VISITORS PERCEPTION ON VANDALISM AND SAFETY ISSUES IN A MALAYSIAN URBAN PARK

The purpose of this research is to identify and understand vandalism issues that occur in the selected case study site as well as to determine characteristics of the surrounding landscape associated with vandalism hotspots, and to justify safe environments in park areas. Questionnaire survey was conducted and specifically studies an urban park in the city of Shah Alam in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The research indicated that people perceived vandalism to occur because of the opportunities provided by the surroundings, user behaviour, lack of security and enforcement, lack of maintenance and inspection, location and design of the facilities, and the materials used for such facilities. This research is very important because there is no other known research about perceptions of vandalism from Malaysian local park visitors’ point of view, it should help planners, park designers and park managers in local or city councils in Malaysia, as well as the general public, to understand and expand their knowledge of vandalism in urban parks.Parks, Urban park, Vandalism, Safety, Park Management

Assessment of use pattern, needs,preferences and overall satisfaction to determine the quality aspect of a neighbourhood park

The purpose of this study was to gain an increased understanding on the quality aspects of neighbourhood green open spaces among Malaysian park users’. Hence, this research explores the causal relationship between, Quality green open spaces (QGOS), Use patterns (U), Needs (ND), Preferences (PR) and Overall satisfaction (OS) towards achieving a Quality Neighbourhood Park Criteria (QNPC). A survey was administered to a sample of Malaysian neighbourhood park users’. A total of 414 daily neighbourhood park user responded to the survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to examine the hypothesized model of causal relationships among quality green open spaces variables, use of outdoor venues, preferences towards outdoor activities, needs in outdoor recreation as well as the overall satisfaction towards the neighbourhood green open spaces using the AMOS 18 program. This study addresses the question of why does quality in green open spaces or Neighbourhood Parks is needed? What are the evaluation criteria to determine the quality aspect of Neighbourhood Parks?. The research argues that by integrating construct of quality green open spaces, use, preference, needs and satisfaction will help to develop the quality aspect for neighbourhood parks. The results of this study support a direct relationship between QGOS variables (operative, ambience, landscape elements, facilities, accessibility and recreational elements) and OS variables (satisfaction and dissatisfaction) towards the neighbourhood green open spaces. This study also found a positive relationship between QGOS with U (passive and active usage & spaces utilized) and OS with U. This study suggested that PR on Neighbourhood Park had significant direct effects on QGOS as well as OS on PR (recreational preferences, design preferences, amenity preferences and personal preferences). These results provide an important contribution in the sense that QGOS variable may have various causal effects on the individual’s OS, U, PR and ND through subjective perception of outdoor recreation in a Neighbourhood Parks

Use pattern analysis in green open spaces of Malaysia

Housing development in Malaysia is bounded to obey several acts and legislation which among them is the Planning Guidelines and Standards set out by the Town and Country Planning Department of Malaysia. This guideline serves as a written statement that contains guides that become reference in advancing any development. It is used by local planning authorities in controlling activities in land development for uniform, comfortable and safe execution. Among the most important guidelines closest to the policy in providing recreational area to a community is the Guideline on Recreation and Open Spaces, under Act A933 (Garispanduan Tanah Lapang dan Rekreasi, Pindaan 1995, Akta (A933), Seksyen 2(f), Bil No. 21/97 and The Town and Country Act, 172 (Akta Perancangan Bandar dan Desa, 1976 (Akta 172.). The policy also calls for recreational areas to be gazette and for their development to be monitored, for environmentally sensitive areas to be protected and for green areas to be established as buffer zones to limit urban development. However, the specific guidelines in developing Neighbourhood Parks are hardly stated. Merely an indication of a general and very broad guideline which stipulates a 10% of open spaces and recreation must be provided in any residential development, commercial development as well as in industrial developments. This is what Malaysia is experiencing now. Housing development especially in Malaysia has now grown to a stage where location relative to the nearest park or green area contributes to the most highly regarded property. This research have concluded that in order to explore the current Malaysian policy on green open spaces an analysis of use pattern of the users who uses the green open spaces is needed. This research is important as it helps to verify how green open spaces could complement the existing planning guidelines into developing a more user specific needs in all outdoor recreational venues

Gated community, theory and implementation in landscape and housing area of Malaysia

The interpretation of gated community in Malaysia often been regarded as a residential community area equipped with human or electronic security surveillance. However, the true meaning is a community area enclosed by walls and fences, most of the time having controlled over the entrances especially for automobiles and pedestrians. It is an issue where the concept was only used for profit gaining and not looking at the holistic approach towards overall community planning and the landscape environment. This research will review the current practice of community planning in Malaysia and seek to establish any significant developments pertaining to planning implication and community landscape in the approaches used. The paper will appraise international and local case studies to compare the true meaning, theory and implementation of the term gated community. This research aims to contribute to emerging guidelines for gated community development in Malaysian

Visitors perception on vandalism and safety issues in a Malaysian urban park

The purpose of this research is to identify and understand vandalism issues that occur in the selected case study site as well as to determine characteristics of the surrounding landscape associated with vandalism hotspots, and to justify safe environments in park areas. Questionnaire survey was conducted and specifically studies an urban park in the city of Shah Alam in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The research indicated that people perceived vandalism to occur because of the opportunities provided by the surroundings, user behaviour, lack of security and enforcement, lack of maintenance and inspection, location and design of the facilities, and the materials used for such facilities. This research is very important because there is no other known research about perceptions of vandalism from Malaysian local park visitors’ point of view, it should help planners, park designers and park managers in local or ity councils in Malaysia, as well as the general public, to understand and expand their knowledge of vandalism in urban parks. Keywords: Parks, Urban park, Vandalism, Safety, Park Managemen

Outdoor thermal performance investigations towards sustainable tropical environment

Most of the developing countries lay close to the equatorial line of tropical climates with their cities experiencing rapid urbanizations, population growths and physical changes. These accelerates the changes in their urban landscape, which results among others the urban heat island phenomenon (UHI). The global temperature increment also increases the cooling load, thus more energy is consumed. Attention is given on building design and its technological advancement in energy saving and conservation, not much research are being conducted on the Malaysia’s microclimate and outdoor thermal environment, although they affect the energy consumption of buildings. This paper discusses the approaches adopted in investigating the hot-humid outdoor environment of Malaysia towards understanding how the landscape design is affecting the microclimate. Several past research from ground surfaces effect on the adjacent thermal environment, the impact of landscape setting on the microclimate, to the influence of the physical dimensions of trees in screening the solar radiation are presented. These parameters seem to have direct influence on the outdoor thermal performance. The findings suggested that the landscape settings influence the microclimate of outdoor spaces where high quantity of trees and big tree size seem to lower the ambient temperature. Turfed surfaces seem to lower down the ambient temperature compared to tar-mac surfaces. Several recommendations through design initiatives to mitigate the UHI effects in urban areas are made