Impact of Urban Expansion on Coastal Vegetation Conservation in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa

Abstract

The ethical clearance certificate number for this research is KUL011SOLA01. This research elucidates the conceptualization of urbanization, urban sustainability, merits of coastal vegetation, and threats to urban expansion. Furthermore, this paper focuses on the analysis of the questionnaire, of which 300 copies were distributed to different categories of individuals in the study area, out of which a total of 254 copies were returned. The results revealed that 197 (80.7%) respondents confirmed the occurrence of environmental challenges, 33 (13.5%) others stated otherwise, while 14 (5.7%) claimed ignorance. Further, the researcher sought to know the causes of coastal vegetation loss; 190 (74.8%) respondents blamed it on urban expansion, 169 (66.8%) respondents stated it was due to deforestation activities. Other views cited by the respondents in this regard and their corresponding frequencies are as follows: bush fires (132/52.0%) and conversion of ecosystem land uses for crop cultivation (112/44.1%).