Towards a sustainable landscape of urban parks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: A study from a management perspective

Kuala Lumpur’s urban parks have evolved to fulfil the needs of its multi-cultural urban communities since the conception of its first public park in the late 19th century. Nevertheless, the management and maintenance of these tropical urban parks are currently under pressure as local authorities have no longer adequate funding to maintain the existing landscape as they have to focus on addressing the impact of environmental problems; particularly frequent flooding that has been a never-ending issue facing the city. There are growing pressures on resources, especially on water supply, in response to urbanization and population growth. Nevertheless, Kuala Lumpur’s urban parks were highly dependent on potable water for landscape maintenance at a time of growing demand for this limited resource. There is a possibility that these urban parks can be managed in a more sustainable manner, which may consequently reduce their dependency on potable water resource for irrigation. They might also make a more positive contribution to managing stormwater control and increasing habitat diversity. The challenge, therefore, is to try and achieve a more sustainable, ecologically informed design and management practice without alienating park users, management, and maintenance staff. This research aims to investigate the potential of changing the design and management of Kuala Lumpur’s urban parks towards a more ecologically sustainable landscape practice. A case study approach was adopted through multiple sources of data collection, such as documents review, photo-based interviews and field observations. The historical development of the parks was also reviewed in order to understand how they evolved into the present day, and influenced the current state of landscape design and management practices associated with these tropical urban parks. Field observations conducted at each case study site help identified a potential aspect of design and management that can increase sustainability of the parks. Subsequently, interviews with the management’s stakeholders further assessed their attitudes towards changing the current management and maintenance practice in adaptation to this sustainable landscape practice. The impact of applying this sustainable landscape practice was identified; alongside with its benefits and challenges. Finally, strategies for adaptation of Kuala Lumpur’s urban parks towards delivering this ecologically sustainable landscape practice were recommended according to practicality and adaptability of such approach to fit in the local context. Keywords: Sustainable urban park, Ecological sustainability, ecological design and management

Risk Management Challenges in Malaysia’s Landscape Architecture Project

This study aims to review current risk management challenges in Malaysia landscape architecture projects. This subject found to be lacking and yet essential to strategies for effective application. The data collection conducted through a semi-structured interview with twenty-four landscape architect professional based in the Klang Valley region. Then analysed using content and thematic analysis method. The research found that multiple challenges factor permits effective risk management application in the project. The study suggests for an extensive strategy to risk management application into the project to be formulated in enabling effective management of risk to improve project performances. Keywords: managing risk; risk management; risk challenges; landscape architecture project. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-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/ebpj.v5i14.216

Reviewing Risk Process Integration Effectiveness into Malaysia’s Landscape Architecture Project Lifecycle

This paper explores the effectiveness of risk process integration into landscape architecture project lifecycles, a subject that found to be lacking in risk management studies. The fieldwork of data collection conducted through structured interviews as well as document reviews from three completed landscape architecture projects in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The collected data analysed using content and thematic analysis. The research found that the risk process ineffectively integrated into project lifecycle with results presenting incomplete process, unplanned and redundant activity flows. The study suggests that common practice constrains practical risk management application that then restrains its benefit realisation.Keywords: risk management; risk process; project lifecycle; landscape architecture projecteISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. 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.v5i13.199

Comparing Soft-Scape Quality Standard Between Malaysia And Developed Countries

The Malaysia government‟s vision towards a “Garden Nation” in year 2005, followed by „The Most Beautiful Garden Nation‟ by the year 2020 has boosted rapidly the landscape development throughout the country. However, as reported by the Malaysia Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB, 2000), these massive and hasty developments have led to a devastating compromise in quality. This issue is critical in landscape development, as currently, there is no specific quality standard to monitor and control the quality of soft-scape materials and works. Landscape projects are it is a quite unique form of construction that blend the inert materials with the living plants, or commonly known as the hard-scape and the soft-scape, within the environment. Based on the building industry practice, the quality of the hard-scape is specific and codified. For soft-scape, however, there is a wide range of subjectivity with regard to the quality of the soft-scape materials and works. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the quality standard of soft-scape as it is an important document in specifying the quality aspect of the landscape development in Malaysia. This research used a mixed-method approach. It adopted a constant comparative method to explore the similarities and differences between the quality standard of soft-scape practices in Malaysia and those in the USA and UK. Tender documents and the soft-scape specifications together with data from the interviews with local professional landscape personnel were the two main important data sources to identified the issues and problems related to the quality standard of soft-scape in this country. It also verifies the strength and weaknesses of the present soft-scape practices in Malaysia. Site observations at the nurseries and at the landscape construction site on the other hand helped to validate the written documents. These findings identified the insufficient standard to monitor and control the quality of soft-scape materials and works in this country. At the end of the research, recommendations were provided for improving the quality standard of soft-scape materials and works that represent the overall landscape development towards sustainability in Malaysia

Developing a soft-scape standard for improving the landscape quality in Malaysia

The vision 'Towards a Garden Nation 2005' introduced by the Malaysian government in 1997 has boosted rapidly the landscape development throughout the country. The effort further continues with the vision towards 'The Most Beautiful garden Nation' by the year 2020 mooted in 2006. The landscape industry has than grown quite significantly to cater for demands in soft-scape materials and often works without proper control lead to devastating compromise in the landscape quality. Currently, this issue is critical as there is no specific quality standard to monitor and control the quality of soft-scape materials and works in Malaysia. Therefore, this paper intends to explore the need to develop a soft-scape standard to regulate the quality of soft-scape materials and works in Malaysia. The issues and problems relating to quality standard of soft-scape in landscape construction will be analysed through literatures review, documents analysis and interviews with the local professionals and experts in landscape development. These are further supported by researcher observations at the local landscape nurseries and the landscape construction site. Finally, recommendations are given on the development of the soft-scape standard for the local landscape industry players as reference in their landscape practices. A proper enforcement of this standard will help improve the landscape quality towards sustainability in Malaysia

Managing community open spaces in semi-arid region, Katsina Nigeria

Desertification hurts the agricultural lands and water sources, as well as the community's open spaces. Open spaces are regarded as an integral feature of the landscape in rural communities in semi-arid regions because they host the community's socio-cultural and economic activities. In North-Western Nigeria, the menace of land degradation is a result of desertification. Thus, this makes it necessary for the communities to develop some strategies to manage the open spaces. Therefore, there is a need to ensure an organized and well-managed open space in North-Western Nigeria to accommodate the culture and the ethical values of the communities. An in-depth interview with the community leaders and site observation approaches on community open spaces was conducted to investigate the community’s management strategies (local approaches) for the sustainability of open spaces in hosting the socio-cultural activities in a semi-arid region of North-Western Nigeria and the management strategies. The results were analyzed using ATLAS Ti with the actual analysis done during the writing phase and presented using simple statistical tools. The study revealed the typology and the functions of the community open spaces, and further, explored the stakeholders and management strategies. The study suggests that governments should recognize and support community-based organizations (CBOs) financially and otherwise, to enable them to achieve their goals in managing community open spaces. The result will serve as a guiding document for policymakers, resource planners, and decision-makers. It will also ensure proper order in the use of open spaces by the communities