eThekwini's Green and Ecological Infrastructure Policy Landscape

This book offers the reader a deeper understanding of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality's green and ecological infrastructure policy landscape. The author utilises the PULSE3 analytical framework to conduct an in-depth examination and to show how experts frame and implement the municipality's green and ecological infrastructure strategies and projects. Although the initial purpose of this book was to investigate the role of green and ecological infrastructures in eThekwini's water security aspirations, the author realised that climate change adaptation and mitigation play a more central role in motivating the municipality to develop and implement such science-driven projects. To be sure, science that is informed by a positivist paradigm, guides how, where and when the municipality should develop green and ecological infrastructures. Furthermore, a positivistic stance is generated in this policy landscape, where science and politics meet at a local government level, and the book offers an insight into the science-policy interface, as well as the normative and value orientations that positivism often ignores. The book also shows the usefulness of the PULSE3 framework and how it can assist scientists in all fields to gain a deeper understanding of the complications that are faced by humankind. This book fills a market gap by providing a view of how scientists think about problems and how to solve them by using established paradigms and theories.

Richard Meissner is a senior researcher and water scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, where he holds a PhD in international politics from the University of Pretoria. Meissner specialises in the analysis of trans-boundary river basins focusing on the complexities and interactions between and among non-state actors (individuals, interest groups, businesses, and non-governmental organisations), international organisations, and state/government organs.