map(this); Home

At the moment things are going a bit crazy in the map(this); office. I'm working on a couple of projects - writing a report for the Vleesbaai wind farm, preparing for a field trip to Kwazulu Natal for two wind farms there and keeping an eye on the Saldanha desalination plant project.

That is not all, of course, since there are always changes to be made to previous reports as various parties (affected or not) make comments and expect changes.

There is an interesting aspect of visual impact assessments of wind farm projects that I've encountered which I would like to discuss (and research a bit more carefully) in the near future. The issue relates to photomontages and their role in the VIA process.

I've created a Google Fusion table and map of visual impact assessments conducted and completed by map(this);. Short discussion here.

I think it makes more sense to use a real blog engine so I can provide pictures and maps. I will therefore link to blogposts at WordPress from these entries rather than use the very limited capabilities of the Imaginet Site Builder.

And so today, a photomontage entry at map(this); WordPress blog for a proposed wind farm near Grahamstown.

I conducted a VIA for a brewery in Mozambique near Nampula in 2009 and, out of interest, I checked the site on Google Earth and discovered that it's been built already (in fact, according to this website it was built in 2010). It actually looks quite pretty from up...well...here. Would like to see a few photos. Anyway, it's nice to see a development get built after it received environmental authorisation.

So I wanted some sun for the photos yesterday and now I'm various painful shades of red. But the photos were taken and I saw some interesting landscapes. Drove through rural settlements of the former Ciskei homelands (at least I think that's the region? May be wrong - will find out) just north of the Fish River. Harsh landscape (although it may just have felt that way in the heat). It seems most farms between Grahamstown and the Fish River have been converted to game farms. Not overly much 'arable' land in this part of the country, so game farms would seem to be a good, if expensive, option. 

So then, tomorrow I'm off to Saldanha Bay to take photos for a desalination plant project. Will pack a hat (where do I get a sombrero) and factor block-the-sun-out-completely sunscreen.