectives of the study are to find out livelihood assets and capacities squatters coping with their livelihood vulnerability in adverse situation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied for data collection. It is found that squatters social security is weak, victimized by severe health problems earning is not regular with lack of physical facilities and overall livelihood is critical. This study helps to understand what the changes that have occurred in livelihood patterns and how poor people survive in urban area.

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The Wood Quality of Small-Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) Trees in an Urban Area: A Pilot Study

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12040420 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 420

Author(s):

Benas Šilinskas ◽

Aistė Povilaitienė ◽

Gintautas Urbaitis ◽

Marius Aleinikovas ◽

Iveta Varnagirytė-Kabašinskienė

Keyword(s):

Urban Area ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Wood Quality ◽

Wood Products ◽

Urban Trees ◽

Measuring System ◽

Forest Site ◽

Tilia Cordata ◽

Mean Values ◽

Wood Development

This study performed a pilot evaluation of the wood quality—defined by a single parameter: dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOEdyn, N mm−2)—of small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) trees in urban areas. A search of the literature revealed few studies which examined the specifics of tree wood development in urban areas. Little is known about the potential of wood from urban trees wood of their suitability for the timber industry. In this study, an acoustic velocity measuring system was used for wood quality assessment of small-leaved lime trees. The MOEdyn parameter was evaluated for small-leaved lime trees growing in two urban locations (along the streets, and in an urban park), with an additional sample of forest sites taken as the control. MOEdyn was also assessed for small-leaved lime trees visually assigned to different health classes. The obtained mean values of MOEdyn of 90–120-year old small-leaved lime trees in urban areas ranged between 2492.2 and 2715.8 N mm−2. For younger trees, the values of MOEdyn were lower in the urban areas than in the forest site. Otherwise, the results of the study showed that the small-leaved lime wood samples were of relatively good quality, even if the tree was classified as moderately damaged (which could cause a potential risk to the community). Two alternatives for urban tree management can be envisaged: (1) old trees could be left to grow to maintain the sustainability of an urban area until their natural death, or (2) the wood from selected moderately damaged trees could be used to create wood products, ensuring long-term carbon retention.

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Financial Reforms and Consumption Smoothing

The B E Journal of Macroeconomics ◽

10.1515/bejm-2020-0148 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Martin Boileau ◽

Tianxiao Zheng

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South Korea ◽

Consumer Credit ◽

Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium ◽

Consumption Smoothing ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Lower Income ◽

Financial Reforms ◽

Collateral Constraint ◽

Dynamic Stochastic

Abstract We study how financial reforms affect the extent of consumption smoothing in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of an emerging economy. Consistent with the empirical literature and reform efforts in South Korea and South Africa, we emphasize the relation between consumer credit and durable purchases, and model reforms as the relaxation of the collateral constraint on lower income households. We find that the relaxation of the collateral constraint accounts for a substantial share of the decline in consumption smoothing experienced in South Korea and South Africa.

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Semantic segmentation of PolSAR image data using advanced deep learning model

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-94422-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rajat Garg ◽

Anil Kumar ◽

Nikunj Bansal ◽

Manish Prateek ◽

Shashi Kumar

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Remote Sensing ◽

Deep Learning ◽

Urban Area ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Learning Algorithms ◽

Semantic Segmentation ◽

Learning Model ◽

Machine Learning Algorithms ◽

Deep Learning Model

AbstractUrban area mapping is an important application of remote sensing which aims at both estimation and change in land cover under the urban area. A major challenge being faced while analyzing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) based remote sensing data is that there is a lot of similarity between highly vegetated urban areas and oriented urban targets with that of actual vegetation. This similarity between some urban areas and vegetation leads to misclassification of the urban area into forest cover. The present work is a precursor study for the dual-frequency L and S-band NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission and aims at minimizing the misclassification of such highly vegetated and oriented urban targets into vegetation class with the help of deep learning. In this study, three machine learning algorithms Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) have been implemented along with a deep learning model DeepLabv3+ for semantic segmentation of Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) data. It is a general perception that a large dataset is required for the successful implementation of any deep learning model but in the field of SAR based remote sensing, a major issue is the unavailability of a large benchmark labeled dataset for the implementation of deep learning algorithms from scratch. In current work, it has been shown that a pre-trained deep learning model DeepLabv3+ outperforms the machine learning algorithms for land use and land cover (LULC) classification task even with a small dataset using transfer learning. The highest pixel accuracy of 87.78% and overall pixel accuracy of 85.65% have been achieved with DeepLabv3+ and Random Forest performs best among the machine learning algorithms with overall pixel accuracy of 77.91% while SVM and KNN trail with an overall accuracy of 77.01% and 76.47% respectively. The highest precision of 0.9228 is recorded for the urban class for semantic segmentation task with DeepLabv3+ while machine learning algorithms SVM and RF gave comparable results with a precision of 0.8977 and 0.8958 respectively.

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Cost-efficient factors in local public spending: Detecting relationships between local environments, population size and urban area category

Environment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science ◽

10.1177/23998083211003883 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 239980832110038

Author(s):

Hiroki Baba ◽

Yasushi Asami

Keyword(s):

Population Size ◽

Urban Area ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Local Governments ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Population Decline ◽

Public Spending ◽

Local Environment ◽

Environment Factors ◽

Major Factors

This study examines regional differences in local environment factors to better understand the sustainability of local governments indexed by per capita public spending. Under the condition of heterogeneous population size, we examine how factor characteristics differ depending on the spatial context represented by the urban area category. By employing a Cobb–Douglas cost function with congestion effects on public service provision, the estimated factors enable us to articulate major factors and differences in cost-efficiency between urban area categories. We found that statistical significance and even the signatures of local environment factors differ depending on the urban employment area category. Regarding factors such as the ratios of employees in secondary and tertiary industries, these did not tend to be statistically significant in small-sized urban areas, while small-sized cities in large-sized urban areas were likely to gain confidence intervals. Moreover, we did not observe any statistical significance for the ratio of elderly people due to the balance of spending between national and local governments. These findings could contribute to sustainable management of cities in the advent of population decline.

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The prevalence and contextual correlates of non-communicable diseases among inter-provincial migrants and non-migrants in South Africa

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11044-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Chukwuedozie K. Ajaero ◽

Nicole De Wet-Billings ◽

Chiemezie Atama ◽

Prince Agwu ◽

Eberechukwu J. Eze

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Urban Areas ◽

National Income ◽

Communicable Diseases ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Outcome Variable ◽

Non Communicable Diseases ◽

Awareness Campaigns ◽

Chi Square Analysis ◽

Older Populations

Abstract Background The socioeconomic conditions of different environments manifest in varying experiences of illnesses. Even as migrants do transit across these different environments for various reasons, including settlement, they are bound to have peculiar experiences of diseases, which could be traced to lifestyle, gender, adaptation, and reactions to specific social, economic, psychological and climatic conditions. Paying attention to such unique scenarios, our study examines the prevalence and contextual correlates of non-communicable diseases among inter-provincial migrants and non-migrants in South Africa. Methods Data was from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), waves 5 of 2017, which comprised of 28,055 respondents aged 15–64 years made up of 22,849 inter-provincial non-migrants and 5206 inter-provincial migrants. A composite dependent/outcome variable of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) was generated for the study and data analysis involved descriptive statistics, chi Square analysis and multilevel logistic regression analysis. Results More migrants (19.81%) than non-migrants (16.69%) reported prevalence of NCDs. With the exception of household size for migrants and smoking for non-migrants, the prevalence of NCDs showed significant differences in all the community, behavioral, and individual variables. The factors in the full model, which significantly increased odds of NCDs among the migrants and the non-migrants, were older populations, the non-Blacks, and those with higher education levels. On the one hand, being married, having a household with 4–6 persons, and being residents of urban areas significantly increased odds of NCDs among the migrant population. While on the other, living in coastal provinces, being a female, and belonging to the category of those who earn more than 10,000 Rands were significantly associated with increased odds of NCDs among the non-migrants. Conclusions These findings, therefore, among other things underscore the need for increased education and awareness campaigns, especially among the older populations on the preventive and mitigative strategies for NCDs. In addition, changes in lifestyles with regard to smoking and physical exercises should be more emphasized in specific contextual situations for the migrant and non-migrant populations, as highlighted by the results of this study.

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InSAR Multitemporal Data over Persistent Scatterers to Detect Floodwater in Urban Areas: A Case Study in Beletweyne, Somalia

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13010037 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 37

Author(s):

Luca Pulvirenti ◽

Marco Chini ◽

Nazzareno Pierdicca

Keyword(s):

Urban Area ◽

Urban Areas ◽

The Other ◽

Spatial Average ◽

Calibration Data ◽

Suburban Areas ◽

Persistent Scatterers ◽

Optical Images ◽

Interferometric Phase ◽

Multitemporal Data

A stack of Sentinel-1 InSAR data in an urban area where flood events recurrently occur, namely Beletweyne town in Somalia, has been analyzed. From this analysis, a novel method to deal with the problem of flood mapping in urban areas has been derived. The approach assumes the availability of a map of persistent scatterers (PSs) inside the urban settlement and is based on the analysis of the temporal trend of the InSAR coherence and the spatial average of the exponential of the InSAR phase in each PS. Both interferometric products are expected to have high and stable values in the PSs; therefore, anomalous decreases may indicate that floodwater is present in an urban area. The stack of Sentinel-1 data has been divided into two subsets. The first one has been used as a calibration set to identify the PSs and determine, for each PS, reference values of the coherence and the spatial average of the exponential of the interferometric phase under standard non-flooded conditions. The other subset has been used for validation purposes. Flood maps produced by UNOSAT, analyzing very-high-resolution optical images of the floods that occurred in Beletweyne in April–May 2018, October–November 2019, and April–May 2020, have been used as reference data. In particular, the map of the April–May 2018 flood has been used for training purposes together with the subset of Sentinel-1 calibration data, whilst the other two maps have been used to validate the products generated by applying the proposed method. The main product is a binary map of flooded PSs that complements the floodwater map of rural/suburban areas produced by applying a well-consolidated algorithm based on intensity data. In addition, a flood severity map that labels the different districts of Beletweyne, as not, partially, or totally flooded has been generated to consolidate the validation. The results have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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GNSS RUMS: GNSS Realistic Urban Multiagent Simulator for Collaborative Positioning Research

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13040544 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 544

Author(s):

Guohao Zhang ◽

Bing Xu ◽

Hoi-Fung Ng ◽

Li-Ta Hsu

Keyword(s):

Urban Area ◽

Intelligent Transportation Systems ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Transportation Systems ◽

Accurate Localization ◽

Gnss Receivers ◽

Multipath Signal ◽

Scale Test ◽

Error Behavior

Accurate localization of road agents (GNSS receivers) is the basis of intelligent transportation systems, which is still difficult to achieve for GNSS positioning in urban areas due to the signal interferences from buildings. Various collaborative positioning techniques were recently developed to improve the positioning performance by the aid from neighboring agents. However, it is still challenging to study their performances comprehensively. The GNSS measurement error behavior is complicated in urban areas and unable to be represented by naive models. On the other hand, real experiments requiring numbers of devices are difficult to conduct, especially for a large-scale test. Therefore, a GNSS realistic urban measurement simulator is developed to provide measurements for collaborative positioning studies. The proposed simulator employs a ray-tracing technique searching for all possible interferences in the urban area. Then, it categorizes them into direct, reflected, diffracted, and multipath signal to simulate the pseudorange, C/N0, and Doppler shift measurements correspondingly. The performance of the proposed simulator is validated through real experimental comparisons with different scenarios based on commercial-grade receivers. The proposed simulator is also applied with different positioning algorithms, which verifies it is sophisticated enough for the collaborative positioning studies in the urban area.

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Empty shelves: selected essential medicines stockouts in South Africa

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckaa166.490 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽

Author(s):

L Wolvaardt ◽

R Nemuntandani ◽

I Kamungoma-Dada

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Descriptive Analysis ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Treatment Interruption ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Essential Medicines ◽

Chi Square ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Antiretroviral Medication

Abstract Background Access to essential medicines in South Africa has been compromised by stockouts in health facilities. This study describes the occurrence of stockouts for a selection of essential medicines. Methods This cross-sectional study used secondary data retrieved from the Stop Stock Outs Project (SSP). A descriptive analysis was conducted on data from the 2013-2015 SSP case management database of routinely reported stockouts. Chi square tests of independence was conducted on data from the SSP 2015 annual telephonic survey to investigate associations between the occurrence of stockouts, the level of health facility and the type of health professional. Results 231 facilities reported 609 stockouts. Antiretroviral medication had the most stockout reports (78%; n = 475/609), followed by anti-infectives (17.1%; n = 104/609) and tuberculosis medication (4.9%; n = 30/609). The highest number of stockout reports were received from Gauteng province and the majority (71.09%; n = 150/211) of facilities reporting stockouts were in urban areas. There were more stockouts at ambulatory, rather than inpatient care, facilities however, this was not statistically significant. Conclusions This study confirms that South Africa experiences medicine stockouts for many of the essential medicines, with antiretroviral medication being the category most affected. The stockouts vary between provinces and the urban-rural divide but are an equal threat to both ambulatory and inpatient facilities. Key messages The pattern of stockouts experienced over a three-year period suggest that stockouts are ‘normal’ despite the substantive effects of treatment interruption – especially patients with HIV and/or TB. Antiretroviral therapy is at risk as a result of stockouts.

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