Godwell Nhamo

University of South Africa | unisa

Due to climate change's effects, protected areas, particularly national parks, face conservation challenges, negatively impacting tourism. Sustainable tourism requires understanding the climate and conservation challenges in national parks and their implications for tourism. Marakele National Park in South Africa faces climatic and conservation cha...

Sub-catchment level water sector response strategies to climate change in Zimbabwe have not been adequately analyzed to determine their impact and connectedness with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this study, the mixed methods research design is used to examine the implications of water sector climate change response strategies (CCRS)...

There is consensus that the risk of flooding is increasing in many parts of Africa and globally due to climate variability and change-induced extreme weather events. Floods are often considered a necessity by the conservation community in semi-arid regions since they recharge important aquifers and wetlands, which are critical areas for biodiversit...

Globally, national parks contribute to tourism and conservation. Several iconic national parks in Africa attract millions of tourists. These include Table Mountain, Kruger, the Serengeti, Chobe, Hwange, and Gorongosa National Park. Tourism contributes substantially to global warming and climate change through carbon emissions from tourism activitie...

Informing Africa's tourism sector responses to the IPCC-AR6's projected climate change impacts remains paramount. This study reviews the evolution of knowledge on climate change and tourism in Africa, examining gaps, scholarship trends and policy issues since the IPCC-AR5 in 2014. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analys...

Offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and prospects for recovery Provides case studies from the developing world, including some of the areas hardest hit by COVID Examines varied pandemic impacts and differing paths to recovery

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a global challenge to the tourism and hospitality industry, particularly the restaurant sector. While the impact of the coronavirus on tourism and hospitality is still unravelling, there has not been empirical documentation to assess the early recovery of the restaurant sector from the pandemic. Such...

COVID-19 reshaped the tourism industry in many ways never thought of before. It created many threats and opportunities, and the recovery has not been a smooth sail. Rather, the recovery is fraught with challenges that the sector should navigate to emerge better and more resilient. This chapter summarises some emerging tourism trends triggered by th...

This chapter sets the scene for the entire book. It presents summaries of the implications and impacts of COVID-19 on tourism destinations, the recovery of tourism’s significant sectors, prospects for the future of tourism post-COVID-19 and methodologies applied in this book and the chapter outlines. It emerges that governments’ restrictions and re...

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt worldwide by all sectors of the economy, and the sporting arena is no exception. The pandemic led to a complete and historical global shutdown of sporting events and sports tourism by default. As a critical international sport, football was one of the most impacted. This chapter assesses the preli...

New financing in clean energy technologies plays a progressively important role in increasing energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This research investigates the salient social dimensions of clean electricity access with the view to identify the most suitable SSA countries for funding and implementing decentralised renewable energy systems an...

Soil erosion has become a common feature in certain national parks across the global biomes, and national parks in the Savanna biome of South Africa have not been spared. Given their prominence in hosting large land mammals that contribute significantly to the tourism sector, the vulnerability of the parks to soil erosion merits attention. This stu...

In this article we present datasets used for the construction of a composite indicator, the Social Clean Energy Access (Social CEA) Index, presented in detail in [1]. This article consists of comprehensive social development data related to electricity access, collected from several sources, and processed according to the methodology described in [...

Vaccine diplomacy is a subject of medical diplomacy that has been used for some time. Recently, it has been widely used to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As global health challenges, particularly pandemics, bite, many countries with the necessary capacity leverage their advancement in developed vaccines to gain diplomatic mileage....

Numerous pandemics have ravaged the world since prehistoric times. Some of the prevalent pandemics include the flu pandemic (1889–1890), Spanish flu (1918–1920), AIDS (1981–present) and the H1N1 swine flu pandemic (2009–2010). As pandemics occur, their incidence and prevalence rates are spatially heterogeneous, and the spatial distributions change...

Despite the progress made to attain the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2: zero hunger in other regions of the world, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation notes that Asia and Africa are still lagging in this regard. The advent of COVID-19 is exacerbating the situation. This study examines how the impact of natural disasters compounded by CO...

The advent and rapid spread of the coronavirus resulted in the need and demand for timely and reliable information about the contagion. The absence of such information led to a massive COVID-19 infodemic paddled on different forms of media. Myths, conspiracies, rumours and misinformation about the disease rapidly spread across the globe causing pan...

Assessment of the Risks to Tourism Destinations, Tourists, and Employees as a Result of Climate Change Extreme and slow-onset climate events attributed to climate change have been apparent in recent decades, with socioeconomic and environmental implications for global populations. Extreme weather events and shifts in geographical and climatic zones...

The emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) have significant influence on the global economic and environmental trajectories. They have carbon intensive economic systems, which contribute significantly to total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, leading to climate change. However, BRICS have joined the race t...

Climate change and variability are among the most critical threats facing heritage sites across the world. However, despite the threats posed by climate change and variability on heritage tourism sites, there are limited research and management interventions to help build the resilience of threatened sites. South African national parks are home to...

The alignment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with national development agendas has gained traction since the ratification of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. This article investigates how South Africa has aligned the climate action SDG (SDG 13) with its national development agenda, with an emphasis on adap...

Th e cruise ship industry was one of the fastest growing subsectors of the tourism industry before the advent of COVID-19. Th is paper examines the prospects and recovery of the cruise ship industry from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on the industry. Th e study relied mostly on event study and secondary data, including survey data from author...

Climate change and variability are among the most critical threats facing heritage sites across the world. However, despite the threats posed by climate change and variability on heritage tourism sites, there are limited research and management interventions to help build the resilience of threatened sites. South African national parks are home to...

This paper documents the processes leading to the hosting of the University of South Africa (Unisa) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Localisation Indaba1 in November 2019. Of interest is how the programming, which started as a purely inreach community engagement project, ultimately embraced the whole institution, all SDGs and the South African...

There is increasing concern over the sustainability of the tourism industry, which is blamed for contributing to several environmental challenges, including carbon emissions that lead to global warming and ultimately climate change. The industry is further blamed for causing ocean plastic pollution and associated negative impacts on the marine envi...

There has been a notable increase in the frequency and impacts of tropical cyclones hitting Zimbabwe. In particular, the southeastern parts of the country are more vulnerable to tropical cyclones. The high winds and excessive rainfall that accompany tropical cyclones as well as the resulting floods have had significant impacts on commercial agricul...

Lately, significant attention has been given to the impact of extreme weather events. However, there is limited documentation on how extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones are impacting tourism and heritage resources in the Global South. This study responds to this knowledge gap by focusing on documenting the impact of tropical cyclone Id...

The socioeconomic and environmental costs of tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes or typhoons) have drastically increased over the past 20 years. Countries in the global south are disproportionately bearing the burden of these increasing costs due to their vulnerability and limited ability to adapt and build resilience. This chapter provides...

The economic, social and environmental damage from tropical cyclones has been increasing in recent decades. Southern Africa is one of the regions vulnerable to tropical cyclones, and there are concerns that their destructive impacts are infringing the developmental aspirations of this region, in particular, the achievement of the sustainable develo...

This study used a mixed-methods research design to examine the sensitivity of vector-borne disease (VBD) patterns to the changes in rainfall and temperature trends. The research focused on malaria in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe. The study interfaced the climate action, health and sustainable cities and communities with sustainable development goals...

This book, therefore, aims to document research focussing on the just and sustainability transitions discourse in order to build back and forward a better world. The scholarly book will be informed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 intertwined sustainable development goals (SDGs) framework, with the view to leave no one behi...

COVID-19 and tourism destinations: Impacts and prospects for recovery Call for Book Chapters (Springer Nature) Aim of the book This edited book aims to document research focussing on the impact of COVID-19 on tourism destinations around the world. The book is a follow-up to an earlier and extremely successful 2020 publication entitled ‘Counting t...

Understanding the livelihood trends and factors that influence adaptation among rural farmers is critical for promoting community resilience toward climate change. This chapter explores the livelihood trends and factors influencing adaptation among small-scale subsistence farmers in the Middle Zambezi Biosphere Reserve (MZBR), Zimbabwe. A mobile ho...

Climate-induced hazards, including floods and tornadoes, are ravaging communities the world over. Floods and tornadoes have immensely contributed to the disasters, which have costed lives and imposed a strain on financial resources for several economies, including those regarded as economically developed. It is fear-provoking to observe that the fr...

The so-called drying Victoria Falls received considerable global media attention from October to December 2019. The debate surrounding the falls have split stakeholders, with strong pushback from the tourism sector. This paper taps into the arguments presented in the debate as well as into two earlier academic publications that used 40 years of dat...

There has been considerable academic documentation on the manner in which the world mobilised resources to rescue animals from the floodwaters after the closure of Kariba Dam, shared between Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) in 1958. Similarly, there are several publications that critique the manner in which both...

Natural hazard-related disasters have been progressively increasing across the globe over the last several decades. Notably, the frequency of floods and tornadoes has accelerated leading to the proliferation of related calamities over time. Although some significant amount of work has been done to understand flood risks on communities around the wo...

Hotel management is becoming more difficult in the face of increasing and repeated natural and human-induced disasters, particularly floods, cyclones and earthquakes. Hotel managers should come up with disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management plans that include early warning, search and rescue (evacuations) and relief and recovery. While there...

The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa experienced severe floods in April 2019 and the negative impacts were significant. This chapter seeks to determine information communication and technology (ICT) readiness for flood risk reduction and management at the local municipality of Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape Province. The chapter fu...

This chapter presents an assessment of the effectiveness of the tropical cyclone early warning system (EWS) in Zimbabwe, with a special focus on Cyclone Idai, which affected the country in March 2019. The study used a household questionnaire survey, interviews, field observations and official documents to identify gaps in major components of the EW...

Tropical cyclones are a global challenge, and climate change is adding to the complexity of their impact on development and occurrence, particularly in developing countries. While there is a marked improvement in the forecasting of track and intensity of tropical cyclones across the world, such improvements have not translated into improved disaste...

Tropical Cyclone Idai ripped through Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in mid-March 2019. Hundreds of lives were lost and a lot more remain unaccounted for. This study investigates the extent to which Zimbabwe’s information and communication technology (ICT) is ready for disaster risk reduction (DRR) application and management. The focus...

Climate change is known to result in extreme weather events across the world. Concern has been increasing over the social, environmental and human costs of such extreme weather events. 2019 witnessed some of the most significant record cyclones in southern Africa due to the occurrence of two devastating cyclones, namely tropical cyclones Idai and K...

The adoption of the 17 ambitious global sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the 169 targets in September 2015 aimed to better the global society. The year 2020 marks 5 years post-adoption of these SDGs and signals the last decade in which the world is set to take stock of the progress made. This chapter sets the background and tone for the boo...

Universities remain at the forefront of scaling up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its interlinked 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter investigates how the University of South Africa (UNISA) has localised the water and sanitation SDG to equip itself with eventualities regarding climate change...

The world has gone past 5 years of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation, and their 2030 deadline is fast approaching. It is therefore imperative to make an inventory and a report of what has been done on the ground in some locations to inform further implementation strategies. This chapter summarises the key findings from the book,...

There are increased calls for various industries to be more accountable to the communities they serve by giving back through the localisation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which embeds 17 intertwined Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aviation industry is no exception and launched its sustainable future initiative by implem...

This book profiles various cases that are emerging in addressing global challenges in the context of SDGs for society in the era of climate change and covers case studies of projects being undertaken to tackle biodiversity, food security, climate change, energy and water security. The book is written by 37 authors, and will appeal to various stakeh...

Climate change-induced extreme weather events have been at their worst increase in the past decade (2010–2020) across Africa and globally. This has proved disruptive to global socio-economic activities. One of the challenges that has been faced in this regard is the increased coastal flooding of cities. This study examined the trends and impacts of...

Climate change-induced extreme weather events have been at their worst increase in the past decade (2010-2020) across Africa and globally. This has proved disruptive to global socioeconomic activities. One of the challenges that have been faced in this regard is the increased coastal flooding of cities. This study examined the trends and impacts of...

As late as 2018, academic publications have still been recommending more research on sustainability reporting in higher education. This chapter focuses on how the University of South Africa (Unisa), an open-distance e-Learning institution, reports sustainability matters under the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and examines the opportunities a...

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions is on record indicating that libraries can drive progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) leading to the attainment of the 2030 Agenda. Yet, a 2018 study in Osun State, Nigeria, revealed that none of the libraries surveyed had immediate and/or long-term plans f...

This introductory chapter sets the platform for how the global leadership that includes governments, territories, business, civil society, development partners and individuals can make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) work and be more relevant for, in and with societies. This way, the world can move quickly towards the attainment of the 203...

The quest for societal development forms the foundation of human aspiration. The path to a prosperous world is fraught with challenges that need urgent attention to improve human livelihoods. The demand for a just, equitable society has never been stronger than now due to the impact of COVID-19 and the increased cost of disasters. This chapter summ...

The year 2020 will be synonymous with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for many global citizens. Millions have died from and tens of millions more have been infected globally by the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to an urgent search for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments by the scientific and political communities and civil society. Through e...

This chapter presents the summary of key findings and recommendations to enhance the building and building back better (B4) model in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management. The chapter will draw from a framework that focuses on the key thematic areas addressed in the book that include use and contestations of earth observation technologies in...

There are instances when humanitarian needs surpass business imperatives. Such was the case with the Chimanimani Hotel located at the heart of Tropical Cyclone Idai’s destruction in the Chimanimani District of Zimbabwe. From the data generated from a household questionnaire survey, interviews and field observations, it emerged that following the ni...

The frequency and magnitude of tropical cyclones reaching Zimbabwe, from the Mozambican channel, have been on the rise. This chapter unpacks the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Idai on domestic and irrigation water supply infrastructure, as well as exploring the key elements required, and some undertaken, to Build Back Better (BBB) water supply systems...

No words can describe the nature of the landfall and the resultant negative impacts from Tropical Cyclone Idai. The darkness from the storm of 15 March 2019 was described by one eyewitness as twofold the normal, the rainfall equated to having been pouring, and the sound of rolling stone boulders as if the world was ending abruptly. The cries of the...

Although places of human-induced death, suffering and torture have aroused great interest in terms of their local, national and global following, a new wave of natural disasters has fuelled and re-ignited research interest in dark tourism. The chapter investigates the potential of dark tourism at the epicentre of Tropical Cyclone Idai that devastat...

This chapter draws on global literature addressing the growing and popular concept of building back better (BBB) after disasters. It then adds another “B” to the new proposal we are presenting code named B4 (building and building back better), implying that communities should not only BBB after disasters but also have building better as part of eve...

The simultaneous occurrence of floods and drought has not been well researched. The aim of this chapter is to assess the impact of tropical cyclone Idai on water security in the south-eastern parts of Zimbabwe. Secondary data and document analysis were the prime sources of data for the research. In-depth interviews with key informants as well as ea...

Southern Africa has witnessed increased activity in tropical cyclones and floods. However, throughout the disaster cycle, issues of ethical conduct always emerge, especially concerning survivors. Ethical conduct must be observed across all the stages of the disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management cycle, including early warning (preparedness),...

The challenges of illegal gold mining are well known; environmental damage, violence from syndicates, poor sanitation, deaths and ill-health are among such. From natural hazards that include extreme floods, tropical cyclones and earthquakes, new and/or expanded gold deposits can be exposed causing a rush. The chapter investigates the impact of Trop...

Floods are the most frequent and destructive natural disaster affecting human settlements, livelihoods and the environment. Over the past two decades, economic losses due to hydro-climatic disasters such as flooding have risen more than threefold. Although floods cannot be prevented completely, their impact can be reduced through appropriate prepar...

In March 2019, Tropical Cyclone Idai hit Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. For most indigenous African people, there is a very thin line between the sacred, secular and scientific, hence interpretations of natural disasters are informed by religious belief systems. Through a household questionnaire survey, face-to-face interviews, focus...

With increasing pressure from natural disasters that result from extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, heatwaves and extreme snowfall, the call for ethical philanthropy and social responsibility through set-up foundations has been growing. As more and more such devastating natural disasters manifest across the world; g...

The frequency and impact of disasters have been on the increase worldwide. As disasters continue to strike with a heavy toll on communities, there has also been an increase in the number of digital tools and systems available to both the emergency responders and impacted societies. There has been an observed widespread utilisation of earth observat...

It often happens that communities give names to things with meanings attached and by their very nature names carry connotations. Names can remind us of the history of a generation, an event, a religious belief and more. However, when it comes to cyclones (or hurricanes or typhoons in other regions) what remains puzzling to many is how the names are...

The impact of tropical cyclones and hurricanes on critical infrastructure that includes energy is at times equated to that of weapons of mass destruction. From the electricity side, the literature indicates that both wooden and steel transmission poles go down due to severe winds and weakened ground from the cyclones, raising matters pertaining to...

The 17th Sustainable Development Goal seeks to promote partnerships at various levels. To this end, COVID-19 vaccines development partnerships in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are inevitable in facilitating ethical access to affordable and safe vaccines the world over. With South Africa being part of the BRICS, its prese...

The domestication of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been progressing in various countries across the world. Five years into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that embraces 17 inseparable SDGs, this study documents how South Africa has been domesticating the SDGs. The study uses a mixed-method approach that in...

Landing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into national development policies and development trajectories remain one of the desired outcomes to 2030. This paper teases out how South Africa landed the climate action SDG into its development trajectory, with a focus on mitigation policies, strategies and institutional setup. The study uses an...

While there is agreement among tourism role-players on tourism's potential to contribute to socio-economic and environmental development, the industry is under severe threat from the increased impact of climate variability and change. This study examines the implications of rising sea level on coastal tourism in Cape Town, South Africa. Making use...

The Paris Agreementʼs nationally determined contributions (NDCs) provide an excellent point of entry to simultaneously address climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study sets out to explore the connections between climate action plans (NDCs) and each of the 17 Sustainable...

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered a wave of economic decline across the world due to disruptions in the supply and demand chain for the travel market. This study examines potential recovery pathways from the global aviation industry following the severe negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using archival and secondary data mainly from Flightradar...

There is evidence that the world has been witnessing more intense tropical cyclones. Accompanying these tropical cyclones are heightened levels of devastation that witness the loss of human life and wildlife, destruction of natural resources and property and the disruption of major economic and social activities. To this end, there is a growing dem...

Written by 43 authors from Africa, Europe and Latin America, this book presents 19 topics addressing poverty in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), leadership in implementing SDGs, and SDGs in service delivery and local government. As the world has gone past five years of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and...

The subject of tropical cyclones in Southern Africa, also known as hurricanes or typhoons in other regions of the world, has been growing over the past few decades. However, there is still limited literature on foundational and fundamental topics on the matter. To this end, this book addresses this gap, citing some examples from both historic and r...

This volume discusses the increasing occurrence of floods and tornadoes in Southern Africa over the last few years. The book discusses existing flood and tornado management protocols, indigenous approaches to mitigate disaster risk, urban and peri-urban flooding, tornado-induced flooding and windstorms, and the challenges and vulnerabilities associ...

Tropical cyclones in Southern Africa, also known as hurricanes or typhoons in other regions of the world, is a hot subject for academic research. This focus has been magnified by the need to consider tropical cyclones in the context of other global development agendas, that includes the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its inseparable 17...

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (AfSD) has the vision to leave no one behind, particularly low-income countries. Yet COVID-19 seems to have brought up new rules and approaches. Through document and critical discourse analysis, it emerges that there has been a surge in COVID-19 vaccines and treatments nationalism. Global solidarity is th...

This literature-based article found that on 08 June 2020, New Zealand claimed victory over coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mainly because of effective non-pharmaceutical strategies and interventions that included a hard lockdown. The response was informed by the country’s Influenza Pandemic Plan (although without criticism), which was updated i...

In recent years we have witnessed several disasters and extreme events that have carried a variety of negative socio-economic and environmental impacts. These events and disasters threaten the attainment of the ambitious targets outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While intense tropical cyclones, extreme floods, fires, droughts...

While the tourism industry was on a steady growth path up to 2019, it remains sensitive and vulnerable to natural and political shocks. Such shocks have been on the increase in the recent past. Of concern has been the increase in diseases and pandemics which have become more prevalent since 2000 to 2020. As a result of the interlinkages in the tour...

This chapter presents a conceptual framework and setting for the book. This is informed by the desire to link three critical thematic areas, namely, (i) the global tourism value chains, (ii) COVID-19 and (iii) the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (AfSD) and the 17 embedded sustainable development goals (SDGs). Bringing in the SDGs adds value...

Economic stimulus packages in times of global crises and pandemics are nothing new. Following the 2008 global financial meltdown, many countries announced fiscal interventions to stimulate their economies. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, global tourism has never been in need of a bailout. However, due to the pandemic, hotel occupation and restaurant...

After witnessing and experiencing the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and Ebola pandemics and epidemic, one would assume the world was prepared to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Alas! This was not to be! Officially, the first cases of COVID-19 were reported to the World Health Organisation (WH...

Airports have grown in number, size and function in the recent past, leading to vast economic spinoffs to many communities. They are critical global nodes that link the world and facilitate economic development. In 2020, the global aviation industry was brought to a near standstill by the COVID-19 pandemic, with devastating global economic and asso...

The cruise ship industry is one of the fastest-growing segments of the tourism sector. In 2019, the industry transported over 30 million passengers across the world, creating over 1.11 million jobs. In as much as the industry plays such a significant role to global and regional economies, it remains vulnerable to a cocktail of challenges, including...

The hospitality industry, specifically the restaurant sector, is one of the leading global sources of employment, and it generates considerable revenue. However, the industry is susceptible to disasters that destroy infrastructure and affect human movement, notably the outbreak of pandemics and epidemics. This study investigated the early impacts o...