Volume II - The Northern Cape Provincial Spatial Development ...

CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: CREATING AN URBAN INVESTMENT
TYPOLOGY
As the research agenda indicates (Figure 1.1), the data matrix for this study consists of a list
of towns in the Northern Cape Province as cases/entities, each evaluated in accordance with a
set of quantitative variables synthesized as indicators of urban development potential. Our
explication of the data matrix commences with the selection of towns and the quantitative
indicators decided upon. It then progresses through an explanation of the measurement
methodology, followed by the presentation of the quantitative town profiles.
3.1 Selection of Towns
The brief for this research directed the study to the consideration of all urban places in the
Northern Cape Province. The basis for the selection of urban places was the 2001 Population
Census. Geographical units availed by this Census qualifying for inclusion were all ‘subplaces’
with area-types classified as ‘non-traditional’. There are 1107 such individual spatiostatistical
units within this subset in the province. Single settlements often consisted of
multiple polygons - consequently it was necessary to group these units to represent their
respective urban areas. In order to do this, sub-places with similar ‘main-place’ names were
grouped. Once this was completed, urban polygons belonging to the same urban settlement
were recoded and their town names assigned. The total population was calculated for each of
these settlements. The urban places were ranked on population size and all urban settlements
exceeding 400 residents were selected for further analysis in the data matrix. These units
were mapped and inspected for possible omissions and further grouping. Other ‘main places’
in the 2001 Population Census that were also grouped with their functional counterparts are
former ‘black’ and ‘coloured’ townships.
This procedure resulted in the creation of a final data matrix consisting of 115 urban places
within 32 local municipalities in the Northern Cape Province for which data were collected
from various sources to measure their growth potential. The map in Figure 3.1 displays the
municipal boundaries and geographical distribution of these towns, while Table 3.1 lists the
towns within their 32 encompassing municipal structures. ∗
∗ Figure 3.2 compares the 2007 municipal boundaries (upon which the data were collected for this study) with
the 2011 boundaries. These boundary changes should be kept in mind when the interpretation of the final results
takes place.
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