The SDMP is underpinned by a set of principles that are common to all three frameworks. These principles are sustainability, good governance, cost- effectiveness (in terms of service delivery particularly), integration, competitive advantage, diversity and environmental management.
With these basic principles in mind, the conceptual framework for the SDMP is built on the concepts of:
Accessibility: generating a broader and greater set of opportunities and provide access to these opportunities on a sustainable basis. This concept drew strongly on the guidance provided by the NSDP and KZN PSEDS which identifies a grid of accessibility across the province.
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Landscape: that there are basically three distinct landscapes – urban, rural and wilderness – and the balance between these essentially provides that “sense of place” that people experience and identify with. This concept helped to clarify the role and function of settlements within Impendle and what parameters should define the different types of settlement and land use.
Sustainability: in the context of this SDMP this means that sustainability of the natural ecosystems and resource base is essential to protect the irreplaceable life support systems on which human well-being, and particularly rural livelihoods, depend.
The municipal vision was acknowledged, but in addition, a spatial vision and set of objectives was added. This spatial vision is:
“The long term spatial vision for Impendle is to manage the spatial form of its human settlements and activities in a manner that preserves environmental integrity, while promoting local economic development in a way which recognises that it is only through careful stewardship of the natural resource base which will allow future generations to continue to live and work sustainably within the municipality.”
The SDMP objectives are set out as follows:
i. Place Impendle more firmly on the accessibility grid through the improvement of link routes through the municipality.
ii. Contain settlement within urban edges which will have the effect of increasing the cost-effectiveness of service supply, creating more sustainable environments for human settlement and for local economic development and most importantly, prevent encroachment into productive agricultural and natural environments which should be maintained for income generation and biodiversity purposes.
iii. Promote land use management practices that take cognisance of Impendle’s unique position as a critical water source and catchment area for the uMngeni River Catchment and the uMkomazi Rivers, both major water resources within the Province.
iv. Promote healthy agricultural land use management practices and sound agricultural practices that will enhance Impendle’s income through its agricultural outputs and ensure the sustainability of production from its agricultural lands in the long-term.
v. Promote land use management practices that ensure the long term sustainability of the natural environment both in terms of prevention of degradation by maintaining biodiversity; included in this objective is to maintain the approaches or buffer to the Ukuhlamba – Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site.
vi. Promote land use management practices that will enhance both the natural and built environment making the municipality attractive to tourists and enable the establishment of a range of tourism opportunities.
vii. Ensure that the objectives can be implemented on the Ingonyama Trust land within the municipality.
The current spatial form of the municipality is one that is dictated to a large extent by a combination of the rugged topography (western Impendle), the agricultural potential (largely eastern Impendle) and the road infrastructure combined with land tenure patterns which have given rise to the particular settlement patterns within the municipality.
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The proposed spatial form in the SDF / SDMP 2010 review has been built up on the different layers of landscape, accessibility, environment and economy and provides a long term view (50 years) for the Municipality to strive towards achieving.The landscape layer defines those areas within Impendle that can be classified as urban landscapes (where the nodes are identified for further growth and investment), the rural landscapes which comprise scattered and/or low density rural settlement as well as agricultural areas (grazing and arable) and wilderness landscapes which are those areas that have been proclaimed as nature or game reserves (eg. within the UDPWHS) or are considered important enough to warrant special management or protection.
The environmental layer was built up through an integration of data on vegetation types, species data, transformation threats, biodiversity targets and optimum resource utilisation. This resulted in a two areas – negotiable and non-negotiable in the planning and development domain. A non- negotiable area is considered to be an irreplaceable and highly significant area that needs to be maintained in its natural state in order to ensure the continued existence and functioning of species and ecosystems and the delivery of critical ecosystem services. The negotiable areas are essentially the remainder of the municipality and are areas which are not essential for meeting biodiversity targets but which still play an important role in supporting the ecological functioning of non-negotiable areas and assisting in delivering ecosystem services that support socio-economic development such as water provision, carbon sequestration2 and sustainable rural livelihoods.
The economic land use framework guides the location of future economic activities relating specifically to conservation, settlement (including business / commerce) and agriculture. This framework stresses that the effects of poor and inefficient land use systems will have a negative impact on the economic development potential of high potential agricultural land as well as on the economic potential of the settlements and nodes/centres within Impendle. It stresses that from an economic point of view, settlement edges need to be defined and adhered to. It examines the economic potential of conservation areas, areas where there should be limited grazing only, and arable land potential and opportunities. The tourism potential of the area is a prime focus of the economic framework, principally because of Impendle’s proximity to the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site, but also because of its own, as yet, unrealised potential. The business or commercial framework focused on the need to create a greater degree of local income circulation rather than the current income leakage out of the municipality. The possible roles the different development nodes could play in creating a “ring of markets” is discussed as is the potential to expand production opportunities.
The spatial and infrastructural framework is in essence, an accessibility framework, which focuses on four main issues:
Making Impendle municipality part of a Provincial through route, and not a peripheral area off the main routes, in other words, placing it firmly on the provincial accessibility grid
2The removal and storage of carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks (such as oceans, forests or soils) through physical or biological processes, such as photosynthesis. Planting forests is a way of increasing carbon sequestration. This long-term storage of carbon mitigates the effects of global warming (Sources: www.greenfacts.org and Wikipedia)
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Through setting out policy principles on the levels of service and levels of accessibility, direct further development away from the sensitive area close to the UDPWHS and as far as possible, out of the buffer zone of the Park
Encourage the development of the small, existing settlements that will be on, or very close to the proposed new provincial through route in order to improve the opportunity for sustainability of these settlements. Capital investment will therefore be directed away from sensitive areas and towards areas of greater economic opportunity
Through the same policy principles on levels of service and accessibility, encourage only certain nodes to grow, and contain the spread of the remaining rural settlements so that they do not compromise the potential of arable and grazing lands, or of ecologically sensitive areas which provide both ecosystem goods and services, as well as provide potential income from tourism.
This section highlights the accessibility model for World Heritage Sites and Conservation Areas and suggests how Impendle fits practically into that model. Detail on the model is provided in the SDMP phase 3 report.