This was a presentation at a Workshop on Development of an Interim Framework for the National Land Use Classification Standard, Methodology and Symbology for South Africa.  It shows why land use and land cover are not the same, why land use often cannot be determined from imagery alone, and why land use, zoning and planning are not the same.

The Neighbourhood Planning and Design Guide is a comprehensively updated and revised version of its predecessor, the Guidelines for Human Settlement Planning and Design, commonly known as the Red Book. The Red Book, published in 2000, was preceded by a series of guideline documents aimed at improving the quality of settlement planning and design.

Reforming Urban Laws in Africa, A Practical Guide, was written by Stephen Berrisford and the late Patrick McAuslan. It provides hands-on guidance to officials, practitioners and researchers working on the urgent task of improving, modernising and rationalising urban legislation in the Sub-Saharan region. 

This case study is based on an existing booklet, Retail Centres and Township Developments: A Case Study (SACN, 2010) published by the South African Cities Network (SACN), the Training for Township Renewal Initiative (TTRI) and National Treasury. The booklet draws on prior research on

The papers in this volume take a city perspective and provide both a critical reflection of and a pragmatic response to what cities are able to do given their current mandate and powers. The first paper begins by considering what the TOD agenda means for the urban poor. It questions whether TOD can adequately address the existing land challenges in South African cities, given the politics of land inequality and the skewed property markets.

Despite numerous studies on townships, research into township economies and related commercial real estate markets is limited. The majority of studies refer to the economy only as part of a broader discussion about other themes such as housing. And, while the information in these studies is useful, it is not captured and discussed within an overarching conceptual framework, which would allow the relationships and causal factors that shape and drive such economies to be understood. 

South African cities are under the national and international spotlight again. Community protests over service delivery, disputes about councillor selection, mismanagement and underspending of municipal budgets, and recurrent billing problems have attracted growing public concern. Yet cities have also been fêted for rekindling a spirit of national unity during 2010, delivering world-class transport schemes and leading the economy out of recession.

This case study draws on research that investigated the financial sustainability of cities in the Southern African region. The research was undertaken by the South African Cities Network (SACN). The project was jointly sponsored by the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility and the World Bank. The contribution by SACN of the material for this document is gratefully acknowledged. The learning material presents an outline of the many challenges of financial sustainability and effective service delivery facing Southern African cities.

Cities are about people, first and foremost. In addition, as the national integrated urban development framework states, South African cities should be safe, liveable socially integrated, economically inclusive and globally competitive, with an active citizenry. The 2016 State of Cities Report (SoCR) makes an important call to action for all segments of society, from communities and neighbourhoods to cities, from cities to the nation and from the nation to the global, to support the inclusive growth and development of South African cities.

This compendium and analysis of Cities in the BRICS countries were developed through a partnership between the South African Cities Network (SACN) and the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Since South Africa joined BRICS in 2010, multiple connections have been forged between South Africa and its alliance partners. However, although there is a growing volume of engagements, there is still inadequate knowledge and understanding across the BRICS.

This publication provides an overview of the theory and practice of urban innovation together with perspectives, trends and international experiences in this area. The publication seeks to stimulate debate and creative thinking around different approaches to dealing with every day urban challenges by presenting a collection of potetnially replicable local and international case studies.

This report by Colin Marx and Margot Rubin explores how urban land is divided and re-divided within the context of the interaction between formal and informal land use management systems.