Mohd. Zulkifli Mohd. Yunus

A 3-tier tsunami vulnerability assessment technique for the north-west coast of Peninsular Malaysia

The 2004 tsunami that struck the Sumatra coast gave a warning sign to Malaysia that it is no longer regarded as safe from a future tsunami attack. Since the event, the Malaysian Government has formulated its plan of action by developing an integrated tsunami vulnerability assessment technique to determine the vulnerability levels of each sector along the 520-km-long coastline of the north-west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The scope of assessment is focused on the vulnerability of the physical characteristics of the coastal area, and the vulnerability of the built environment in the area that includes building structures and infrastructures. The assessment was conducted in three distinct stages which stretched across from a macro-scale assessment to several local-scale and finally a micro-scale assessment. On a macro-scale assessment, Tsunami Impact Classification Maps were constructed based on the results of the tsunami propagation modelling of the various tsunami source scenarios. At this stage, highly impacted areas were selected for an assessment of the local hazards in the form of local flood maps based on the inundation modelling output. Tsunami heights and flood depths obtained from these maps were then used to produce the Tsunami Physical Vulnerability Index (PVI) maps. These maps recognize sectors within the selected areas that are highly vulnerable to a maximum tsunami run-up and flood event. The final stage is the development of the Structural Vulnerability Index (SVI) maps, which may qualitatively and quantitatively capture the physical and economic resources that are in the tsunami inundation zone during the worst-case scenario event. The results of the assessment in the form of GIS-based Tsunami-prone Vulnerability Index (PVI and SVI) maps are able to differentiate between the various levels of vulnerability, based on the tsunami height and inundation, the various levels of impact severity towards existing building structures, property and land use, and also indicate the resources and human settlements within the study area. Most importantly, the maps could help planners to establish a zoning scheme for potential coastline development based on its sensitivity to tsunami. As a result, some recommendations on evacuation routes and tsunami shelters in the potentially affected areas were also proposed to the Government as a tool for relief agencies to plan for safe evacuation.

Managing road maintenance using geographic information system application

The development and economic growth of a nation is closely related to its available transportation system. Good and efficient road transport infrastructure facilities will promote industrial and socio-economic development. To provide safety and comfort to road users, a comprehensive road maintenance schedule must be formulated and adopted to ensure those roads are in good condition at all times. Preventive maintenance works, such as road rehabilitation will help to reduce the major road repairs and expenditure. Prior to this, a good database, gathered through GIS will be necessary in order to ensure maintenance is done effectively. Geographic Information System (GIS) is said to be one of the useful tools that can be utilized to manage database in road maintenance engineering. This system is capable of storing, managing, analyzing, computing and displaying all forms of geographical data for road maintenance works. In this study, the author has adopted GIS application software – ArcView, and has reviewed and analyzed its effectiveness in managing road database. These data are then used to assist the management to ensure effective and systematic road maintenance. A typical model of roads in Penang, Malaysia is used as a case study to further clarify the application of GIS in road maintenance.

Estimation of Air Pollution Cost for Optimization of Highway Alignment

The current air pollution increase prompts scientists to look for new candidates for highway alignment that would eventually result in reduced vehicle fuel consumption. In the current study, an empirical and computational method has been proposed which needs to be implemented simultaneously with the alignment optimization process so that different alignment candidates could be assessed in terms of fuel consumption of vehicles. The results obtained from the final equation indicate the total cost of CO2 clean-up required for each vehicle in each highway candidate and these costs could be compared to each other to determine the best candidate of highway.

Integrating and Utilizing AHP and GIS for Landfill Site Selection

Landfill site selection is a complex task that needs to be done by decision maker. There are many criteria that need to be considered before choosing the landfill. This includes economic, social, geological and environmental criteria. AHP is a technique for analyzing and supporting decisions in which multiple and competing objectives are involved and multiple alternatives are available. By using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), the process of landfill site selection had become easier. In this method, the problem need to be divided into hierarchy before the pair wise comparison and made it prioritize accordingly. Then, the judgment will be synthesized and finally, the evaluation and consistency of judgment were checked. As a result, lists of criterion were arranged according to its priority, which is more dominant to economic aspect and less dominant to social aspect. This is on account of social matters can be solved alternatively by different systems. This landfill site selection process involved lots of spatial data and strenuous in handling it. Thus, by using GIS, it can give significant helps to solve this issue because of its potential in handling large volume of spatial data that needs to be evaluates and processed. This particular research used Johor Bahru, Johor for case study area.

A review on bridge dynamic displacement monitoring using global positioning system and accelerometer

This paper reviews previous research on bridge dynamic displacement monitoring using Global Positioning System (GPS) and an accelerometer for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of bridge. These include the review of the advantages and disadvantages of the measurement as well as the methodology of the measurements used in the recent research study. This review could provide a preliminary decision overview for students or researchers before initiating a research related to the bridge dynamic displacement monitoring.This paper reviews previous research on bridge dynamic displacement monitoring using Global Positioning System (GPS) and an accelerometer for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of bridge. These include the review of the advantages and disadvantages of the measurement as well as the methodology of the measurements used in the recent research study. This review could provide a preliminary decision overview for students or researchers before initiating a research related to the bridge dynamic displacement monitoring.

Mangrove vulnerability index using GIS

Climate change, particularly its associated sea level rise, is major threat to mangrove coastal areas, and it is essential to develop ways to reduce vulnerability through strategic management planning. Environmental vulnerability can be understood as a function of exposure to impacts and the sensitivity and adaptive capacity of ecological systems towards environmental tensors. Mangrove vulnerability ranking using up to 14 parameters found in study area, which is in Pulau Kukup and Sg Pulai, where 1 is low vulnerability and 5 is very high vulnerability. Mangrove Vulnerability Index (MVI) is divided into 3 main categories Physical Mangrove Index (PMI), Biological Mangrove Index (BMI) and Hazard Mangrove Index (HMI).

Spatial Management on Mangrove response to Sea Level Rise (SLR) in Kukup Island

Mangroves are known for their global environmental and socioeconomic value. It lives in two worlds at once which growing in the intertidal areas and estuary mouths between land and sea. Despite their importance, mangrove like other ecosystems is now being threatened by natural and human-induced processes that damage them at alarming rates, thereby diminishing the limited number of existing mangrove vegetation. If sea level is rising relative to the mangrove surface, the mangroves seaward and landward margins retreat landward where unobstructed, as mangrove species zones migrate inland in order to maintain their preferred environmental conditions, such as period, frequency and depth of inundation and salinity. The capability of storing data using GIS will reduce vulnerability coastal risk and evacuation models, raising the issues of integration, visualization, and proliferation of mapping applications, and the ease of use and intended audience of these products. Monitoring and predicting mangrove forest became easier using GIS tools.