Dasimah Omar

Sports facilities development: A case study of Malaysia

Sports and sports facilities development have improved rapidly over the past decade in Malaysia. Further, globalisation and dramatic growth of urbanisation highlight the importance of sport and sports facilities in cities. There is also currently tremendous interest in sports and a wave of sports investment. This research aims to investigate the development of the existing sports facilities in Malaysia. It is based on quantitative research via postal questionnaire survey. The research reveals new trend of sports investment and sports facilities construction started in the mid 1990s. Image transformation through hosting event and contribute to local communities through creating sports culture have been the centre point of sports investment, which is in line with the National Sports Policy in Malaysia. The findings recommend further research to review and provide specific guidelines and principles for sports facilities in Malaysia to improve future development following the global trend.

Sustainable City Indicators in Malaysia

At the district stages, sustainability is shaped by the place and the citizen’s demand. As a result, the authorities resolve to the progress of sustainability pointers that quantify the progress of a community or a city. A large number of existing studies in the broader literature have examined the obstacles and approaches towards achieving sustainable cites. Among the discussed issues are the development of indicators that assess the level of sustainability of a city. Sustainable city indicators are the tool used to gauge the progress of a community or a city on selected themes or subjects relating to sustainability. Despite decades of research, the effectiveness of the sustainable city indicators is still debatable. There exist various types of sustainable indicators being studied and implemented nationally and internationally. This chapter focuses on sustainability indicators focusing in Malaysia. It is to analyse the notional context of indicators for sustainable city applied by the Malaysian authorities. The chapter also looks into the implementation of sustainable city indicators by the Shah Alam City Council as a case study. The gathered data are analysed using content analysis. The findings deliver an overall insight of sustainable city indicators used worldwide and the implementation of sustainable city indicators in Malaysia. This research facilitates the local authorities, professionals and urban planners in revising and improving the current use of sustainable city indicators.

HUMAN INTERACTION IN URBAN SPACES: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS IN URBAN PARK, SHAH ALAM CITY, SELANGOR

This paper aims to provide valuable insight of the various dimensions of human needs’ towards open spaces. This study employed a mixed method research design involving both quantitative and qualitative methods that were utilised to identify and evaluate the human-human interaction and human-nature interaction in the area of study. Primary data was gathered by using questionnaire survey that was administered to 861 respondents who were visitors to public parks. The finding of this study is intended to show the main domains that reflect human needs’ toward open spaces together with perceived benefits to the open space users.

Evaluating Multi-dimensional Human Needs in Open Spaces: Taman Tasik Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

The paper aims to provide valuable insight of the various dimensions of human needs’ and their perceived benefits towards open spaces. This study employed a mixed method research design involving both quantitative and qualitative methods that were utilised to identify and evaluate the human-human interaction and human-nature interaction in the area of study. Primary data was gathered by using questionnaire survey that administered to 428 respondents as visitors to a public park. The finding of this study is intended to show the main domains that reflect human needs’ toward open spaces together with perceived benefits to the open spaces users.

Reducing employee travelling time through smart commuting

Extremely congested roads will definitely delay the arrival time of each trip.This certainly impacted the journey of employees. Tardiness at the workplace has become a perturbing issue for companies where traffic jams are the most common worker excuses. A depressing consequence on daily life and productivity of the employee occurs. The issues of commuting distance between workplace and resident area become the core point of this research. This research will emphasize the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) technique to explore the distance parameter to the employment area and will focus on the accessibility pattern of low-cost housing. The research methodology consists of interview sessions and a questionnaire to residents of low-cost housing areas in Melaka Tengah District in Malaysia. The combination of these processes will show the criteria from the selected parameter for each respondent from their resident area to the employment area. This will further help in the recommendation of several options for a better commute or improvement to the existing routes and public transportations system. Thus enhancing quality of life for employees and helping to reduce stress, decrease lateness, absenteeism and improving productivity in workplace.

Empirical estimation of school siting parameter towards improving children's safety

Distance from school to home is a key determination in ensuring the safety of hildren. School siting parameters are made to make sure that a particular school is located in a safe environment. School siting parameters are made by Department of Town and Country Planning Malaysia (DTCP) and latest review was on June 2012. These school siting parameters are crucially important as they can affect the safety, school reputation, and not to mention the perception of the pupil and parents of the school. There have been many studies to review school siting parameters since these change in conjunction with this ever-changing world. In this study, the focus is the impact of school siting parameter on people with low income that live in the urban area, specifically in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. In achieving that, this study will use two methods which are on site and off site. The on site method is to give questionnaires to people and off site is to use Geographic Information System (GIS) and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS), to analyse the results obtained from the questionnaire. The output is a maps of suitable safe distance from school to house. The results of this study will be useful to people with low income as their children tend to walk to school rather than use transportation.

Urban farming: Utilisation of infrastructure or utility reserved lands

Urban farming is referred to farming or agricultural activities within an urban area, generally practiced for income-earning or food-producing purposes. It contributes to food security, food safety, better environmental quality and greenery for a nation especially the urban area. Due to the high land value in urban area, infrastructure or utility reserved lands were seen to be necessary to be identified with the suitability for farming purpose. This paper is dealing with the study on suitability of urban farming in the reserved lands from the perspective of planners, urban farmers, and officers from land offices and land owners. Besides, the related laws and statutory plans were also been studied. As a result from the study, the reserved lands were identified to be suitable for agricultural activities such as for vegetables and ornamental plants production. However, the proper planning should be carried out under the Malaysian development plan system. Recommendations were identified at the end of the study.