Gated Communities

gated community is a form of residential community which surrounded by perimeter of walls and fences..it is usually consist of small residential streets and include various shared ammenties.. gated community will increase a safety level within the area. 

According to Town and Planning Department, there are four types of gated communities in Malaysia, namely:

1- Elite community

2-Lifestyle Community

3-Security Zone Community

4- Security zone community and lifestyle

elite communities is occupied by the upper-class income group of people..lifestyle community consist of retirement communities, leisure communities and suburban 'new towns'..security zone community is the most popular types in which it offers a housing development that surrounded by fences or gates. it is usually provided with guard services. security zone community and lifestyle usually developed within a city centre. it focus on both security aspect and provision of lifestyle facilities for the residents..

people usually choose this type of neighbourhood because of security features provided..however, for me, it is not 100% guaranty that this type of community is secured..in addition, this type of communities also will produce a gap between an elite group with the other community in the area.. living in a separated area will limit the interaction and communication between a gated communities and the outside gated community...

Greening City

greening city is what we have to do in order to support for a sustainable development..we need to produce a city which are liveable and sustainable city..even if the city is well developed with both infrastructure and facilities provided, it is a need to consider on green city concept.. it is because, as the world temperature nowadays keep increasing, it is important to plant more trees in the city..trees can help to reduce the city temperature by give a shading to the building..

According to Akbari et al., (2001),the loss of vegetation means a loss of cooling in urban areas. Indeed, vegetation plays an essential role in preventing the build-up of heat through the process of evapotranspiration and shading of the ground and buildings. During the natural process of evapotranspiration of water vapor, the ambient air is cooled, releasing part of its heat to allow evaporation.

in addition, natural soils in the city also commonly are replaced with the artificial pavement such as asphalt and concrete..this action will lead to the the higher temperature of the city because the soil cannot absorb the heat that produced in the city..

therefore, in order to avoid Urban Heat Island phenomenon, more trees need to be planted in the city..instead of using a block pavement, just used a natural soil and grass..

Sustainable Community Planning in Tourism

All tourism activities need to be sustainable..Sustainable tourism ( is defined as tourism that respects both local people and traveller, cultural heritage and the environment.. it seeks to provide people with an exciting and educational holiday that is also benefit to the people of the host country..(UNESCO)

tourism can also cause its share of problem like other forms of development..such as social dislocation, loss of cultural heritage, economic dependence and ecological degradation..

sustainable community is one of the main aspect in order to produce a sustainable tourism..it can be created by ecological footprint concept..environmental indicator which is also used to determine sustainability in lifestyle..in addition, changes in lifestyle also can create a sustainable community..it is either anthropocentric or ecocentric..anthropocentric is a people who believe there is a solution to save a problem, just ignores about being sustainable..but ecocentric is a people who tend or behave sustainably..

the argument of Sustainable tourism is the concept is still novel, controversial and ill-defined..however for me, if we can behave in sustainable manner in a large scale, we can lead to sustainable life..

GREEN BUILDING INDEX (GBI)

'GO GREEN'..new trend of being sustainable..everyone as talking about green..Green building, green roof, green technology..why?because we are towards making the world sustainable..Green Building is the practice of creating structure s and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life cycle from sitting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction (Wikipedia, 2010). It is also known as green construction or sustainable building.. having a sustainable or Green building will able to sustain and improve the quality of human life whilst maintaining the capacity of the ecosystem at local and global levels.

The Green Building Index (GBI) is Malaysia’s industry recognised green rating tool for buildings to promote sustainability in the built environment and raise awareness of these issues among relevant stakeholders such as developers, architects, and contractors.

The rating system for all 4 building categories is as follows:

>86 points - Platinum
76 to 85- Gold
66 to 75- Silver
50 to 65- Certified

The points indicated in brackets in the next section depend upon the building category.


GBI not only applicable for new building only..it can be done even through an existing building..for example, a KOMTAR building in Penang (a study done by Dr Sharifah, my lecturer)..such a surprising cost will involve..it cost almost RM 19 million in order to turn this building to be a green building..

yes, it is not possible for every building in Malaysia to have the GBI rating, but again, it involved a large amount of money..

CORAL BLEACHING

i'm quite surprising on this topic presented by my friends, Nurul Hidayah..this topic was interesting to me because i never noticed about it before..i'm just understood that being sustainable is just protecting a green environment, without realized that 'blue environment' also need to be considered..coral bleaching is one of the event that occurred due to warmer water temperature..Small increases in temperature, especially prolonged exposure will cause stress to the system. In situations of stress the coral releases its photosynthetic pigments, which results in “bleaching” of the corals. Unless the factor causing the stress is removed and the algae can return, the coral dies (Jessica,A.,2003).

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warmest water temperature can result in coral bleaching. when water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues  causing the coral to turn completely white..this is called coral bleaching.. when a coral bleaches, it is not dead..corals can survive a bleaching event, but hey are under more stress and are subject to mortality..

therefore, it is important to safe our environment in order to control on the temperature of the surrounding..by controlling the air temperature, this coral bleaching phenomenon can be reduced..

Traffic Impact Assessment for Sustainable Development

this topic is quite interesting since I'm not really familiar with this term of Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA)..what I am usually heard is about Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)..Traffic can be defined as on road traffic but inclusive of public transport and pedestrian.. TIA is a step or process of development..any kind of development need to conduct TIA.. it is because to give an assessment of the impact of the proposed development..it is include an access on how many traffic going in and out of the area..TIA purpose is to discover problems and issues due to generated traffic from proposed new development..TIA also suggest mitigation measures or actions to be taken to reduce or eliminate problem and issue identified..

http://www.royalhaskoning.co.uk

TIA is important in order to determine the transportation and traffic impact of a proposed land development. TIA not only can be applied for new development, but also can be use for existing development. For me TIA benefits all..why? because by conducting TIA, we can reduce negative impact creted by the development..

GOVERNANCE & SUSTAINABILITY

governance act as a n administration to manage everything...sustainable governance is a social-political sustainability...governance promotes, support and sustain human development especially for the poorest and most marginal..

there are 5 aspect of sustainable activities which can lead to a sustainable governance. the first one is EMPOWERMENT..it is about capability for individuals to engage in decision making..this means that, an individual had given a chance to take part in making decision..for me, this is good because everybody can raise their opinion and dissatisfaction by making their own decision..

the 2nd aspect is COOPERATION..it is a sense of belonging..it is about how people work together and interact..nobody is perfect in doing something..so, cooperation actually helps to make things easier..

the 3rd aspect is EQUITY..it is related to the access to allocated resources..that's mean everyone has an access to the resources..Next is on the SUSTAINABILITY..it is all about right of future generations..yes we are enjoying what we have now, but make sure that we are not compromising for the future needs..the last is SECURITY..it is about the security of livelihood..

a good governance allow people to participatory, transparent and accountable (responsible)..a good governance also promotes the rules of law..

so, sustainable human development depends on state that governs well, a private sector that provide jobs and income, civil society that mobilise society to participate in economic, social and political activities..there is no point if a good governance are providing everything for us, but there are no response and cooperation from us...

Universal Design

Assalamualaikum everyone..i'm so interested with this topic.Universal design is a design that suit to every user especially to the disable people and to the older.universal design is considering on person and ability..it is a design which is usable by all regardless of age, ability or situation..we must design not only to consider the aesthetic value of the building, but also must consider on the facilities provided to the disable person and at the same time must make sure that the building that we are produce is accessible for everyone..for example, there are no ramp provided at the entrance door of shopping mall.This will cause difficulties to the disable person who use wheelchair..So, do you think this is a good design?

even a handrail provided for the disable pathway also must be in appropriate design..yes, some public area are providing the ramp for disable person, but is it according to the specification??just look for the picture below, there a ramp but is it a proper design?there were no handrail provided and the slope is too steep and no edge provided..

                                              source : http://www.universaldesignstyle.com

as mention before, universal design is a design for everyone, not only for disable person..the picture below shows a bad design for both able and disable person..the wide of the staircase is too wide..another problem is no handrail for the ramp provided..thus, this make a problem for disable person..

so, we as a future generation of a planner or designer must consider all this aspect in order to achieve the concept of universal design.sometimes we lack of attention on the accessibility for the disable person..

Sustainable Community

sustainable community is one that environmentally, socially and economically healthy..it is a places or area that have a good arrangement and proper plan..it is a place where people want to live and work either now or in the future..this is where communities are planned towards sustainable living..it is a concept of connecting housing to job by producing a better transportation..less transportation cost will be resulted and this will lead to reducing air pollution and decrease infrastructure cost..sustainable communities not only for urban area, but it also can be applied in sub-urban and rural area..this strategy can be applied to any places in order to have a healthy living condition.it is good for us to have a sustainable community because it will produce a healthy living condition such as walkable communities..when there is a good public transportation system, people will use it and this will result on less of car usage..this is good because it can reduce air pollution and and save our time in traffic..

CREATIVE CITY

creative city needs a creative person..people must think, act and imagine on how to create a creative city..Creative city can be define in two orientation which is Culture-centric and Econo-centric..culture-centric define creative city as place of diverse and inclusive arts and culture..Econo-centric define creative city as place of economic innovation, creative talent and creative industries (Smith and Warfield, 2008)...

Sustainable Production and Consumption (SCP)

SCP aims to do ''more and better with less'', by reducing resource use, degradation and pollution..Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) has been on the international agenda since Agenda 21  (1992) identified unsustainable patterns of production and consumption as the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment..

Environmental Conservation

in this lecture class,,we need to form a group and do a simple presentation on the environmental conservation..let me define environment on my own understanding first..

environmental : it is about surrounding around us that we can see..either a person, animal or plant..

conservation : it is relate to the activities or process to protect the environment 

so, environmental conservation is a process of protecting our environment from bad human behavior..it is a process to ensure a sustainable environment..national park is one of the example of conservation area in Malaysia..

back to the lecture class, we form our own group and my group members are Nurul, En. Kamal, Sana and I..we are discussing on the issues arising regarding environmental conservation..Sana (from Pakistan), she will present on the issues arise in her country..while En Kamal, the most experienced person in working field, will present on the issues in Malaysia, particularly on Tasek Banding, Perak..

based on the presentation made by all groups, i realise that we need to protect our nature..yes I agreed with Dr. Normah (Guest Lecturer) in which we cannot stop all the development but we can manage it in proper way..take some action in order to minimise the cause or effect to the environment..

so it is important for me as a student to alert with the issues regarding the environment..yes the are many NGOs and government agencies outside there which are trying to protect the environment such as Penang Green Council..but...to what extend this agencies can contribute to the environmental conservation?in 10 years in future, can the conservation area be maintained??

sustainable development..second lecture

..DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS, PROCESSES & TRANSFORMATION..by Prof. Dr. Nurwati

a very interesting topic because we're discussing about current population in the world and also in Malaysia..with the increase in the population, can we maintain a sustainable environment??how to have a sustainable development??what will happen to our next generation??owhhh..there's so many question that I query in my mind..can u imagine that guys?? however, i must keep it positively..hopefully there are some solution regarding this issue..i realize that, when the population keep increasing, is there are enough resources available?and what happen to the economy??now so much question mark in my mind..so guys,please think about this matter..

a report on the population

we are also was given a lecture by a guest lecturer which is from Indonesia (Dr. Grace)..she shared about her research paper..she was doing a research on the issue of Tsunami in Banda Acheh..

just imagine how the victim want to recover their life after the tragedy..it is so difficult to plan for redevelopment of the area..the community themselves have to cooperate with all the agencies and the government in order to recognised their land plot boundary..and I'm respect to Dr. Grace because of her effort..i know it is not easy to interview the victims which had a bad experience..but at last, she able to finish the research..

this is Dr Grace

my hometown

assalamualaikum..just to share a nice views in my hometown..this is a natural views that i admire so much..this is a view..

it is a green view n peaceful..

sustainable development

sustainable development...this is what i have learn in my first class of Sustainable Development Planning..it is all about how we have to plan in order to ensure that we can protect our environment in developing a city..it is not just to sustain the environment but also on to sustain the economy, social and also governance aspect..

this is what we need to protect..a good environment

action that can cause to the pollution

cut down trees..another human activities 

we should save our nature

so please guys!!save our nature..it is so precious..