Sustainable regional development : developing a sustainability assessment framework for district and metropolitan integrated development plans

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Achieving the goal of sustainable development (SD) and sustainability has proven to be a difficult task, inter alia, because some definitions of the terms are fuzzy and ambiguous and are interpreted differently depending on the context. The spatial scale, at which sustainability should be addressed, varies from site specific to the global level. The niche area, which has had little attention specifically in the South African context, is the regional scale.Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) are just one means by which sustainability can be mainstreamed into regional development planning within the South African context. IDPs are seen as holistic, multi-sectoral, strategic plans for district, metropolitan and local government, required in terms of national legislation. Legislation and guidelines on IDPs suggest that their purpose should be to contribute to sustainable development, but it is questioned whether this is the case. Sustainability Assessments (SAs) can be seen as instruments to direct decision-making towards sustainability, and the purpose of this literature study was to review current IDP Assessment Frameworks (AFs) used by the national and Western Cape provincial governments to assess IDPs, from a sustainability perspective.A literature review was conducted to establish the meaning of sustainability and sustainable development in the context of regional planning, the challenges facing regional planning, and the issues that need to be addressed in IDPs in order to promote sustainability. The first objective of the literature study was to analyse whether present metropolitan and district IDP assessment frameworks used in the Western Cape address sustainability adequately. The second objective was to develop a Sustainability Assessment Framework (SAF) that addresses relevant sustainability issues, based on new and innovative ways of addressing SD and sustainability at a regional scale. Lessons were also learnt through examining and assessing policies and plans both locally and abroad. The literature review highlighted lessons that can be learnt from systems and complexity thinking, transdisciplinary approach, transition management, resilience and regional innovation. The use of Impact Assessments (IAs) and Sustainability Assessments (SAs) from other countries, as well as South Africa, also proved valuable.A review of existing IDP AFs was performed, to determine where the gaps are and whether the principles of regional sustainability are incorporated into current AFs. It was established that current IDP AFs do not adequately assess sustainability issues in district, metropolitan and cross-border regional plans. Current AFs lack depth from a sustainability perspective, and therefore a new SAF was proposed for metropolitan and district IDPs. This SAF highlights five (5) domains of sustainability that should be used as inputs into IDPs. These are: (1) Environmental Sustainability, (2) Social Sustainability, (3) Economic Sustainability, (4) Built Environment and Technology Sustainability, and (5) Institutional Sustainability.Further inputs into the SAF were four (4) approach-based categories derived from the literature and existing frameworks. These comprise (1) Resilience and Resilient Governance, (2) Transdisciplinary approach, (3) Complexity and Systems Thinking, and (4) Regional Innovation Systems. Different indicators were then developed which were based on these approaches, but are specific to each domain of sustainability. The indicators can be used to rate, weigh and score IDPs based on the scorecard that was developed. The overall 'sustainability rating' of the IDP could then be calculated.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University