Assessing green space cooling effects on the tropical urban microclimate / Siti Norafzan Buyadi

Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a phenomenon where the temperature distribution in the urban areas is significantly warmer than the surrounding suburban areas. One of the main causes of UHI is the replacement of natural surfaces by built surfaces through urbanisation. Trees and vegetation play vital roles to mitigate the UHI effects, especially by regulating high temperature in saturated urban areas and their surroundings. This study evaluated the effects of land use/land cover on the surface temperature of an urban area, especially in a hot and humid tropical climate like Malaysia. The objectives were to determine the surface temperature distribution within the different land covers, to analyse the vegetation growth impact on land surface temperature, to determine the temperature distribution within parks, to quantify the green space cooling effect intensity, and to analyse the surface temperature distribution of different land covers within 24 hours. The study areas were mainly located within the Petaling Districts, Selangor Darul Ehsan. For a more detailed study to quantify the green spaces cooling effects, Shah Alam Lake Garden (Shah Alam), Bandaran Kelana Park (Kelana Jaya) and Subang Ria Recreational Park (Subang Jaya) were selected as the test sites. Land use/land cover, vegetation, and surface temperature distribution maps were derived from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) image of 1991, 1999 and 2009. Other satellite data used in this study were Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Landsat 8 OLI/ Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI/TIRS) images of 2013 and 2014. Monowindow algorithm was used to generate temperature distribution maps of the study areas

Urban green space growth impact on surface temperature distribution / Siti Nor Afzan Buyadi, Wan Mohd Naim Wan Mohd and Alamah Misni.

Trees and vegetation play a vital role to mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effects. Land use, vegetation growth detection and land surface temperature (LST) maps of two different dates are generated from Landsat 5 TM (1991 and 2009) in the city of Shah Alam. The conversion of natural green areas into residential and commercial development significantly increases the LST. The result reveals that mature trees in urban green space help to mitigate the effects of UHI as well as to sustain the urban development

Investigation of Thermal Comfort for A Naturally Ventilated House: Correlation between Climatic Design Strategy and Thermal Data Analysis

One of the main factors contributing to climate change and global warming is architecture, which accounts for about 50% of the country's greenhouse emissions due to construction and the energy needed to keep buildings operational. Sustainable architecture is believed to reduce emissions, and this approach has been practised with traditional buildings. In Malaysia, a traditional Malay house (TMH) is one of the traditional buildings, and it is initially naturally ventilated with occupant-controlled air ventilation to condition the space. Numerous experimental studies claimed that TMH has demonstrated a good model for contemporary designers to understand climatic and environmental design, building systems, and design adaptability. One of the approaches is to practise climatic design strategies. However, there is a lack of study to determine if TMH is still relevant as a sustainable design that can adapt to current climate conditions. Thus, the study aims to investigate the adaptive indoor thermal comfort of a Negeri Sembilan Malay house in a hot-humid climate determined by the correlation between climatic design strategy and thermal data analysis. This study employed the Predictive Adaptive model by executing two stages of fieldwork: i) local climate background and ii) physical measurement (case study description and environmental data). The data were then analysed using the ACS of ASHRAE 55 and MS 2680:2017. The primary results revealed that 62% of the hourly indoor operative temperature of the case study house was within 80 to 90 % of the acceptability limit. The optimal comfort hourly indoor operative temperature was between 25.5 to 29.5 °C with a prevailing mean outdoor air temperature between 23 to 30 °C, which represents 90% of the acceptability limit range. Moreover, the results also complied with the standards of ACS, where the average hourly indoor operative temperature was less than 31 °C, with a prevailing mean outdoor air temperature less than 32 °C, which was an acceptable indoor state for occupants' comfort. The findings complied with RMK 12 Theme 3, which aims to be a carbon-neutral country by practising sustainable architecture and construction. The design of naturally ventilated houses, such as Negeri Sembilan Malay houses in hot-humid climates, can be a model reference for modern housing design development

Quantifying Carbon Footprint Review in University Campus

A carbon footprint is the number of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by particular human activity. Usually, a carbon footprint is calculated for a year. This study plans to evaluate the carbon footprint of the university. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Standard for developing a GHG inventory in a university will be used as a standard and guideline. A university has to determine its organizational boundaries in terms of the operations in identifying emissions associated with its services, categorizing them as direct and indirect emissions, and choosing the scope of accounting and reporting for indirect emissions. The primary sources of carbon footprint in the university are from goods and services, transportation, and energy production. This study will document carbon footprint assessment strategies adopted by higher education institutions in the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia.Keywords: Carbon Footprint; Emissions; Greenhouse Gases; University; CampuseISSN: 2398-4287 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v4i12.176