stepSA Socio-Economic Indicators and Mesozones

Theme: Economy Date Added: 2018-11-20

Resource Type

Data Assets

GeoJSON

What is it?

Economic and social information for more than 25,000 meso-zones (approximately 50km2 in size) across South Africa.

Key Points

  • GVA per sector for each mesozone
  • Demographic data each mesozone
  • Settlement typology for towns and cities
  • Data published as GeoJSON and GDB

Why is it Important?

The StepSA mesozones and settlement typology estimate economic activity and demographics down to a relatively small geographic area across the whole of South Africa. This means that national departments, municipalities and provinces can develop plans that address specific characteristics of towns and cities within a region.

How can it be accessed and used?

The data (previously provided through CSIR Geospatial Analysis Platform) has been used by various public and private development planning entities, such as in the South Africa Risk and Vulnerability Atlas.

There are four main dataset components:

  1. Base mesozone information with mesozone boundaries and place names.
  2. GVA total and sector contribution per mesozone.
  3. Population, education and employment per mesozone.
  4. Settlement typology which classifies towns and cities into categories depending on their population, economic activity and government services.

The above data is published as an open GeoJSON format and as proprietary Geodatabase (GDB) file, which can be converted to other open formats using QGIS or online tools. You can then upload the tool into mapping tools like QGIS, Mapbox or Kepler.gl to interact with the data.

SA CSIR MesoZone 2018v1 Dataset

Location: South Africa
Format: GeoJSON
Year: 2018Last Checked:None
Online: Access URL
Column/
File Names:
  • StepSA_FUA: StepSA Functional Town Area (FuTA) type
  • POP_2016: Mesozone population in 2016
  • SIC_1_2016: Mesozone GVA contribution for SIC1: Agriculture, forestry and fishing

Main Economic Sector maps (2010 data from CSIR GAP)

Location: South Africa
Format: SHP
Year: 2010Last Checked:None
Online: Access URL
Column/
File Names:
  • Pop07: Population per zone
  • S1: GVA for sector 1 (Agriculture, forestry and fishing)
  • EMP09_S1: Employment for sector 1 (Agriculture, forestry and fishing)
  • location
  • manufacturing
  • agriculture
  • mining
  • employment
  • population

Resource contact name:CSIR Built Environment

Creation or start date:2018-11-20

Resource contact updated at:2018-12-14

Spatial coverage  South Africa http://www.geonames.org/953987/south-africa.html

Where else has the resource been used?

Year Project Name::
2017 Using a hybrid methodology of dasyametric mapping and data interpolation techniques to undertake population data (dis)aggregation in South Africa
2016 Spatial change as drivers of risk and vulnerability in South African cities: Spatial trends in the three metropolitan cities of Gauteng
2016 Profiling SA’s system of towns - Introducing the CSIR/SACN South African Settlement Typology
Parent ORG:

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

About This Organisation

The CSIR is a public research and development organisation established through an Act of Parliament in 1945 which undertakes directed, multidisciplinary research and technological innovation that contributes to the improved quality of the life of South Africans.