The Negative Impacts of COVID-19 Containment Measures on South African Families - Overview and Recommendations

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported various pneumonia cases (‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’ [COVID-19]) on 31 December 2019 in Wuhan City, China, which has spread to many countries, including South Africa. In response to this, the President of South Africa declared a state of national disaster on 15th March 2020, followed by introducing various COVID-19 containment measures to minimize the spread of the virus. This paper examines the negative impacts that COVID-19 containment measures may have had on the family as a unit of society and furthermore provides recommendations to mitigate the impacts of these measures. It can be concluded that COVID-19 containment measures, specifically the lockdown restrictions, would yield both short-term and long-term impacts on proper family functioning. Several families in South Africa have been impacted financially due to the closure of business which led to the temporary/ permanent unemployment of some breadwinners in the families. This also has had a cascading impact on the food security of families and their ability to afford other basic necessities. Distress as a result of financial challenges or failure to provide for the family alongside spending much time locked down together as a family has also led to violence in the family. This was further exacerbated by the fact that the victims were stuck with the abusers and some could not report or find help due to the restricted movements. Furthermore, since most institutions predominantly moved learning online, results indicated that the lockdown restrictions affected the ability of some individuals especially those from poor families to access formal education during the period due to the lack of digital devices and internet facilities. In order to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 containment measures on the family, there is a need for collaborative efforts at intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, community and policy levels using the ecological framework

Integrating solar energy considerations into urban planning for low carbon cities: A systematic review of the state-of-the-art

Early integration of solar energy considerations into urban planning/design is necessary to ensure that future cities do not only consume but also produce energy locally through solar. Yet, strategies for this integration remain a key challenge for urban planners and city administrators. Using a scientometric and systematic literature review approach, the objective of this review is to examine the state-of-the-art and current research gaps that constrain such integration. We find that while interests in the interrelationships between solar energy and urban planning have spanned several decades, the two remain largely unintegrated. Though a socio-technical process, the socio-political and socio-demographic aspects of solar urban planning have not received much scholarly attention. Consequently, whereas many software tools for analyzing solar insolation on existing surfaces have been developed, there is a lack of methods and decision support systems to integrate the results into urban planning practice. There is limited research on the subject in the global South despite significant opportunities for solar urban planning in this region. Also, a limited application of theoretical frameworks was found in existing studies. Future research exploring solar urban planning from the socio-technical transition theoretical perspective will significantly enhance the realization of this concept