An assessment of the RDP settlements vulnerability to impacts of climate change : a case study of Umlazi Y section, south of Durban.

Masters in Housing. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College 2016.Prominences of environmental issues such as climate change have increased the need to achieve environmentally sustainable housing developments. Although effects of climate change are experienced at a global scale, vulnerability of a system is determined by scale and context. The objective of this research study is to understand how RDP dwellings are vulnerable to impacts of climate change and identify climate responsive housing consolidation methods which households can apply to improve the adaptability of RDP settlements. A case study was selected purposively. An Interview was conducted with a housing official and household surveys were conducted from the case study. Research findings indicate that RDP dwellings are vulnerable to impacts of climate change. The following factors contributed to the vulnerability of RDP settlements: lack of information on climate change, lack of resources and housing typology. At a policy level, it was discovered that issues of climate change have not yet been mainstreamed into housing policy. The research therefore, recommends that efforts are made to mainstream issues of climate change into housing policy and that measures are undertaken to strengthen the adaptive capacity of households

A Study of the Relationships Between End-User Information Systems Problems and Helpdesk Critical Success Factors in Higher Education

In the last fifteen years, information technology (IT) customer support has increased in importance within higher education. The pervasiveness of computers and technology on the campus has allowed students, staff, and faculty to perform a multitude of tasks by controlling their own environments and setting their own priorities. Qualified professional system and user support services have lagged demand. The problem investigated in this study was end-users\u27 satisfaction levels of the higher education helpdesk and how end-users\u27 satisfaction levels affected a helpdesk manager\u27s critical success factors performance and goals. In this study, the first goal was to identify the critical success factors (CSF) for the higher education academic helpdesk manager. The second goal was to assess the relationships of CSFs to problems associated with end-user satisfaction levels within a higher education environment. The population of interest included all accredited higher education institutions (as of the publishing date of the 2003 Higher Education Directory). The researcher used a random sample of 1,765 from the list of 4,282 profiles in the 2003 Higher Education Directory (http://www.hepinc.com). The survey instrument was an online questionnaire implemented as an HTML form. Eight research questions and eight hypotheses were developed. Specifically, the researcher conducted the following statistical analyses: (a) descriptive statistics for the variables of interest, (b) a Chi-square test between the respondents and non-respondents to check for non-response bias, (c) a factor analysis to identify CSF constructs and helpdesk problems, (d) multiple regression to determine the relationship between CSFs and helpdesk problems using the helpdesk problem constructs identified from the factor analysis as dependent variables and the helpdesk CSFs as independent variables (e) MANOVA to determine the relationship between CSFs and the stage of growth of the helpdesk, and (f) seven ratios to serve as CSF performance indicators