Noor Yasmin Zainun

Mapping Of Construction Waste Illegal Dumping Using Geographical Information System (GIS)

Illegal dumping of solid waste not only affecting the environment but also social life of communities, hence authorities should have an effective system to cater this problem. Malaysia is experiencing extensive physical developments and this has led to an increase of construction waste illegal dumping. However, due to the lack of proper data collection, the actual figure for construction waste illegal dumping in Malaysia are not available. This paper presents a mapping of construction waste illegal dumping in Kluang district, Johor using Geographic Information System (GIS) software. Information of the dumped waste such as coordinate, photos, types of material and quantity of waste were gathered manually through site observation for three months period. For quantifying the dumped waste, two methods were used which are the first method is based on shape of the waste (pyramids or squares) while the second method is based weighing approach. All information regarding the waste was assigned to the GIS for the mapping process. Results indicated a total of 12 types of construction waste which are concrete, tiles, wood, gypsum board, mixed construction waste, brick and concrete, bricks, sand, iron, glass, pavement and tiles, and concrete at 64 points locations of illegal dumping on construction waste in Kluang. These wastes were accounted to an estimated volume of 427.2636 m3. Hopefully, this established map will assist Kluang authority to improve their solid waste management system in Kluang.

A New Modified Back-Propagation Algorithm for Forecasting Malaysian Housing Demand

Over the past decade, the growth of the housing construction in Malaysia has been increase dramatically and the level of urbanization process in Malaysia is considered to be important in planning for low-cost housing needs. Unfortunately, there is a clear miss-match between the supply and the demand of low cost housing in Malaysia. Due to the problems faced, there have been several attempts in predicting housing demands using the artificial-neural networks (ANN) technique particularly back-propagation (BP). However, the training process of BP can result in slow convergence or even network paralysis and can easily get stuck at local minima. This paper presents a new approach to improve the training efficiency of BP algorithms to forecast low-cost housing demand in one of the states in Peninsular Malaysia. The proposed algorithm (BPM/AG) adaptively modifies the gradient based search direction by introducing the value of gain parameter in the activation function. The results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the learning process with more than 31% faster in term of CPU time and number of epochs as compared to the traditional approach. The proposed algorithm can forecast low-cost housing demand very well with 6.62% of MAPE value.

Headship Rate Projections for Housing Demand in Johor, Malaysia

Household formation trend is closely linked with the numbers of population. Meanwhile, the formation of households is largely influenced by the composition of the adult population that are measured by headship rate. This paper attempts to project headship rate which acts as a main predictor in determine potential housing demands. Population and Housing Census data from year 2000 and 2010 has been used in this projection headship rate for Johor state. Modified two-point exponential method was applied to determine the headship rate. All the data was categorized into five years interval for the ages between 15 to 80+ years old. Results indicate that the projected headship rates for age 15-19 and 20-24 are significantly decreased. However for the age’s groups 40-44, 50-54, 55-59 75-79 and 80+ years old, the projected headship rate increased until year 2020. This demonstrates, the decreasing ability of young people under 25 years to become homeownership as compared to people from the age groups of 40 years and above. The findings of this study could be used as a basis for the government to identify numbers of potential housing demand in Johor.

An Overview of Total Quality Management (TQM) practice in Construction Sector

In construction sector TQM can be termed as a philosophy which guides construction professionals on the proper execution of construction projects in terms of quality. The aim of this paper is to discuss on quality management practice in construction sector. This paper evaluated five previous researches and the findings were discussed to find a conclusion of TQM practise in construction sector. The study found that TQM had been successfully practice in construction sector at Saudi Arabia, India, US and South Africa. Application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) help to improve the implementation of TQM in construction sector. In conclusion, quality management practices will give better control of processes in construction sector.

General risks for tunnelling projects: An overview

Tunnels are indispensable when installing new infrastructure as well as when enhancing the quality of existing urban living due to their unique characteristics and potential applications. Over the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in the building of tunnels, world-wide. Tunnelling projects are complex endeavors, and risk assessment for tunnelling projects is likewise a complex process. Risk events are often interrelated. Occurrence of a technical risk usually carries cost and schedule consequences. Schedule risks typically impact cost escalation and project overhead. One must carefully consider the likelihood of a risk’s occurrence and its impact in the context of a specific set of project conditions and circumstances. A project’s goals, organization, and environment impacts in the context of a specific set of project conditions and circumstances. Some projects are primarily schedule driven; other projects are primarily cost or quality driven. Whether a specific risk event is perceived fundamentally as a cost risk or a schedule risk is governed by the project-specific context. Many researchers have pointed out the significance of recognition and control of the complexity, and risks of tunnelling projects. Although all general information on a project such as estimated duration, estimated cost, and stakeholders can be obtained, it is still quite difficult to accurately understand, predict and control the overall situation and development trends of the project, leading to the risks of tunnelling projects. This paper reviews all the key risks for tunnelling projects from several case studies that have been carried out by other researchers. These risks have been identified and reviewed in this paper. As a result, the current risk management plan in tunnelling projects can be enhanced by including all these reviewed risks as key information.

Proposing An Effective Route For Transporting Solid Waste Using Gis Approach

Transportation is one of the important elements in solid waste management. Effective transportation by selecting the shortest route can save time and cost in handling the waste. Thus, this paper presents a case study on deciding shortest waste transportation route from residential area to sanitary landfill in Kluang district handled by Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp). The shortest transportation distance was determined using ArcGIS software on the basis of coordinate tracking, data collection for network analysis and fuel consumption estimation. The case study focuses on municipal solid waste collection routes from residential area in Kluang district to Ladang CEP 1 sanitary landfill and Seelong sanitary landfill. The study found that SWCorp could save up to 18% and 7.3% of fuel consumption per day by following the effective routes for transporting solid waste to Ladang CEP 1 sanitary landfill and to Seelong Sanitary landfill respectively. The findings could assist SWCorp saving management cost and also keep environment cleaner.

Quantification and mapping of construction waste generation in Parit Raja

Construction waste is a material of waste or excess building materials that are not used either in the original or debris from construction, structural repair, and improvement work, house demolishing, buildings and other structures. Wastes are from excess building materials from dredged material and stumps of structural repairs, improvements and work to destroy sidewalks, homes, commercial buildings and other structures. Construction waste also refers to soil, rock and vegetation removed during land levelling works or civil engineering works and works related to road maintenance. Illegal dumping site is places other than permitted facilities to dump waste such as transfer stations and landfills. The objectives of this study are; (1) identify illegal dumping of construction waste distribution in Parit Raja; (2) quantifying the illegal dumping of construction waste generated in Parit Raja and; (3) develop Geographic Information System (GIS) map for illegal dumping construction waste distribution in Parit Raja. In this study the location of the construction waste identified using Global Positioning System (GPS) in smartphone. Then the picture and material of construction waste was taken and identified. After that the volume of construction waste were determined using the pyramidal or rectangular shape measure. For the scattered waste, the weight were taken and converted to volume. Lastly the data was plotted and mapped in the GIS system. This study successfully create a database of construction waste generation in Parit Raja. The benefit of this study is it will help the management of waste in Parit Raja.Keywords:constructionwasteillegaldumping,database,GISsystem

Relevancy of factors and mitigation measures in controlling time and cost overrun towards Malaysian Environment

Construction projects are facing time and cost overrun globally. Since, this problem occurs due to various factors, hence for achieving successful construction projects, it is very important to control the responsible factors causing time and cost overrun. This study assessed the relevancy for each mitigation measures in relation with causative factors of time and cost overrun in Malaysian construction projects. A total of 56 mitigation measures were identified and correlated with the critical factors of time and cost overrun which were categorized into four phases of project life cycle. Data collection was done by conducting structured interviews amongst the experienced practitioners of the southern regions of Peninsular Malaysia.

Development of Malaysian Primary School Children Anthropometrics Data for Designing School Furniture Parameters

This paper explains the measurement of anthropometricdimensions ofprimary school children and investigation ofrisk factors associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among primary school children. A total of 266 students within three different schools were participated in anthropometric data measurements and questionnaire survey of the MSDs prevelance complain among them. Ten anthropometric measurements (Stature, Sitting height, Sitting shoulder height, Popliteal height, Hip breadth, Elbow seat height, Buttock-popliteal length, Buttock-knee length, Thigh clearance and Weight) were used. Martin type anthropometer set, height scale and weighing scale were used as a direct measurement method for the data collection on this study. Musculoskeletal symptoms were recorded using Modified Nordic Body Map Questionnaires. In addition Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) was used to assess the awkward posture of the school children for both designs. The results of the proposed furniture shows a better RULA final score for each group of muscles which give a score ranging from only 1 to 2 (Acceptable Posture) compared to the existing furniture that need further investigation. This anthropometrics data is very useful to the furniture manufacturer in designing school furniture in order to reduce the mismatch between furniture designed and Malaysian primary school children.

Assessing Low-Cost Housing Demand in Melaka: PLS-SEM Approach

Housing is one of the basic needs of human. Population in Malaysia is increasing and expected to reach up to 35 million in year 2020. This phenomenon creates high demand for housing. To tackle the squatter problems, the government introduces low-cost housing. Low cost house is known as the government house, where the price is cheaper but still comfortable. Although there are many of low-cost housing projects have been completed to cope with the need of the citizen especially for low-income group. However, census report reveled that these is huge demand of low-cost housing. This demand might be because of various factors which are very essential to identify in order to meet the required demand of low cost houses. Hence, this study is carried out to assesse the demand of low cost housing in Melaka, determine the significant factors affecting demand of low-cost housing, and establish PLS-SEM model for assessing factors affecting low-cost housing demand. In this study, data are collected by distributing questionnaire in Melaka state. The collected data from survey was analyzed using statistical software SPSS and presented in graphs and chart. Further, factors affecting low cost housing demand in Melaka were modeled with the SmartPLS v2.0. The model shows the relationship between low cost housing demand and its indicators. The finding of the study showed that most significant indicators affecting the demand of low-cost housing in Melaka are the economic factors which include housing stock, inflation rate and Gross Domestic Products (GDP). The Goodness of Fit showed that the model has substantial explaining power for the assessing factors affecting low cost housing demand in Melaka which the values is 0.481. This means that the economic factor has a great influence on the low-cost housing demand in Melaka.