Quantification of land surface albedo impacts in a tropical urban environment / Siti Aekbal Salleh

The emergence of various climate campaigns and the establishment of numerous climate variables have been the backbone of this research framework. One of the Essential Climate Variables (ECV) called albedo was reported to be insufficiently recorded and documented in terms of its spatial scale and temporal resolution. Thus, the intensity of this variable towards the simulation of climate change effects needs to be quantified. This research aims to investigate and examine albedo pattern changes as a physical parameter to urban climate change effects generated through remote sensing and discover the functional relation with respect to the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. Therefore, the objectives are, to characterise the albedo pattern changes and their relationship with other biophysical, land cover and air quality parameters and their effects upon urban surface temperature; to explore and formulate a model and factorise the albedo of urban features based on selected variables (continuous air quality monitoring station (CAQMs) data and remote sensing biophysical parameters); to modify localised albedo for weather research forecasting (WRF) the Advance Research WRF (WRF-ARW) configuration; and to synthesize the impacts of localised land surface albedo towards urban heat island phenomenon. This research adopted a hybrid scientific approach combining inductive and deductive logic methodologies

Identifying Risky Space in Neighbourhood: an Analysis of The Criminogenic Spatio-temporal and Visibility on Layout Design

The distribution of crime is not uniform across either time or space and believed influenced by environmental design. This study examines the layout and identifies the risky space in a residential area of Kuala Lumpur. Four space syntax parameters and three years of burglary data analysed across two neighbourhoods. The correlation between the burglary rate and the parameter value carried out to identify the relationship. Results show a significant relationship between visibility parameter and burglary rate while there were similarities temporal patterns for both study areas. Results help planners and authorities to prevent crime through environmental design.Keywords: residential burglary; space syntax; natural surveillance; crime pattern  eISSN: 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.v4i12.190

Geospatial Technology in Sustainable Cities and Communities: Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue aims to demonstrate how we could leverage geospatial technology for sustainable cities and communities. Contributions on a wide range of geospatial technologies (e.g., GIS, remote sensing, spatial statistics, photogrammetry, and geomatics) as well as issues addressing better cities and communities for a sustainable future are encouraged. This issue contains selected papers from the 7th International Conference on Geomatics and Geospatial Technology (GGT) 2021, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 24th March 2021. The five articles selected for this special issue demonstrate how geospatial technology can be used to create more sustainable cities and communities. The diverse applications of geospatial technology were demonstrated in each manuscript, sending a clear message that geospatial technology goes beyond visualization and incorporates intelligence and analysis to provide you with geospatial solutions

The impacts of socio-economic indicator on urban growth in Selangor, Malaysia

All cities in the world including Malaysia are experiencing rapid urbanization which has given significant impact on the variability of socio-economy. The present study is conducted to investigate the expansion of urban growth in the state of Selangor by selecting appropriate socio-economic indicators used in urban growth studies. The study partly aims to describe a set of socio-indicators that most directly contribute to urban growth analysis. The objectives of the research are (i) to test the availability of dataset of each socio-economic indicators, (ii) examine the changes of each indicator in a decade, and (iii) propose new criteria for the selection of socio-economic indicators. Findings are derived from the secondary data from a local government agency and available digital datasets. The result advocates the use of criteria to validate the indicators to be used in future studies

Land covers and climate impacts on land surface temperature in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

This study investigates the influence of surface heterogeneity on land surface temperature (LST). The land cover changes evaluation and historical climate data comparison were used in this study. Land cover, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalised Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and LST maps are produced to quantify the impacts of urbanization towards the surface thermal behaviour. Urbanization was set in the year 1999 to 2006. While urbanization continued in 2009, the surface temperature was lower than in 2006. The sea level was notably high during 2006, suggesting the loss of ice extent and evident to the climate change effects. Therefore, the fluctuation of temperature from 1999 to 2009 was manifestly influenced by green space and climatic response and was not solely caused by urbanization

Land covers and climate impacts on land surface temperature in Putrajaya, Malaysia / Siti Aekbal Salleh … [et al.]

This study investigates the influence of surface heterogeneity to the land surface temperature (LST). The land cover changes evaluation and historical climate data comparison were used in this study. Land cover, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalised Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and LST maps are produced to quantify the impacts of urbanization towards the surface thermal behaviour. The urbanization was set on years 1999 to 2006. While urbanization continued in 2009, the surface temperature was lower than that of 2006. The sea level was notably high during 2006, suggesting the lost of ice extent and evident to the climate change effects. Therefore, the fluctuation of temperature in 1999 to 2009 manifestly influenced by green space and climatic response and not solely caused by urbanization

Kuala Lumpur city of tomorrow: integration of geospatial urban climatic information in city planning.

Urbanization brings many benefits. However, due to rapid and uncontrollable urbanization, the urban environment has been dramatically degraded. As a developing country, Malaysia is facing urbanization processes throughout the country and most of the population have migrated to dwell in the cities. Malaysia has envisions designing smart, liveable and comfortable cities, there is a great need to maintain the sustainability of the cities to ensure that the quality of life of urban dwellers is preserved, especially in terms of the environment. This paper reviews the concept of urban climatic mapping and its potential implementation in a Malaysian urban environment. The key elements and parameters of the urban climatic mapping are also discussed. Since being introduced 40 years ago, urban climatic maps have attracted worldwide interest. It is time for Malaysia to have its own urban climatic maps to assist the decision makers to make an informed decision on the development and its impacts to the urban climate conditions in particular.. It is the responsibility of mapmakers to share lessons and experiences with city planners and policy-makers to bring new planning environments that include climate as one of the important aspects to be considered

Functional relation of land surface albedo with climatological variables: a review on remote sensing techniques and recent research developments

Surface albedo has been documented as one of the Essential Climate Variables (ECV) of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) that governs the Earth's Radiation Budget. The availability of surface albedo data is necessary for a comprehensive environmental modelling study. Thus, both temporal and spatial scale issues need to be rectified. This study reports about the availability of surface albedo data through in-situ and remote sensing satellite observations. In this paper, we reviewed the existing models for surface albedo derivation and various initiatives taken by related environmental agencies in order to understand the issues of climate with respect to surface albedo. This investigation evaluated the major activities on albedo-related research specifically for the retrieval methods used to derive the albedo values. Two main existing albedo measurement methods are derived through in-situ measurement and remotely sensed observations. In-situ measurement supported with number of instruments and techniques such aspyrheliometers, pyranometers and Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and remotely sensed observations using angularly integrated Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) by both geostationary and polar orbit satellites. The investigation results reveals that the temporal and spatial scaling is the major issues when the albedo values are needed for microclimatic study, i.e. high-resolution time-series analyses and at heterogeneity and impervious surface. Thus, an improved technique of albedo retrieval at better spatial and temporal scale is required to fulfil the need for such kind of studies. Amongst many others, there are two downscaling methods that have been identified to be used in resolving the spatial scaling biased issues: Smoothing Filter-based Intensity Modulation (SFIM) and Pixel Block Intensity Modulation (PBIM). The temporal issues can be resolved using the multiple regression techniques of land surface temperature, selected air quality parameters, aerosol and daily skylight

An exploratory study on wind speed profiling of high-rise building/monument using EnviMET.

Envi-MET is a useful tool for simulating wind speed at building heights and modelling microclimatic conditions around buildings, including wind speed around buildings and other structures. Envi-MET is used in this study to simulate wind speed toward building heights. When R2 = 0.8186, relative bias is -0.0775, and RMSE is 0.2578, the agreement between Envi-MET simulation and ground observation indicates acceptable agreement. With this establishment, it was discovered that the building's height and wind speed are not the only factors causing destruction; the less friction of wind with surface features will also increase the wind speed, as shown by the results of the vertical profile wind speed in relation to the tollway building's height. At a height of 13 metres, the wind speed is 3.5 m/s. Wind circulation affects the building at this elevation, causing damage to the roof and ceiling. Buildings and structures can sustain significant damage as a result of high wind speeds. When wind speeds are high, the wind's force increases, causing pressure differences on different sides of a building or structure. The findings of this study inform relevant parties of the impact of wind on building construction and how it may influence variations in wind speed

The Climatology Effects on Outdoor Recreation Perception and Activity in Shah Alam

AbstractThe involvement in outdoor recreation is believed depending on the climate condition. This study discovers whether the climatology factors; temperature, humidity, sunshine, rainfall and wind affecting the perception of recreationist to be involved in outdoor activity in Shah Alam particularly. These microclimatic observations outlined the consequence of recreational activity and perception of user with regards to the pattern and trend of outdoor recreational activities. The result suggested that the climate condition affecting their perception towards outdoor recreation activities involvement and the technical assessment showed contradictory