South African university’s tech promises big boost for cities

Cities across South Africa are facing increasing pressures, such as rapid urbanisation, which results in infrastructure decay, inequality, climate change, and social fragmentation.

As such, traditional public spaces often fail to address the complex needs of a rapidly growing and diverse population. Such challenges have sparked the debate about how public spaces function.

As urbanisation transforms spaces around the globe, there is an increasing demand to create public spaces that don’t merely exist but actively enhance community well-being and urban resilience.

This has fueled interest in Regenerative Public Spaces (RPS) in South Africa, a concept defined as easily accessible areas, typically publicly owned or co-created by the communities that use them.

According to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the South African government, through initiatives like the Green Stimulus Recovery Programme and the SA Regenerative Ecosystems Response, is currently focusing on RPS and sustainable development.

They say this “aims to protect natural resources, promote equitable economic growth, and create jobs.”

RPS is viewed as a dynamic tool for driving urban and social change, contrasting with traditional views of public spaces as static areas.

It aims to restore, enhance, and unlock the hidden potential of communities and places.

Proponents say that by fostering flexible, inclusive environments that adapt to economic, ecological, and social needs, these spaces can act as catalysts for neighbourhood revitalisation and broader urban transformation.

There have been various successful examples of RPS in South Africa, which include:

• Moja Gabedi — a community garden located in Hatfield developed on a previously degraded dumping site. It now functions as a productive urban agriculture project and a therapeutic garden, providing urban green open space and a place for community engagement.
• Muckleneuk Commons — a small community park created on a piece of leftover land that had been neglected for years. This space now serves as a thoroughfare for commuters and hosts many community events, providing open outdoor space in a residential area.

Technology in RPS

A key outcome of a three-year research project initiated in 2022 by Satplan Alpha, a town planning and GIS firm, and a team from the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Departments of Town & Regional Planning and Architecture was the Regenerative Public Space (RPS) Digital Platform.

According to Satplan Alpha and the UP researchers, the platform aims to foster a thriving RPS community by encouraging interaction and collaboration between academics, government departments, businesses, and other stakeholders.

This project, funded by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF), is designed as a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) that utilises internet-based systems to:

• Provide stakeholders with valuable resources through a toolkit, which includes detailed case study summaries, relevant publications and articles, external links, informative videos, and selected spatial datasets related to regenerative public spaces.
• Articulate and explain the concept of regenerative public space, making it accessible to a wider audience.
• Serve as a repository for the RPS case studies central to the research project, showcasing real-world examples of regenerative urban development in the City of Tshwane.

A key feature of the platform is a registration portal for RPS projects, practitioners, and partners.

This includes a location-enabled survey form that feeds data into an interactive map, which visually displays the spatial distribution of registered entities across the City of Tshwane.

Each registration appears as a clickable, colour-coded point on the map, providing users with detailed project or partner information.

As more users register, the system creates a growing, live GIS map layer securely stored and continuously updated; enhanced by the platform’s integration of GIS web apps, making it more dynamic than a typical webpage.

According to Prof Karina Landman, Ilan Guest, Prof. Chrisna du Plessis, and Prof Stephan de Beer from UP, the RPS Digital Platform was developed to recognise the value of public spaces and actively contribute to their positive transformation, particularly in South Africa.

In the future, UP will manage and host the platform on its Enterprise GIS infrastructure, with future enhancements planned based on user feedback.

Ultimately, Satplan Alpha and UP envision the RPS Digital Platform as a catalyst for collaboration, leveraging technology to strengthen connections between people and places and promote the growth of regenerative public spaces.