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..