The Relationship of Land Use Changes and Land Surface Temperature for Urban Area in Kuching, Sarawak

Land surface temperature (LST) is used as an indicator for land temperature. Previous research demonstrates a strong correlation between urban growth and land surface temperature. The rising of land temperature will lead to urban heat island if there are no preventative precautions done. Due to the area's rapid urbanisation, this study will focus on Kuching City. Matang Jaya, Tabuan Jaya, Satok, and Batu Kawa were chosen as case studies. These areas are rapidly developing, with new townships and population growth. The Landsat 7 data set was used as secondary data in this study. Spatial and thermal analysis were performed on the output using ERDAS software and ArcGIS. The analyses derived land use changes between 2005 and 2017, temperature statistics for land use types, and LST retrieval for case studies. The result indicates that the land surface temperature increased with the case studies' physical development

AN ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE SURROUNDING HYDROPOWER RESERVOIRS USING REMOTE SENSING IN SARAWAK, MALAYSIA

The existence of a complex river system in Sarawak has contributed to the abundance of its water resources. The State is drained by 22 major river basins and has a combined installed capacity of hydropower potentials of approximately 20,000 MW of sustainable energy. However, little has been documented on land use around these hydropower dams. The current study is aimed at understanding the general land usecomposition surrounding the existing and planned hydropower reservoirs in Sarawak. The land uses surrounding these dams are expected to influence the livelihood, water discharge and water quality of the dams. A total of ten sites were selected and land use surrounding these study sites identified using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System tools. Temporal assessment on land-use changes was only conducted for Batang Ai. The study found that a total of six sites have higher forest cover (> 50%) compared to built-up and agricultural lands and showed that 85% variation in built-up land is explained by reservoir area. Agricultural land has increased at the mean rate of 2.25% within 500 metres distance from Batang Ai reservoir shoreline. The findings of this study will hopefully contribute to the knowledge of hydropower reservoir planning and management

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF VEHICLE THEFT IN KUCHING, SARAWAK

Vehicle thefts are raising concern among society because it contributes to the highest rate of property crime in Malaysia. GIS is an important base system that allows locating crime hot spots. The aim of the study is to determine the hot spot of vehicle theft with statically significant from 2015-2017 in Kuching, Sarawak. The spatial data for this study obtained from Kuching District Police Headquarters which include Kuching district boundary, police station boundary, and police station sector boundary. Attribute data were obtained from the police reporting system such as addresses of incidents and types of vehicle theft includes motorcycle theft, car theft and heavy machinery, truck and lorry theft. This study using Local Indicators Spatial Autocorrelation (LISA) technique. The outcome of the study revealed the location hot spots and a cold spots of vehicle theft across police station sector boundaries. Vehicle theft in Kuching, Sarawak is spatially concentrated. Hot spot of car theft mostly detected in Sungai Maong, Tabuan Jaya and Sekama police station boundaries where there are more shopping malls, hospitals, retails and restaurants whereas motorcycle theft mostly clustered in Gita police station sector boundaries, while van/lorry/bus and heavy machine theft tend to cluster in the industrial zone, which is included sector boundaries of Bintawa, Padungan and Tabuan Jaya police station. The findings of the study have a significant impact on the policing to combat vehicle theft by sector boundaries. Local Indicator Spatial Autocorrelation can help identify the risk area of vehicle theft and it is hoped that the outcome from this study can be contributed to the crime and other fields

Applying GIS in Analysing Black Spot Areas in Penang, Malaysia

This study aims to analyze fatal accident rate involving all vehicle types in the North East District of Penang. It covers fatal accident data within the duration of three years from 2011 till 2013. The primary objective is to analyze the spatial pattern and fatal accident black spot areas using Geographic Information System (GIS) application. Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) tool is used to analyze fatal accident spatial pattern, while Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) method is utilized for fatal accident analysis. The Fatal Accident rates in 2011, 2012 and 2013 were the highest with each accounted up to 90, 88 and 91 cases. The result of ANN shows that the fatal accident pattern for 2011, 2012 and 2013 is clustered with null hypothesis rejected. The KDE analysis result shows that most fatal accident black spot areas happened at main road areas or segments

Understanding forest degradation - a review of forest structure indicators

Forest degradation has profoundly impacted the forest structure which has affected the carbon stock, biodiversity, microclimate and function of the ecosystem. This consequently reduces the forest’s capacity in providing goods and services. Forest degradation is typically a multi-stage anthropological process that develops gradually but might be accelerated by phenomena such as forest fires, storms, landslides, or floods. Hence, identification of site-specific forest degradation is crucial in the forest management system. Unlike deforestation, estimating the carbon emission from forest degradation is challenging due to the difficulty in defining the motive of degradation itself. Under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation-plus (REDD+) framework, it is important to measure the changes in forest structure. This study discusses a few related forest structure indicators in assessing forest degradation such as the canopy cover, aboveground biomass and stand structure. To understand forest degradation, it is necessary to understand the forest structure indicators which could contribute to establishing a better forest management system

Distribution and prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in fish farms in East Malaysia

Aims: Aquaculture has grown tremendously in Malaysia over the past decades. However, guaranteeing aquaculture sustainability is a big challenge in terms of maintaining continuous output with a safe environment. Furthermore, the cultured species should be free from antibiotic resistance bacterial and antibiotic residue. This study aimed to monitor the existence and prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria associated with aquaculture farms in Sarawak. Methodology and results: Samples of water, sediment and fish were collected from five aquaculture farms within Sarawak. The samples were plated on trypticase soy agar and incubated at 28 °C for 24 h. A total of 204 bacterial isolates were isolated and analysed by (GTG)5-fingerprinting to determine genetic similarity among the bacterial isolates, so that representatives could be selected from similar clonal isolates. Based on the (GTG)5 profiles, 50 representative isolates were chosen for species identification using 16S rRNA sequencing. The identified bacteria were tested against 25 antibiotics using standard disk diffusion method. The 16S rRNA analysis revealed that the isolates constitute of 14 genera of bacteria including Bacillus (38%), Exiguobacterium (16%), Enterobacter (14%), Aeromonas (6%), Acinetobacter (4%), Citrobacter (4%), Staphylococcus (4%), Achromobacter (2%), Chitinophaga (2%), Fictibacillus (2%), Plesiomonas (2%), Pseudomonas (2%), Pseudoxanthomonas (2%) and Stenotrophomonas (2%). The antibiotic resistance analysis revealed that the highest percentage of resistance was recorded against streptomycin (75.0%), followed by ampicillin (66.0%), ceftriaxone (50.0%), rifampin (43.3%), aztreonam (36.8%) and ceftazidime (31.6%). Resistance to more than two antibiotics was observed in 40.0% of isolates with an overall multiple antibiotic resistant (MAR) index ranging from 0 to 0.79. Conclusion, significant and impact of study: The variability of antibiotic resistance patterns exhibited by different bacterial species suggests a dependence on selective pressures exhibited in different geographical locations. Our results show that the occurrence of MAR bacteria in an aquaculture environment with unknown history of antibiotics usage in the aquaculture system is possible, indicating a need to continuously monitor the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the aquaculture system

The Socio-Economic Impact From Employment Of Low-Skilled Foreign Workers And International Internship Programme In Malaysia

This study was commissioned by the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis to investigate the socio-economic impact from the employment of low skilled foreign workers and international internship programme in Malaysia.It commenced on 1st June 2019 until 14th February 2020. This report contains eight Chapters. Chapter 1 outlines the background, scope and objectives of the study. The main objectives of the study are:i. to identify and verify the socioeconomic impact due to employment of low skilled foreign workers and international interns from the perspective of health, education, crime, etc.; ii. to identify the economic impact due to employment of low skilled foreign workers and international interns from the perspective of wages, employment, job creation, productivity, automation etc.; iii. to identify the international student internship programme landscape in Malaysia; and iv. to propose recommendations and plan of action to the government to overcome the issues, challenges, limitation and weaknesses of existing foreign worker employment policies and the international internship programme from the study