SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE DEMAND FOR INDUSTRY READY TOWN PLANNING GRADUATES

Emerging of new technologies skills are fundamentally changing how urban planners think, analyses and determine development decision. Application of mobile technologies and increase of public awareness are new challenges that affect traditional planning procedures and design process, resulting widening knowledge and skills gaps between town planning graduates and demand by the industry. This poses questions on the graduates’ capability to meet the job market demands especially on handling town planning related tasks. Therefore, this research endeavours to determine current knowledge and skill demands among planning agencies by using quantitative research approach as main research strategy. Findings of the study suggest Spatial Information System, Online Mapping, Crowd Sourcing technology along with instilling collaborative and multidisciplinary soft skills, in the new syllabus are considered vital.  Thus the implementation of a revised syllabus which take into consideration both knowledge and skills components, would surely offers well equip market ready town planning&nbsp

Impact of limestone quarrying industries On the livelihood of the surrounding population : experience at Gunung Lengkun, Ipoh, Perak

The quarrying industry is one of Perak’s major economic base. It plays an important role in contributing towards the construction industry’s development by providing materials such as marble, granite, cement etc. Since many of the quarrying industries are operating within close proximity to the surrounding urban land uses (eg. housing and commercial areas, such as in the case of Gunung Lengkun in Ipoh, Perak), it is important that the quarrying activities are being carried out in a safe and environmentally friendly manner in order to create a sustainable urban development area. The study aims to identify the environmental and social impact issues arises due to the quarrying activities by assessing the perception of the communities living close to the quarrying sites. The focus of the study is mainly related to issues on the quality of the environment, family health condition, blasting effect and public safety. The study revealed that the main concerned of the communities are problems related to health condition and public safety. Therefore, the study recommends that the related authorities should continuously enforcing rules and guidelines as well as compliance monitoring to ensure that the quarry operators abide to the regulatory standard measures. This will help in improving the livelihood of the affected communities