The built-up objective is mainly made up of rural clusters and small-scale subsistence farms.
Although perhaps trimmed down slightly by urbanisation trends and poor health conditions, an increase in local population and their needs remained imminent. Because accurate population data
was lacking, only a modest two per cent increase in built-up (urban) areas was projected for the study area. At the community level there may also exist a systematic relationship between population pressure and property rights (Place & Swallow 2002), distance to market (Zoomers &
Kleinpenning 1996), and transport routes. In terms of rural development then, and considering the poverty situation in the study region, the built-up objective was primed to fully conform to the maintenance strategy, i.e. least land use change. Other environmental factors or constraints were naturally accounted for, and the logic extended further to relevant man-made constraints and land use restrictions.
3.2.5.1 Criteria
All built-up areas, which included ‘open’ areas used for extraction, cultural, or recreational purposes, retained their current status as planned, were correlated positively and awarded the maximum suitability rate. Where any form of development (settlement) was concerned, topography was considered for selection in the form of aspect and slope. Daylight hours are important to rural communities because few households have electricity supplies. Thus, north-facing slopes were, where possible, preferred to the generally shadowy and colder southern slopes, and rated highest in suitability when positively correlated. Steep land was viewed as undesirable for built-up developments, mainly for practical engineering and landscaping reasons, and thus negatively correlated therewith. Four distance parameters were selected to curb unwanted ad hoc settlement. To consolidate rural clusters to some degree it included distances to important existing infrastructure, viz. built-up areas, the central business district (Mount Frere CBD), roads, and educational institutions or schools. These factors were all negatively correlated with the built-up objective. For example, in the case of distance to built-up areas, the closer to it the higher the suitability rating.
The distance from the town centre not only served to simulate a market effect in the closest official town, but also to contain excessive urban expansion in the sense that farming activities are stimulated around existing (or even new) rural clusters. The land use map (Figure 2.2), confirms the close association between important roads and built-up areas since the average distance from settlements to important roads was only about 500 meters. Suitability was thus rated high up to that point, but decreased progressively as one travels further away from these routes. Similarly, some community members regarded three kilometres as an acceptable distance to a school for a pedestrian scholar, locations beyond that would thus simply be rated very low in terms of suitability. To prevent developments in degraded or sensitive parts of the landscape, two more
distance factors were selected in the same fashion as for the forestry and agricultural objectives.
The distance to erosion hazards and wetlands, due to positive correlation with built-up land, serve to protect such areas and reserve them for rehabilitation or conservation efforts.
As with the other prioritised objectives, the discrete options regarding the suitability of soils for settlement are linked to curvature and land type. The selection principles for the built-up objective relating to terrain steepness copied those of the forestry and agriculture objectives, excessively curved sections in the landscape were largely avoided due to its low or no suitability rating. On the other hand, land types containing soil forms unfavourable to agriculture and/or forestry received the maximum suitability rating. Similar in principle to that of conservation and communal use, it readily targeted soil forms in which lime is rare or totally absent and rocky sub-horizons are the norm. Yet, by also being slightly more restricted in terms of the deeper fertile soils, it advantaged crop or tree planting in such places.
3.2.5.2 Constraints
That the Amanzamnyama plantation extent and surrounding fire belts acted as a constraint to any built-up developments was a logical decision. So is the exclusion of exposed or piled rocks.
Indigenous forests, wetlands, and riparian zones were protected for reasons similar to that pertaining to agricultural and forestry activities, and were made unavailable to settlement.
Additionally, all bushland types (native and exotic) were made unavailable for this objective due to its role in fuelwood supplies in particular forestry and communal use value. The assumption that any productive agricultural land, which in this case could include tree farming, was situated on land considered best suited for this purpose and was made unavailable as such. In terms of soil productivity these often include the deep red or red-yellow apedal, freely drained soils, so one needs to prevent the intrusion of land uses not making optimal use of these favourable soil conditions.
Having dealt with all this information, the decision-making workshop with the ten participants and direct participation were brought to a close. Participants were sincerely thanked for their valuable contributions and informed when they could expect feedback after completion of all data analysis.
Obviously the decision criteria still had to be digitally manipulated and mapped to produce the relevant maps. The GIS procedures involved in Step 3 in the study plan to capture the suitability of land parcels as defined per land use objective, can therefore now be discussed.