Southern African Young Scientists Summer Program 2013-2014

The Southern African Young Scientists Summer Program (SA-YSSP) is a new three-month program for talented young researchers to work with scientists from South Africa and IIASA. In 2013-2014 IIASA and its South African National Member Organization (NMO) teamed up for the second time to launch a research training program inspired by IIASA’s successful YSSP program.

The program ran from 24 November 2013 through 22 February 2014 at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The SA-YSSP is based on the innovative Research in Triplets framework developed at IIASA.  Through this, IIASA scholars partner with regional colleagues, usually on a pairwise basis, to jointly supervise young scientists on a project of relevance to the supervisors’ research agenda. The research theme undertaken is related to the young scientist’s doctoral research program. 

In total, 36 young scientists representing 21 different nations by citizenship, were supervised by 18 IIASA senior scholars and a similar number of South African senior researchers.

A selection of the scientific papers from the second Southern Africa Young Scientists Summer Program (SA-YSSP) can be found below. Please note these Proceedings have received limited or no review from supervisors and IIASA program directors, and the views and results expressed therein do not necessarily represent IIASA, its National Member Organizations, or other organizations supporting the work.

Dynamic modeling of sustainable built infrastructure for education complex neighborhoods in South African cities

Stephen Eromobor of Central University of Technology, Free State, looked at how universities can become forces of good within a city by reengineering their infrastructure to become green buildings. More

Network environ analysis for socio-economic water system

Delin Fang of Beijing Normal University used Network Environ Analysis to study water conservation assessment with respect to cycling and indirect flows in the Ganzhou District of the Heihe River Basin, China. More

Dynamics of land cover and impact on stream flow in the Modder River Basin of South Africa: Case study of a quaternary catchment

Onalenna Gwate of Lupane State University, Zimbabwe, studied changes in historical streamflow and rainfall patterns with reference to dynamics in land cover in the C52A catchment in South Africa. More

Techno-economic and environmental analysis of electricity supply options in remote rural areas of South Africa

Noor Jamal of the European University, Flensburg, Germany, studied electricity supply options for off-grid areas of South Africa. More

Habitat loss and biodiversity impacts in an evolution ecosystem

Haoqi Liu of Xinjiang University, China, used modeling to investigate how habitat loss affects biodiversity when evolutionary dynamics are stable. More

Rural community livelihoods and their resilience to flooding

Emmanuel Mavhura of the Department of Geography, Bindura University of Science Education, Bindura, Zimbabwe, looked at shrinking rural livelihoods in Muzarabani, Zimbabwe, and found low human wellbeing and low community resilience to flooding. More

The contribution of forest co-management to rural livelihoods in the Zomba-Malosa Reserve, Malawi

Gerald Meke of Chancellor College, Malawi, researched the effects on livelihoods of the introduction of co-management to conserve forest resources in the Zomba-Malosa Forest Reserve in Malawi. More

Land use practices for low emission strategies: Comparative analysis of South Africa and Ghana

Olufiasayo Onawumi of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Ghana, researched how to establish landscape-scale mitigation projects that fully account for land use change. More

The impact of rainwater harvesting on water flow regulation in a semi-arid catchment: A South African case study of the Modder River catchment

Johanna Schild of VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands, quantified water flow regulation within a semi-arid catchment and investigated the impact of implementing rainwater harvesting for more optimal water flow regulation. More

Oil for Africa’s development and US energy security: Shared or competing interests?

Kgothatso Brucely Shai, University of Limpopo, Turfloop campus, South Africa, found that it would be in the best interests of the USA for African nations to be developed and self-reliant, as this would enhance the capacity of African nations to buy products from the USA. More

Efficacy of anthelmintic medicinal plants for the treatment of soil transmitted helminthic infections in humans: A systematic review

Blessing Silaigwana of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, conducted a systematic review of randomized control trials to evaluate the efficacy of anthelmintic plants in treating soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) in humans. More

Strategic importance of water governance and virtual water trade (case study of India and South Africa)

Fatima Sumbul of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, examined the virtual water trade flow and its importance in informing water governance strategies. More

The impact of spatial structure on evolutionary food-web formation

Jonas Wickman of Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden, studied how interaction between aspects of food webs shapes the structure and formation of food webs. More


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Last edited: 05 March 2015

CONTACT DETAILS

Ulf Dieckmann

Principal Research Scholar Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems Research Group - Advancing Systems Analysis Program

Principal Research Scholar Systemic Risk and Resilience Research Group - Advancing Systems Analysis Program

Principal Research Scholar Cooperation and Transformative Governance Research Group - Advancing Systems Analysis Program

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