News

  • BScHons student Thuli Ntlatleng wins the 2022 Esri Young Scholar Award

    Posted on April 14, 2022

    Thulaganyo Ntlatleng, who completed her BScHons Geoinformatics degree in our department last year, was recently announced as the winner of the Esri Young Scholar Award for 2022. She received the award for her Honours project, titled Possible Wind Power in South Africa's Economic Hub: A GIS Based...

  • Celebrating Environmental Professionals Day

    Posted on April 13, 2022

    April 15 is Environmental Professionals Day. To celebrate this day, we asked Salome Beeslaar, and contract lecturer in environmental sciences in our department, to speak about her profession. Q: Tell us about your academic and professional background. I studied B.Sc Environmental Science...

  • Seasonal Forecast (April 2022) available

    Posted on April 12, 2022

    The UP model predicts a transition into ENSO-neutral conditions during winter; this forecast is in agreement with most models. The SW Cape is expected to experience below-normal rainfall from early winter until the end of this month’s forecast period (Jul-Aug-Sep). Enhanced probabilities...

  • Dangerous air pollution detected with machine learning

    Posted on April 11, 2022

    Researchers found high levels of air pollution in areas of Mpumalanga and Gauteng. UP’s Rebecca Garland helped create an artificial intelligence tool to monitor and predict daily air pollution against national air quality standards.

  • Industry guest lecture to our 3rd years

    Posted on March 23, 2022

    Members of Esri South Africa gave a guest lecture to students of the third year course, GIS 310, on Wednesday 16 March. Students were exposed to the integration of drone technology in Esri software, as well as using machine learning to map land cover. Verosha Naidoo, who is the University of...

  • 2022 GGY 789 field trip to Florisbad, Free State

    Posted on March 23, 2022

    The 2022 GGY 789 field trip, led by Dr. Natalie Haussmann and Prof. Greg Breetzke, took place from 18 to 21 March at Florisbad, in the Free State. Thirteen of the BSc Geography Honours students and three of the GIS Honours students attended. Activities included ecological field techniques (led by...

  • World Meteorological Day, 23 March 2022

    Posted on March 21, 2022

    Department of Geography Geoinformatics and Meteorology putting the message of World Meteorology Day into action. The theme of World Meteorology Day in 2022 is Early Warning and Early Action.

  • Join Professor Andy Dougill for his talk on “Improving Soil Health through Climate-Smart Agriculture: A key to climate-resilient farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa”.

    Posted on March 17, 2022

    Join Professor Andy Dougill on Thursday, 24 March 2022 at 3pm-4:30 (SAST) for his talk on Improving Soil Health through Climate-Smart Agriculture: A key to climate-resilient farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Hybrid Event (Venue: 1-2 Geography building, University of Pretoria Hatfield...

  • Seasonal forecast for March 2022 available

    Posted on March 16, 2022

    In agreement with most other models, the UP model predicts a transition into ENSO -neutral conditions during winter. There are enhanced probabilities for wet conditions over the larger summer rainfall region during autumn. In contrast, the northern-northeastern areas are expected to be dry. The...

  • Open Data Day 2022 - Towards curating a South Africa hail events dataset

    Posted on March 11, 2022

    For the 2022 Open Data Day GGM Hackathon (5 March), we decided to focus on the curation of a hail events dataset for South Africa from observations posted on social media. This proved to be a great challenge for the students! In preparation for the hackathon, we were honoured to have Tim...

  • Accessibility and affordability of student housing remains a challenge for South African students

    Posted on March 11, 2022

    Dr James Gregory attended the 4th Annual Affordable Purpose-Built Student Housing Summit on the 24th and 25th of February 2022 in Sandton, Johannesburg. This industry conference brought together a wide range of stakeholders involved in the provision of affordable student housing across southern...

  • Climate affects crime patterns

    Posted on March 07, 2022

    Professor Breetzke recently co-authored an article that investigated the link between heat and crime in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. He and his co-authors found that when temperatures exceed 25°C, crime in Khayelitsha increased by 32%. This compares to an earlier study from 2019, where a 1°C...

  • Join Prof Archer for her talk on Drought, climate change and agriculture/wildlife sector in the Karoo, South Africa

    Posted on March 07, 2022

    Join Professor Archer at 5 pm on 17 March for a free online webinar on Drought, climate change and agriculture/wildlife sector in the Karoo, South Africa. The webinar is part of a series organised by the Grassland Society of South Africa (GSSA) and you can register at...

  • NRF C2 rating for Dr Davis

    Posted on March 02, 2022

    Dr Nerhene Davis received a C2 rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa in the field of social sciences with a specialization in land reform, land management, and rural development policy. Her primary research focus is centered around aspects of South African land...

  • Celebrate International Open Data Day and join our 2022 GGM Hackathon!

    Posted on February 28, 2022

    The Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology would like to invite you to the 2022 GGM Hackathon. To celebrate International Open Data Day (https://blog.okfn.org/2021/06/08/open-data-day-2022-will-take-place-on-saturday-5th-march-2022/), the Hackathon will focus on scraping tools to...

  • Meteorology staff and students present at the 13th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography (ICSHMO)

    Posted on February 24, 2022

    The conference was held from 8-17 February 2022 in Wellington New Zealand but was hosted as a fully virtual conference. The conference themes included Atmospheric processes and observations, Weather and extreme events, Air quality and pollution, Climate and climate change, Modelling and...

  • Honours students recognized at 2021 GeoforAll student competition

    Posted on February 17, 2022

    “Geo for All” is the Open Source Geospatial Foundation’s Committee for Educational outreach and works in close collaboration with ICA, ISPRS, UN-GIS, AGILE, UCGIS, IGU and other partners worldwide in our mission for making geospatial education and opportunities accessible to...

  • Introducing maps to primary school learners at Viva Foundation

    Posted on February 15, 2022

    Late 2021, we were able to visit the Viva Foundation school and speak with a group of Gr 1-3 learners about maps. During the session, we showed them a number of maps and taught them about the cardinal directions. This was followed by an interactive activity and quiz. We would like to thank...

  • Seasonal forecast for February 2022 available

    Posted on February 15, 2022

    The UP February Seasonal Forecast Worx predicts, in agreement with other models, a transition into ENSO-neutral conditions during winter. There are enhanced probabilities for wet conditions over the larger summer rainfall region during late summer going into autumn. In contrast, the SW Cape is...

  • NRF Y2 rating for Dr Victoria Rautenbach

    Posted on February 03, 2022

    Victoria Rautenbach received a Y2 rating in Information Technology with a specialization in User experience, open-source for geospatial software, open data and community engagement in higher education.

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