Khanyisa Qamata

About

• I decided to pursue a career in Environmental Science after reading "The Sea Around Us" by Rachel Carson in high school. Unfortunately, there seems to be very limited opportunities in marine studies and so in my honours year, I decided to diversify my portfolio, by expanding my interests into Geographic Information Systems, land cover change and environmental management.

   

  I have a BSc degree in Life and Earth science and an honours degree in environmental science, both obtained from UKZN in 2013 and 2014 respectively: I have a passion for Urban studies, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Environmental management; I have gained some insight into the contemporary issues around the use and extraction of natural resources in southern Africa; an appreciation of the impacts of anthropological activities on the natural environment; and an understanding of the inherent difficulties in data stewardship, data interoperability, sharing and ownership in South Africa. I have also gained experience in report writing, data collection and analysis; I have an average of 70 percent for my modules; moreover, my honours project was on the detection of land use/land cover changes in a private game reserve, using GIS and landscape indices. Additionally, I have endeavored to further my studies by pursuing a masters degree in environmental sciences, focusing on the impacts on the historical and inherent inequalities in the distribution of public green infrastructure and impacts on cultural ecosystem services in the Eastern Cape.

   

  Furthermore, I have also had the opportunity of taking part in a Water Care training program from April 2015 to August 2015, with Amatola Water, the Department of Public Works in Port Elizabeth and E-generational training: the program was cut short due to funding issues.

   

  I have also interned at Statistics SA, Geography division: main duties included; assisting in updating place name, dwelling frame and enumeration area layers and also providing geographic support services for the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Industry experience

Education: Bachelor

Seniority: Expert, Engineer, Consultant

Years of experience: 1 to 5 years

Work experience

• Water Care Trainee

  Water care Trainee

  Department of Public Works and Infrastructure

  2015-04  - 2015-08

• Geography Intern

  Assisting internal and external clients with geographic information systems issues and data requirements.

  Statistics South Africa

  2016-04  - 2017-03

Taxonomy

• Support
• Scientist
• Natural Resource Management
• Scientific writing
• Ecosystem Restoration, Primary Ecosystem Services valuation,