Master List of Hosted Collections

The Urban Knowledge Exchange's library hosts a growing number of resource pages and collections. Some have been put together by the uKESA team and many have been established by our knowledge partners either pulling together resources on a particular topic or theme, or making their own materials more widely available via the uKESA platform. This page presents a master list so that the substantive collections are visible all in one place and to help navigating across the many rich topics. 

We have sorted the resource pages and collections into these three categories: 

• Resource Pages
• Thematic collections
• Organisational collections

1. Resource Pages

Resource pages are designed to bring together multiple sources of dependable information into reference lists to help address complex or urgent matters.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) 

This uKESA resource page summarises selected sources dealing with CPTED. CPTED is a multi-disciplinary approach to crime prevention that involves urban and architectural planning and design, as well as the management of the built and natural environment. CPTED strategies aim to reduce victimisation, influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts, and build a sense of community among inhabitants to reduce crime and minimise fear of crime.  

CSIR Planning Support Tools

The CSIR and its partners have developed a range of online planning support tools. These decision support tools are designed to help planners make more informed decisions about urban and settlement development. They provide evidence-based information on a variety of urban planning issues, including climate, population, housing, employment, transportation, and the environment. They use data and evidence to inform decision-making, and they have the potential to improve the quality of urban planning decisions.

CSIR publications on smart cities

Established in 1945 through an Act of Parliament, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is an esteemed African research and development organization. Renowned for its directed, multidisciplinary research and technological innovation, the CSIR aims to enhance the quality of life for South Africans. This webpage offers a summary of the CSIR's publications on smart cities.

COVID-19 Responses Collection

A collection of information, guides and tools to help built environment practitioners and professionals respond to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The collection has an index page that explains the nine topical pages covering: informal settlements and homelessness; affordable housing and rental; land and tenure security; healthcare facilities and healthy buildings; the future of work; cities, people, environment and the economy; food security; water and sanitation; and decision support tools.

Developing and Managing Municipal Land

A listing of sources that give guidance on creative ways to manage municipal land assets more effectively and how to bring more land on stream for future development. 

KZN Flood Relief

A resource page put together after the mid-April 2022 floods in the KwaZulu-Natal Province to indicate some of the charitable efforts to which people could contribute.

Listing of human settlement degrees and courses

This resource page outlines current housing and human settlements courses offered at higher learning institutions across South Africa. The courses are sorted into three categories namely, undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees, and short courses.

News articles relating to the 2023 Johannesburg building fire

This resource page compiles information about the devastating inner-city Johannesburg building fire in August 2023, which claimed numerous lives and triggered a national debate on living conditions, eviction laws, and safety regulations. It offers a collection of in-depth reports and commentaries to provide a comprehensive understanding of the incident and its societal ramifications.

Smart cities resources for African cities

A collation of smart cities resources in two parts; the first focuses on the African continent and the second on current South African initiatives. This is Part 1, which is a collection of different resources on smart cities considered to be most relevant for guiding African cities and towns in their journey towards “smartness”.

Smart cities initiatives in South Africa

This is Part 2 of the smart cities resources collection and it focuses on initiatives that have emerged in a range of cities and municipalities across South Africa.

Smart cities resource page

South African cities face increasing pressure to become smarter, but a lack of common understanding makes it challenging to identify suitable interventions. Uncertainties about the benefits and drawbacks of smart cities hinder progress in implementing such initiatives. Moreover, there are misunderstandings about the interpretation of smart cities in the South African context. This webpage offers uKESA links to diverse resources on smart cities.

Southern Africa State of Land Information Country Reports

This resource page highlights the State of Land Information (SOLI) initiative by the Land Portal, a significant effort to assess and compile global land-related information with the goal of providing an overview of publicly available data and identifying information gaps. The SOLI reports not only identify missing data but also improve the accessibility and usability of land information, representing a foundational step in enhancing our understanding of land-related issues.

uKESA Newsletter

This information page provides an index of uKESA newsletters that offer updates on the leading content from the website and the latest developments within the Urban Knowledge Exchange initiative. These newsletters not only highlight the most recent uKESA contributions but also express appreciation to the collaborators for their valuable involvement in creating and sharing new material with the uKESA community.

uKESA Webinars

This resource page showcases the webinar series initiated by the Urban Knowledge Exchange Southern Africa (uKESA) that focuses on highlighting evidence-based knowledge platforms and initiatives. Through these webinars, panel members and participants delve into the roles these platforms play in advancing organisational objectives, exploring their impacts, and understanding how to effectively manage and sustain these initiatives, featuring presentations by industry experts.

2. Thematic collections

Thematic collections are put together by knowledge partners to promote better access to materials about a particular topic.

Mining Towns Collection

The Mining Towns Collection in the uKESA Library is sponsored by the Municipal Capability & Partnership Programme and has been developed to support municipalities to improve service delivery and tackle current and future development challenges peculiar to mining towns and regions.

Small Towns Collection

The Towns Action Network (TAN), initiated by Western Cape Economic Development Partnership, showcases small towns research and resources.

SmartCity.ZA Collection

The SmartCity ZA Collection has been created by the South African Cities Network, Wits School of Governance’s Tayarisha African Centre of Excellence in Digital Governance, and United Nations University EGOV to ensure that a trusted source aggregating existing smart city knowledge of relevance to our southern context is accessible.

Township Studies Collection

A substantive collection of key studies and initiatives on township economies and other township-related research put together by the Township Studies Group. Sponsored by the SA Cities Network and collaborators as part of the Township Economies Knowledge Support Programme.

3. Organisational collections

Partner organisations showcase their key knowledge products. Here we feature the larger collections. The full range of organisations can be accessed via the partners' page.

Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa Collection

A large collection of information and reports focusing on the role that finance plays in realising access to affordable housing across the African continent.

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Collection

A large collection of built environment related papers, research reports, guides and manuals.

Housing Development Agency Collection

A boutique collection of materials about improving the supply of land for housing. More materials can be found at the HDA.

South African Cities Network Collection

A large collection of publications containing information, experience and best practices on urban development and city management. For the full collection of publications see the SACN Research Catalogue.

Spatial Temporal Evidence for Planning South Africa Collection

A range of knowledge products providing evidence on the development dynamics and inter-dependencies in, and between, settlements and regions across South Africa. For more reports and data modelling go direct to the stepSA platform.

Talking Transformation Podcast

An index of recent episodes that are typically between 40-60 minutes in length. The TTPod provides a platform and a voice for built environment professionals and interest groups who are working towards transforming places and spaces in South Africa. You can also go direct to the TTPod platform.

Urban Land Markets Programme Southern Africa Collection

A collection of commissioned research on urban land markets, land governance, land rights, and the physical and spatial form of cities and towns.

Urban Real Estate Research Unit Collection

A boutique collection focused on African real estate markets, dynamics, trends, investment and finance, plus urban land economics and urban management. More materials can be found on the URERU website.

This master list will be updated from time to time.