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Articles on Cape Town

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Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg. Getty Images

South Africa’s 2022 census: has Johannesburg stopped growing, or are the numbers wrong?

If the numbers are correct, and it’s not certain that they are, Cape Town may have overtaken Johannesburg as the largest city in South Africa.
A copy of the VOC’s registers for April 1789. These daily registers contained rich detail - including about the weather. Tracing History Trust

Climate change: colonial diaries in South Africa are helping scientists reconstruct weather patterns of the past to protect against future events

A project to transcribe Dutch colonial records of the weather in Cape Town can benefit modelling of future climate scenarios and assist in forecasting weather now.
Alien trees threaten biodiversity, increase the risk of wildfires and also guzzle water. Photo courtesy Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve

Removing alien plants can save water: we measured how much

Clearing alien trees from mountain catchments is a more cost-effective approach to providing water than building and maintaining desalination plants.
Alien pine trees, which use substantially more water than the native vegetation of the Cape Mountains, reduce river flows to dams that supply the city’s water. Martin Kleynhans

Clearing alien trees can help reduce climate change impact on Cape Town’s water supply

Clearing alien trees before the drought hit could have reduced the impact of climate change on water supply during the ‘Day Zero’ drought.

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