Building Resilient Smart Cities for Sustainable Urban Tourism in Africa Post-COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper contributes to the knowledge by examining the role of smart tourism technologies in destination resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering tourism in the COVID-19 crisis as an emerging stream of research, the study also explores how African cities deployed smart tourism technologies and how effective it has been in creating resilient and safe destinations. Data were collected through a semi-structured online interview from destination managers in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. The findings pose critical lessons for city destinations and how they need to transition into smartness to create safe spaces for travellers during and post-COVID-19. Our study makes novel contributions to literature and practice. Theoretically, our study fills the void identified in the relationship between STTs and COVID-19. Our study also offers practical recommendations that will accelerate African destination reset strategies.

e-Quantum leap on a data highway: Planning for electric minibus taxis in sub-Saharan Africa's paratransit system

Minibus taxis are ubiquitous in the developing cities of the Global South. This versatile, and somewhat chaotic public transport system is now faced with the need to move to renewable energy. But the looming roll-out of electric vehicles poses a threat to the already fragile electrical grids of African cities. This chapter evaluates the energy requirements of decarbonisation and evaluates two types of data, passenger-based and vehicle-based, from research in South Africa that has modelled these taxis. Using these two data capture methods, we assess the energy requirements and charging opportunities for electric minibus paratransit in three African cities and compare the results of the two methods to assess their suitability for planning minibus taxi electrification.

Transport Inequalities and the Adoption of Intelligent Transportation Systems in Africa: A Research Landscape

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), also known as Smart Transportation, is an infusion of information and communication technologies into transportation. ITS are a key component of smart cities, which have seen rapid global development in the last few decades. This has in turn translated to an increase in the deployment and adoption of ITS, particularly in countries in the Western world. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the developing countries of Africa and Asia, where dilapidated road infrastructure, poorly maintained public/mass transit vehicles and poverty are major concerns. However, the impact of Westernization and “imported technologies” cannot be overlooked; thus, despite the aforementioned challenges, ITS have found their way into African cities. In this paper, a systematic review was performed to determine the state of the art of ITS in Africa. The output of this systematic review was then fed into a hybrid multi-criteria model to analyse the research landscape, identify connections between published works and reveal research gaps and inequalities in African ITS. African peculiarities inhibiting the widespread implementation of ITS were then discussed, followed by the development of a conceptual architecture for an integrated ITS for African cities.

A Cross-Sector Framework to Boost the Sustainable Implementation of Integrated Transport and Spatial Strategies to Improve Safety and Mobility of Moto-Taxi Riders

Globally, motorcycle riders make up the biggest percentage of vulnerable road user fatalities. The percentages are higher in African cities where moto-taxi transport is not only the most readily available mode of transport but also a source of income for many especially the youth. Many African cities are re-strategizing on how to sustainably deal with problems like traffic congestion, unplanned development, flooding, air and noise pollution. The authors carried out a questionnaire survey targeting a variety of road safety stakeholders to identify road safety solutions that they think best fit the current situation. Another questionnaire survey targeting moto-taxi riders was carried out, and the data analyzed by SEM to identify how different solutions interact to affect the behavior of riders. Results show that education and training programs have the biggest effect on improving behavior of riders as they adapt to new city regulations such as zoning. Other aspects such as presence of customers, behavior of other road users, road environment were also explored. Currently, city authorities in some developing nations are looking to introduce spatial regulations such as zoning and traffic management strategies such as exclusive lanes. Therefore, the contribution of this study is a proposal of a combination of solutions that different road safety stakeholders in developing countries can contribute toward the sustainable improvement of the safety of riders.

A Community of Practice Approach to Planning Water Sensitive Cities in South Africa

As South African cities urbanise alongside climate change, resource constraints, and socio-economic challenges, water sensitive (urban) design (WSD) is slowly gaining traction as a framework to address water security goals and entrench resilience. This article reflects on the progression of WSD in South Africa and discusses the broadening of its initial association with stormwater and physical infrastructure to include critical governance and institutional arrangements and social engagements at the core of a water sensitive transition. The approach is being adapted for the socio-economic challenges particular to South Africa, including basic urban water and sanitation service provision, WSD related skills shortages, a lack of spatial planning support for WSD, and the need for enabling policy. Since 2014, a national WSD Community of Practice (CoP) has been a key driver in entrenching and advancing this approach and ensuring that the necessary stakeholders are involved and sufficiently skilled. The WSD CoP is aimed at promoting an integrative approach to planning water sensitive cities, bridging the gaps between theory and practice and blending the social and physical sciences and silo divisions within local municipalities. Three South African examples are presented to illustrate the role of a CoP approach with social learning aspects that support WSD : (1) the “Pathways to water resilient South African cities” interdisciplinary project which shows the institutional (policy) foundation for the integration of WSD into city water planning and management processes; (2) the Sustainable Drainage Systems training programme in the province of Gauteng which demonstrates a skills audit and training initiative as part of an intergovernmental skills development programme with academic partners; and (3) a working group that is being established between the Institute for Landscape Architecture in South Africa and the South African Institution of Civil Engineering which illustrates the challenges and efforts of key professions working together to build WSD capacity.