Maheran Yaman

The Diversity of Birds and Frogs Species at Perdana Botanical Lake Garden, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Unbalance urban development would affect the ecosystem and environment of the people and living things. Declining and loss of flora and fauna species occurs because of landscapes and living habitat changes. Urban biodiversity is a part of ecological elements and ecosystems services of the urban environments. Thus, it is important to be maintained or preserved in urban planning and design. The lack numbers of study focusing on the field of urban wildlife such as birds and frogs around the globe. Thus, the aim of the study is to understand the scientific data on urban wildlife mainly focus on birds and amphibian. This study will provide significant information pertaining to urban biodiversity issues. Birds is chosen as the best example that will act as an indicator for the inland environment while frogs as the amphibian for the urban lake garden. Birds can be the best indicator for inland environment while frogs can be indicator for the aquatic environment of the urban lake garden.The study was conducted at Perdana Botanical Lake Garden in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The observation survey includes in details of the name of the species, number of species, habitat, data observation on time and dates, remarks and reference notes. The survey method on birds used the transect lines in order to observe the bird species within a measured line. The observation includes calculations and records of all the birds species, while walking along the transect route at average speed of 15 m/min within 30 m distance. The survey usually conducted either early in the morning and late evening. Meanwhile, the amphibian observation on frogs survey based on ‘Quadrant Sampling’ which is the standard quadrant being set in metre (m), in which 5×5 m and 10×10 m. The amphibian observation begin during the night time for 3 days duration started from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm. Based on the observation at Botanical Perdana Garden, 8 species of birds has been identified. The most common is Acridotheres Tritis/Common Myna (n = 19) and the least is Geopelia Strata/Zebra Dove shows (n = 1) During the observation, a total of 6 species of frogs were found. The highest species of frogs recorded were Hylarana erythraea/Green Paddy Frog with (n =80), while Fejervarya limnocharis/Indian Rice Frog (n = 1). The result concludes that the park need to have more species of birds that share the same eating diet such as frugivorous and nectarous. The lake garden should restructured especially the pond with ecological approach to attract more types of frogs.

An Investigation Into Indoor Air Quality and Sick Building Syndrome

This study focuses on indoor air quality and its influence to the healthy of the occupiers and in this case study identified the dissatisfaction level among the respondents in the education environments. Air velocity, temperature, and relation humidity were investigated using a device and then the analysis is correlate with the satisfaction level of the respondents. Using the analysis of regression, the impact of these three items on the dissatisfaction of students, staff, and lecturer were estimated. It is known that temperature and wind speed have the greatest impact on dissatisfaction level. The study also identified the sick building syndrome among the raspondents namely among students, staffs, and lecturers which found that medium risk of sick building syndrome were found between the respondents. The study identified that the sick buildings symptoms tended to disappear after the participants leave their office, classroom and the buildings.

In Search of Contemporary Garden Typologies in Moroccan and Syrian Courtyard Gardens

The courtyard garden represents a constant feature of domestic architecture in most Muslim regions; however, it was developed in different ways as influenced by many local factors. Its organization, configuration and social role, suggest more a sociocultural need than a physical one. Therefore, it is important to base them on this ground rather than the climatic argument. The method of content analysis and library search has been adopted in this study. To conclude, to ensure the existence of courtyard gardens, it is important to think courtyards as a social space able to adapt to the changing conditions of modern life, anywhere in the world to ensure a continuous link between history and the present day.

Discourse Analysis in the Contemporary Islamic Garden Framework

Discourse analysis was primarily understood to analyze qualitative data in the nature of communication and words. It was also used to be more common in the field of language related studies more than in the field of urban planning. In the present day, it is evident that more journals on urban planning that employs method related to discourse analysis are being published. However, less research has been carried out in an interdisciplinary approach that allows for an integration of knowledge in policy-based urban planning and design-based landscape architecture. This article deals with the ways of how discourse analysis is utilized in an interdisciplinary study i.e., urban planning and landscape architecture to forge a new conceptual framework of Malaysia contemporary Islamic garden. However, there are some drawbacks linked to this approach in which alternatives are essential to be prepared beforehand.