Stakeholder Participation In The Implementation Of Local Agenda 21 In Malaysia

Central to this study is the subject of community participation and local governance in Malaysia. It is acknowledged that the community and local authority play an important role in the local decision making process. Stakeholder participation has become an important part of the decision making process. It can empower and significantly influence the decision making process as well as the project design. How effective has participation been historically? Does it actually influence the decision making process in Local Agenda 21 (LA21)? It has been noted that participation practices have increased over the last three decades and is now practised in the planning and development process. However, the constant debates over stakeholder participation and citizen control have not resulted in the ability to identify its real issues and problems. Planning and participation of stakeholder at local level is the process of incorporating into the plan consideration of stakeholder needs, preferences and values attributable to each proposal before the decision making body. The determination of effective planning and decision in LA21 takes into account diverse perspectives and impact allowing the decision makers the opportunity to find solutions and empower stakeholder and local citizen in the LA21 process. This thesis examines the roles of the stakeholders i.e. community residents, local authority staffs and community organizations in LA21 process in Malaysia. The objectives of this research are to identify the level of participation of local authorities in LA21 and to investigate factors influencing the participation of the local authorities in LA21 in Malaysia. Furthermore, the research examines the way in which the participatory principles of LA21 are being carried out in Malaysia, using Petaling Jaya as a case study. The research uses a model of public participation to analyse the Petaling Jaya case study showing the level of participation among community in the LA21 process. The research uses several methods to collect the data which includes self administered questionnaire, interviews and participated observation. The investigation includes an examination of the problems faced by the stakeholder in the participation process of LA21 and the reasons for the low level of adoption of LA21 by local authorities in Malaysia. However, as this research will illustrate through survey and case study analysis, there are several factors and limitations contributing to the success of stakeholder participation in Local agenda 21 process. By highlighting these factors and limitations, the researcher’s goal is to mobilize research and policy efforts to overcome those limitations and to foster widespread stakeholder participation in the implementation of LA21 among local authorities in Malaysia.The results show that there is low level of participation among local authorities in LA21 in Malaysia. In the case study of Petaling Jaya, the level of participation among community is also low ranging from ‘non-participation’ to ‘tokenism’ level and not at the ‘partnership’ level as it should be in a LA21 process. In the case study it was found that the local authority try to emphasise a listening and open approach to decisionmaking process, but despite their commitment to participation, there has been limited success in securing widespread involvement and trust of people into the process. Key issues to emerge are the importance of the commitment of key individual and politicians, the readiness of the authorities to the outcomes of the participatory methods (responsive, transparent and consensus decision) and the need for participation to be an ongoing commitment by the authorities themselves rather than just one off exercise. The implications are that change is needed in the way local authorities relate to the communities they serve, but this will place considerable demand on already stretched local authority resource, particularly where positive action is needed to build capacity

Housing affordability in Malaysia : An overview at districts level.

The government is highly concerned with the issue of housing affordability. Affordable housing is important as housing is a pressing necessity, especially for B40 income households in Malaysia. Studies have shown that Malaysia is presently struggling with the issue of housing affordability whereby its median multiple for housing affordability in the year 2014 was 5.1. In some states such as Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu and Selangor, soaring house prices have made it almost impossible for the low income and even the middle-income group to buy a home. This study compares household income against housing prices in each district within states in Malaysia. The data were collected from primary sources in the form of focus group discussions, roundtable discussion and interviews with the main stakeholders in Malaysia coupled with secondary data and content analysis to identify housing affordability in Malaysia. Due to data limitation, this study adopted the median multiple approach in determining housing affordability for all districts in Malaysia. Data on annual income was sourced from the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s Household Income Survey for the years 2012, 2014 and 2016 from which the Housing Affordability Index was generated. Based on the Index, housing affordability fluctuates with certain states such as Melaka which have most of their district at affordable level. The increase in the median multiple of the districts can be attributed to the increase in house prices which was disproportionate to the increase in the income of the population. The findings of this study can be used to aid the state government in their endeavours to provide quality affordable housing policies and programmes for all

Local agenda 21 : action plan for sustainable development : case study for Shah Alam

Sustainable development, which has been defined as a means to meet the needs of the present without compromising on the ability of future generations to meet their needs, is not a new term these days. One of the initiatives that have been taken by the government of Malaysia in realizing the idea of sustainable development is through the implementation of Local Agenda 21 (LA21). LA21 is a global action plan or blueprint for sustainable development at local level, which was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. LA21 is a reflection of a common consensus and political commitment of countries globally on sustaining development and environment cooperation. As such, this paper explains the role of LA21 as one of the efforts by the Malaysian government in achieving sustainable development. The objective of this paper is to describe the implementation of LA21 programs and activities carried out and planned by the local authority, community and private sector towards achieving sustainable development. A descriptive analysis was used to describe the Shah Alam’s LA21 projects in promoting sustainable development. The outcomes illustrated the significance of LA21 projects in facilitating Malaysia to achieve sustainable development

A theoretical framework of sustainability in air transportation planning and future prospects of airport infrastructure upgrading : a case study of Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2)

Air transportation has become the fastest growing mode of transportation in adapting with the transportation facilities and services provided. The developments of air transportation have surrounded with the introduction of much larger transport aircraft and rising airport infrastructure upgrading nowadays. Due to the increasing importance of enlargements in airport facility, this has become a concern for policy makers and academics. Although the time value and greatest cost efficiency are obtained from the airport facilities, there are negative externalities produced by airport developments. Due to the increasing importance of enlargements in airport capacity, it should also regard as the management of the environmental impact on surrounding areas. Literature has found that airport operations may produce various regulated pollutants, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM) (Luther, 2007).This paper aims at identifying the sustainability in air transportation planning and future prospects of airport infrastructure upgrading; using the KLIA 2 as a case study. At most airports, the major environmental concerns embrace local air quality, noise, sustainability and recycling along with habitat and wildlife management. Issues relating to the sustainability of specific industrial sectors such as aviation are relatively under researched. Procedures and technologies for environmental protection, environmental efficiency and impact mitigation receive a considerable degree of attention from industry, government and academia alike has to be increased. Even though the airport expansion is very important to cater the demand, however, there are some policies and strategies that need to be considered to balance the need and the future. Conventionally, the planning of airport infrastructure upgrading has only focused on elements surrounded by the airport; such as supply and demand forecasts and other aeronautical and engineering. But the recent airport framework presents new situations that cannot be solved by traditional methods since new and external variables are intrinsic to the decision-making process (Graham and Guyer, 1999).The study will focus on the environmental impacts of the KLIA 2 constructions which are ongoing. However, this paper highlight the literature background on impact of airport expansion on air pollution and noise issues to the environment as well as to the community

Level of services (Los) for public bus and passengers aspiration in Kerian district, Malaysia

Public transportation facilitates the mobility of activities and goods from all sustainable development key dimensions. Over the past decades, more trips of public transportation move people towards a more sustainable future, by reducing congestion on the roads and increasing the efficiency of the road system. The research aims at analysing the passenger’s aspiration and perspective of sustainable public transport measure and evaluating Malaysian rural bus services, using the case study of Kerian District in the state of Perak. On-board intercept passenger survey and adoption of Geographical Information System (GIS) / Global Positioning System (GPS) were used to collect the primary data. The research suggested that whilst the services levels are less than those aspired by the passengers, there are many improvement areas to be prioritised in the near future. Keywords: Sustainable transportation; sustainable transport indicator; transport planning; sustainable transportation dimension; passenger’s aspiration. eISSN 2398-4279 © 2018. 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

An infrastructure master plan for developing Pulau Pangkor as a new eco-tourist destination

The vision of Perak Amanjaya Development Plan is to enhance the socio-economic status of Perak people corresponding to the Federal Government’s development philosophy. In order to achieve this vision, Institut Darul Ridzuan is committed in playing the roles whereby IDR assists the Perak State Government in formulating development policies and initiating innovative strategies and programs with the aim of driving peace, stability and progress by focusing on the delivery of “3Qs” – Quality Opportunity, Quality Income and Quality Living. Therefore, collaboration with local and International research communities, helped IDR to gain insights into the theoretical and practical problems concerning the development in Perak State. One of the projects is to study the infrastructure and public utilities in Pulau Pangkor as vibrant tourism destination. To achieve the goal, the research is conducted regarding the infrastructure master plan for developing Pulau Pangkor as a new eco-tourism tourist destination

The amelioration of thermal comfort inside traditional housing in Menaa City-Algeria

The traditional housing in Algeria are designed to adapt to the surrounding condition and desert climate. The internal housing layout and thermal comfort plays a significant role in the Algerian traditional housing design and standards. The historical, cultural, religion and climate of Algeria have significant influence on the design of its houses. This study of houses in the City of Menaa in Batna, Algeria, explained the traditional design of houses of the people of Amazigh, particularly Chaoui in the building of homes and shelters. Today, the condition of traditional houses in Menaa Batna, is far from satisfactory because the city has suffered lack of economic investment by the central government which resulted in significant deterioration of its traditional housing condition that lead to discomfort in term of thermal especially during winter. This research aims to analysis the current condition of these traditional houses and to propose improvement in term of thermal comfort to the occupier of these houses. The study used mixed methods namely literature review where the researcher used comparative approach from international case study; and descriptive analyses based on the questionnaire and observations. The results of the analyses enabled the researcher to recommend improvement to the condition of the houses using integrated solutions and techniques. These recommendations were designed to achieve a modern and environmentally acceptable thermal comfort in winter season for the houses, without losing the traditional architectural features of these old houses

Towards sustainable regional economic development : the case study of Iskandar Malaysia

Regional development is one of the main key players in accelerating the rapid changes and process in Malaysia. Since after the independence, the implementation of the regional development policies and strategies has sped up the urbanization and development including the rapid changes in economic growth. Development of regions emerged due to various reasons including the integration of geography and physical features, the need for cooperation beyond local jurisdiction and also due to the needs of local and national development. In Malaysia, there are diverse development concepts of regions implemented to accelerate the economic growth of the country. There are five economic regions namely Iskandar Development Region (IDR), North Corridor Economic Region (NCER), East Corridor Economic Region (ECER) Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) and the most recent The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE). There is also the growth triangle region that is based upon international integration of economic development such as the Northern ASEAN Triangle (IMT-GT), the East ASEAN Growth Triangle (BIMP-EAGA) and the Southern Growth Triangle (IMS-GT). Review of literatures identified sustainable regional economic developments are related with the balancing between development and natural ecosystem. Reviews also suggested that sustainable regional economic development were affected by the well-being of its residents. The sustainable development process is a virtuous circle that involves every aspect of living in the region. This paper presented a review on the approach towards promoting sustainable regional development in Malaysia. The review will also discuss on issues related to sustainable regional development implemented in other countries. Thus, measures and strategies are propose to provide a critical insight for planners, professionals and policy makers in the promoting sustainable regional economic in Malaysia

The impact of personality and lifestyle on interaction with nature

Awareness on the complex interdepending systems between individuals and their contexts is a fundamental understanding of sustainable well-being. Collectivist beliefs and biospheric values translate the normative behaviours when environmental decisions are being made. Issue: Existing research has limited empirical evidence on the impact of personality and lifestyle (PL) on interaction with nature (IN) for Malaysia. Purpose: This paper aims to verify the statistical predictability of IN based on PL. Approach: Multiple Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression were carried out to assess linear associations and parameters of linear equations to predict IN components based on PL items. Findings: IN components were predictable by the majority of the PL items and ‘feeling affected by the environmental loss of other countries’ was the strongest predictor of IN