UCT expert wins award

ASSOCIATE Professor Gina Ziervogel, a UCT geographer and climate change adaption expert, was awarded UCT’s 2020 Social Responsiveness Award for her role in providing expert advice on the City of Cape Town’s drought plans.

Ziervogel, based in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science in the Faculty of Science, was appointed to the City’s Water Resilience Advisory Committee in 2017, a multidisciplinary team that raced to find solutions for the region’s water crisis. Dam levels were at an all-time low, and that ominous phrase “Day Zero” dominated the news agenda locally and abroad.

Her work on urban water resilience and social justice sheds much-needed light on the manner in which the City handled the region’s drought, and how a metropole should better engage with residents around water issues.

“This award is very special to me. I’ve been valued as an academic who engages in socially responsive work.”