Capacitating local governments for the digital earth vision : lessons learnt from the role of municipalities in the South African spatial data infrastructure

The Digital Earth vision foresees the availability and accessibility of geospatial information to achieve the goals of sustainable development, economic growth and social well-being. In the case of urban areas, up-to-date geospatial information is essential for managing a city towards achieving these goals. The rapid shift from rural to urban areas globally puts pressure on local governments and they often struggle to find and organise the resources required to collect and maintain geospatial information that can help to address urban growth challenges. A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) can facilitate the availability and accessibility of geospatial information towards addressing national objectives, however, the involvement of local governments in an SDI can be a challenge. In this paper, we critique the role of municipalities against the backdrop of the developments of the South African SDI (SASDI) to date. The critique identifies five high-level shortcomings of the SASDI that have led to the limited participation of municipalities. Based on the shortcomings, we provide recommendations for capacitating municipalities through SASDI so that the Digital Earth vision can also be achieved for municipalities. These recommendations are aimed at involving the local sphere of government in a national SDI and are equally applicable to other countries.https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjde20hj2022Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Optimising perioperative care for hip and knee arthroplasty in South Africa: a Delphi consensus study

Background A structured approach to perioperative patient management based on an enhanced recovery pathway protocol facilitates early recovery and reduces morbidity in high income countries. However, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the feasibility of implementing enhanced recovery pathways and its influence on patient outcomes is scarcely investigated. To inform similar practice in LMICs for total hip and knee arthroplasty, it is necessary to identify potential factors for inclusion in such a programme, appropriate for LMICs. Methods Applying a Delphi method, 33 stakeholders (13 arthroplasty surgeons, 12 anaesthetists and 8 physiotherapists) from 10 state hospitals representing 4 South African provinces identified and prioritised i) risk factors associated with poor outcomes, ii) perioperative interventions to improve outcomes and iii) patient and clinical outcomes necessary to benchmark practice for patients scheduled for primary elective unilateral total hip and knee arthroplasty. Results Thirty of the thirty-three stakeholders completed the 3 months Delphi study. The first round yielded i) 36 suggestions to preoperative risk factors, ii) 14 (preoperative), 18 (intraoperative) and 23 (postoperative) suggestions to best practices for perioperative interventions to improve outcomes and iii) 25 suggestions to important postsurgical outcomes. These items were prioritised by the group in the consecutive rounds and consensus was reached for the top ten priorities for each category. Conclusion The consensus derived risk factors, perioperative interventions and important outcomes will inform the development of a structured, perioperative multidisciplinary enhanced patient care protocol for total hip and knee arthroplasty. It is anticipated that this study will provide the construct necessary for developing pragmatic enhanced care pathways aimed at improving patient outcomes after arthroplasty in LMICs

Evaluating stakeholder influences on the land use application process in South Africa – results from an analysis of the legal framework

The fact that geospatial data is a vital international and national resource is gaining increased acceptance worldwide. However, proper management of fundamental geospatial datasets, like land use, determines how well this resource can serve the goals of sustainable development, e.g. achieving inclusive and sustainable urbanization through informed decisions based on up-to-date land use data. Land use data describes the rights to utilize land in accordance with the legal zoning thereof. Allocation of land use rights must align with and give effect to national, provincial and local spatial plans, which means multiple stakeholders are involved in land use regulation. The purpose of this study was to identify and classify the network of stakeholders involved in the land use application process, which results in allocated land use rights. This was done by analysing the South African legal framework for spatial planning and land use management, and to evaluate their a priori influence on this process and on land use data. The results of the stakeholder network analysis can guide the identification of (a) suitable custodian(s) for this fundamental geospatial dataset in the context of the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI). Within the SASDI, custodianship is used to ensure availability of good quality geospatial data to empower governments in their planning and decision-making. The average influence of each stakeholder, and as a result their impact on the land use data, was determined based on a classification of roles and responsibilities in the land use application process. The average influence was computed for each sphere of government. The provincial sphere had the highest influence, even though the local sphere has the mandate to allocate land use rights. The national sphere is mainly responsible for strategic direction and implementation support and thus had a significantly lower influence. Based on the results, shared custodianship of land use data in South Africa is recommended among a legislative custodian, coordinating custodians and data custodians. Further research will involve stakeholder representatives to verify the results and to establish multi-stakeholder custodianship roles and responsibilities.https://www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol2025-07-28hj2023Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Assessment of the homogeneity of volunteered geographic information in South Africa

The potential for volunteer groups to contribute geographic data to National Mapping Agencies has been widely recognised. Several investigations have been done to determine the geometric accuracy of this data for the purposes of national mapping. Beyond accuracy, from a production perspective National Mapping Agencies will also be interested in the sufficiency and uniformity of the data. This paper presents an investigation of whether presently geographic data generated by volunteers is uniform across a country and whether the rate of production of data is consistent. For the purpose of the test, changes in data of South Africa from OpenStreetMap are analysed for the period 2006 to 2011. Here only point and line data are considered. The results generally show that the rate at which data is generated varies in space and time. The results also confirm that volunteers emphasise on the capture of certain information and that the capture doesn’t average out as might be expected. The results also showed that social events, such as a World Cup, also have the effect of spurring the generation of volunteer geographic data. The implication of these results for National Mapping Agencies is that they cannot treat volunteer geographic information as being of a uniform standard. How National Mapping Agencies respond to this will have to be the subject of other investigations.OTB ResearchOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

Changing stakeholder influences in managing authoritative information : the case of the Centraal ReferentieAdressenBestand (CRAB) in Flanders

Municipalities are typically responsible for maintaining address data. Building and maintaining regional or national datasets from local sources requires careful coordination among stakeholders. The Centraal ReferentieadressenBestand (CRAB) is a digital authoritative address dataset, also referred to as a register, for the Flemish Region in Belgium. We present an analysis of the influence of CRAB stakeholders before and after the merger between the agencies responsible for geospatial information and e-government, respectively. Tensions between stakeholders who create and maintain address data locally and those with an interest in the data for a larger area are discussed, and how these changed after the merger

Changing stakeholder influences in managing authoritative information - the case of the Centraal ReferentieAdressenBestand (CRAB) in Flanders

status: publishe

Quality of recovery after total hip and knee arthroplasty in South Africa : a national prospective observational cohort study

BACKGROUND: Encouraged by the widespread adoption of enhanced recovery protocols (ERPs) for elective total hip and knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA) in high-income countries, our nationwide multidisciplinary research group first performed a Delphi study to establish the framework for a unified ERP for THA/TKA in South Africa. The objectives of this second phase of changing practice were to document quality of patient recovery, record patient characteristics and audit standard perioperative practice. METHODS: From May to December 2018, nine South African public hospitals conducted a 10-week prospective observational study of patients undergoing THA/TKA. The primary outcome was ‘days alive and at home up to 30 days after surgery’ (DAH30) as a patient-centred measure of quality of recovery incorporating early death, hospital length of stay (LOS), discharge destination and readmission during the first 30 days after surgery. Preoperative patient characteristics and perioperative care were documented to audit practice. RESULTS: Twenty-one (10.1%) out of 207 enrolled patients had their surgery cancelled or postponed resulting in 186 study patients. No fatalities were recorded, median LOS was 4 (inter-quartile-range (IQR), 3–5) days and 30-day readmission rate was 3.8%, leading to a median DAH30 of 26 (25–27) days. Forty patients (21.5%) had pre-existing anaemia and 24 (12.9%) were morbidly obese. In the preoperative period, standard care involved assessment in an optimisation clinic, multidisciplinary education and full-body antiseptic wash for 67 (36.2%), 74 (40.0%) and 55 (30.1%) patients, respectively. On the first postoperative day, out-of-bed mobilisation was achieved by 69 (38.1%) patients while multimodal analgesic regimens (paracetamol and Non-Steroid-Anti-Inflammatory-Drugs) were administered to 29 patients (16.0%). CONCLUSION: Quality of recovery measured by a median DAH30 of 26 days justifies performance of THA/TKA in South African public hospitals. That said, perioperative practice, including optimisation of modifiable risk factors, lacked standardisation suggesting that quality of patient care and postoperative recovery may improve with implementation of ERP principles. Notwithstanding the limited resources available, we anticipate that a change of practice for THA/TKA is feasible if ‘buy-in’ from the involved multidisciplinary units is obtained in the next phase of our nationwide ERP initiative.http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmusculoskeletdisordpm2021AnaesthesiologyOrthopaedic SurgeryPhysiotherap