-
Insuring Floods: The Most Common and Devastating Natural Catastrophes in America
01 Mar 2015Flooding is the most common natural catastrophe Americans face, accounting for 90% of all damage caused by natural catastrophes. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, for example, collectively caused over $160 billion in damage, but only approximately 10% of the Hurricane Katrina victims and 50% of the Hurricane Sandy victims had insurance to cover their flood losses. Consequently, both their homes and l…
-
Hurricanes, Fraud, and Insurance: The Supreme Court Weighs in on, But Does Not Wade Into, the Concurrent Causation Conundrum in <i>State Farm Fire and Casualty Company v. Rigsby</i>
01 Jan 2017In the December 6, 2016 Supreme Court decision, State Farm v. Rigsby, a homeowner’s house was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The homeowner had homeowners insurance with State Farm and a flood insurance policy that was administered by State Farm on behalf of the federal government. The claims adjusters assigned by State Farm to handle the homeowner’s claim allegedly were instructed by State Farm to…
-
Perpetual Affordability Covenants: Can These Land Use Tools Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis?
01 Jan 2019Approximately 3.8 million privately-owned residential housing units in America today contain affordability covenants recorded in their chains of title. State and local agencies and the District of Columbia use these covenants to ensure that publicly-subsidized properties are actually used to provide affordable housing. With rents at all-time highs and stagnant wages, the affordable housing crisis…
-
Differential mortality risks associated with PM2.5 components : a multi-country, multi-city study
15 Mar 2022BACKGROUND : The association between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and mortality widely differs between as well as within countries. Differences in PM2.5 composition can play a role in modifying the effect estimates, but there is little evidence about which components have higher impacts on mortality. METHODS : We applied a 2-stage analysis on data collected from 210 locations in 16 countrie…
-
Housing design, urban design and multi-layered environments
27 Feb 2008A wealth of knowledge on housing has not influenced actual implementation and housing environments remain untransformed. Housing landscapes in South Africa evolved into sterile, regimented and inefficient settlement patterns; the massive machine of the state continues to dominate housing delivery, in the process limiting interventions by other potential role-players. Emerging from the experienc…
-
Understanding (the lack of) space in Psalm 47:6 in light of its neighbouring Psalms : a spatial reading of Psalms 46-48
30 Aug 2010Psalm 47 is investigated intertextually with Psalms 46 and 48 in terms of their representation of space to determine to where Yahweh ascends in Psalm 47:6. An overview is also given of the theory of Critical Spatiality as well as an overview of the temple as the navel of the Ancient Near Eastern cosmology and spatial orientation. The spatial correlations of Psalm 46-48, i.e. all three’s emphasis …
-
Facing our whiteness in doing Ubuntu research. Finding spatial justice for the researcher
24 May 2017In this article, the two authors, academics from different contexts and both aware of their whiteness, focus on their own vulnerable selves. The aim is to reflect on their specific agency in this project1 and to create awareness for subjectivity in research. What are the challenges of two white academics – the one from a first world country with a baggage of colonialism, and the other from So…
-
State-of-the-art investigation of wind turbine structures founded on soft clay by considering the soil-foundation-structure interaction phenomenon – optimization of battered RC piles
19 May 2021Nonlinear dynamic modelling of full-scale wind turbine structures and soil-structure interaction considerations using the 3D detailed approach is the most accurate method of investigating the mechanical response of these structures, but not yet feasible due to numerous reasons. The two main numerical problems that do not allow for this type of analysis to be performed, are the numerical instabili…
-
Investigation into the process of providing office accommodation for national state departments in South Africa
08 Jul 2014The National Department of Public Works has the responsibility of providing office accommodation to all state departments nationally, The objectives of the paper are to establish a base for evaluating the performance of the process and secondly investigate the performance against this base. Critical success factors were found to be: Better site search and space management, Effective maintenanc…
-
Leisure motorhoming : the case of the Motorhome Club of South Africa
22 Jul 2008This paper introduces caravanning and camping as a leisure activity that consists of a number of sequential experiences. The particular focus is on motorhoming as a form of caravanning / camping. The Motorhome Club of South Africa has a membership base of 670. A self-administered questionnaire surveyed the opinion of the entire membership base on certain aspects relating to the Motorhome Club and…