Land Suitability for Rice Growing In the Klang Valley Using Geographical Information System and Analytical Hierarchy Process for Urban Food Security

Klang Valley is the most rapidly growing region in terms of physical and economic development in Malaysia. It has a population of 4.07 million people, accounting for nearly 17.5 % of the total national population. Thus, a large amount of constant food supply is required to meet the population’s demand. However, the current situation is that Klang Valley is heavily dependent on external sources of food supply. In the event of emergencies such as natural or man-made disasters, Klang Valley will face a high risk of disruption in food supply. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze potential rice cultivation areas as urban food reservoir within the highly urbanized Klang Valley. By using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a land suitability analysis for rice cultivation was carried out in this study area. To construct a rice suitability model, expert evaluation on criteria such as soil series, rainfall, topography, groundwater and strategic agriculture distances were evaluated based on weightage ranking. Those weightage were obtained by using a Pairwise Comparison Method and then converted into spatial values using ArcGIS 9 weighted overlay process. Results indicated several areas within the Klang Valley having strategic potentials for rice growing. These areas are classified into three major classes - highly suitable, suitable and moderately suitable. The percentage of highly suitable area is 3504.35 ha (8.82 %), suitable areas 18793.28 ha (47.34 %) and moderately suitable areas 17403.02 ha (43.84%). The total areas suitable for rice growing is 39700.65 ha (14%) from the total size of Klang Valley

Rythm of the eyes: enhancing visual communication through eye-tracking technology

Visual is the main form of communication used by designers to convey unique and creative messages to the viewers. Whether the communication processes took place in basic forms such as in 2D sketches, paintings or through rendered 3D animated models, the ultimatum of using visual communication is to enhance the viewers experience with the tangible creative products and subsequently improve the quality of their decision-making. The platforms for visual communication within the creative environment also include advanced visualization technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, which provide real-time and real-world experience to the viewers. Nevertheless questions were raised whether the designers were fully aware of the viewers perception towards the visual information embedded in their creative products. Without these understanding, the products and their valuable information would be less meaningful to the viewers

Environmental design criteria to stimulate creative thinking a case study of polytechnic campus in Merlimau Melaka

Outdoor learning environment (OLE) is one of the important factors that can affect students’ well- being. Besides the formal classroom-based learning, research has proven that the layout of OLE and its physical setting can influence students’ attitude, mood, behaviour and their academic achievement (Samsudin, 2007). The same notion stated by Johnson (2000) that OLE can be the place or “facility” that can support the learning process. OLE is also known as refuge spaces for the students to escape from the demanding university’s life, thus it is not surprising that most of the current campus landscape planning are focusing more on achieving highest level of students’ comfort and safety. Unfortunately, even with all these studies to improve student’s well being, there is lack of understanding on how OLE can be a place that helps to stimulate students’ creative thinking. This is a major concern due to the fact that higher learning institution should also provide the students with environments that can nurture their creativity. According to Samsudin (2007), high-quality campus environment can also generate ‘self- questioning’ or new discovery and able to encourage critical discussion among the students. Therefore, this study attempt to identify significant environmental design criteria associated with higher learning institution OLE that can be used to promote and enhance students’ creative thinking particularly from the students’ perspectives. Using survey questionnaires, a total of 90 students’ respondents from Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Land Survey programs from Merlimau Polytechnic in Melaka were involved in the study. Result of this study shows that environmental condition, activities provided and landscape elements are the important factors that can shape students’ behavior and their attitudes. It was also found that OLE with fun activities and colourful landscape can also enhance the process of developing ideas and improving students’ excellence

Invasive plants in the Malaysian landscape

The increasing use of exotic plants for urban landscaping has presented a new threat to the local ecosystems when the newly introduced plant species thrive out of control—i.e., becoming invasive—in the new environment. If left unchecked, they are capable of displacing local plants; and thereby, causing a disruption to the local ecosystems. The disruptions can contribute to permanent changes to local and regional landscape characteristics, which in turn, will threaten agricultural, recreational as well as tourism potentials of a country. This paper highlights the threat and suggests methodologies for the prevention, management and eradication of these invasive plants

A nightscape preference study using eye movement analysis

The results of a nightscape preference study combining traditional survey methods and eye movement analysis are summarized. The relationship between eye movements and degree of preference for a nightscape (i.e., nighttime landscape) was analyzed. While wearing eye tracking equipment, participants (N = 23) were shown images of three landscape settings types: a spatially open setting, an enclosed setting, and a setting dominated by a path. For each landscape setting, the images were provided at four different brightness levels. Participants were also given a traditional preference survey and asked to rate each image. A significant relationship was found between participant’s eye movements and preference ratings. Results showed that people preferred brighter images of open landscapes to darker images of enclosed landscapes. These results can be explained by prospect and refuge theory. People prefer to see (prospect) dangers after dark, thus preferring brighter, more open landscape images. Participants spent more time looking at preferred images than nonpreferred images, and also spent more time looking not at light fixtures directly but at the areas surrounding them. Consistent with the affordance theory, the participants spent more time looking at objects that could be used. They also looked at images starting from the upper left and moving to the center of the images. The eye tracking study provided a detailed understanding of people’s eye movement patterns and showed great potential for use in preference studies

Emerging green spaces in North of Dhaka: suitability analysis in a dense urban settlement

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is acute of green spaces. The uncontrolled urban sprawl is encroaching the lands in the city. The Southern part of Dhaka, the oldest part, offers few large urban green spaces for cultural activity, recreation etc. But there is serious deficiency of neighbourhood and regional urban green open or public gathering space in Northern Dhaka, except the diplomatic zone. Hence, this paper aims to identify the potential lands that can be converted into urban green space by using spatial suitability analysis and GIS. Two aspects have been chosen for desired environmental quality: existing criteria and green indices. The suitability factors are as such: size, accessibility, buffer, Historic-cultural value, existing land use, density, flooding, and water body. These suitability factors are classified into four sets- high, moderate, low and no suitability. The findings assist to synthesize the appropriate land to be adapted as public open space in North of Dhaka. Ultimately, it will help to form a base for generating a greener city in the future

Emerging green spaces in North of Dhaka: suitability analysis in a dense urban settlement

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is acute of green spaces. The uncontrolled urban sprawl is encroaching the lands in the city. The Southern part of Dhaka, the oldest part, offers few large urban green spaces for cultural activity, recreation etc. But there is serious deficiency of neighbourhood and regional urban green open or public gathering space in Northern Dhaka, except the diplomatic zone. Hence, this paper aims to identify the potential lands that can be converted into urban green space by using spatial suitability analysis and GIS. Two aspects have been chosen for desired environmental quality: existing criteria and green indices. The suitability factors are as such: size, accessibility, buffer, Historic-cultural value, existing land use, density, flooding, and water body. These suitability factors are classified into four sets- high, moderate, low and no suitability. The findings assist to synthesize the appropriate land to be adapted as public open space in North of Dhaka. Ultimately, it will help to form a base for generating a greener city in the future