Children’s Participation in Urban Heat Island Mitigation Strategies in Malaysia: A report of workshops for promoting green spaces in residential neighborhood

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Introduction  

The goal of this study is to develop a participatory workshop method for use with children to help mitigate urban heat island in developing countries. It has been widely reported that green areas play a significant role to create cool spots in cities and divide urban heat island (UHI). Thus, this study attempts to find out the means to promote green spaces in urban areas through a participatory  approach.  Since children  account for a large portion of the population in most of  the developing countries,  this study focuses especially on the  children’s  participation.  Three workshops were conducted with about 50 elementary school children (fourth and fifth year) in one of the typical neighborhoods in  the city of Johor Bahru, Malaysia. This paper summarizes  the results of these  workshops for discussing  the possibility of the program  as a participatory approach for mitigating UHI.

For complete report; kindly check attachments below:

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN CITIES AND TOWNS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES: QUEST FOR RESEARCH

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Ismail Said¹ and Mazlina Mansor²
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia¹ and International Islamic University Malaysia²

¹ Corresponding author:

Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Phone: 075530714; 0127907273
Email: b-ismail@utm.my

This paper was presented at Second International Seminar on Sustainable Development on 21st July 2011 at Trisakti University, Jakarta.

ABSTRACT

The cities in Southeast Asia are rapidly urbanised. Urbanisation in the region causes urban residents to live in a city with less balanced ecological system. Green infrastructure is known to be a vital indicator for urban environmental sustainability. The green infrastructure is all landscape types comprise of greenery and open spaces. Its network ofpark, playing field, pocket and incidental green space and neighbourhood space that is linked by tree-lined streets and waterways around and between urban areas provides green lung for cities, hence promotes healthy society through spaces for recreational, social and leisure activities. These are the places where urban residents have access and contact with nature, and interactions with other individuals. This paper explores the roles of green infrastructure in the Southeast Asian cities and towns, and its implications to urban residents’ well-being. The green infrastructure acts as an important countermeasure to alleviate negative effects of urbanisation to residents and urban ecological system. A multidisciplinary literature review on urban open space, greenery and urban natural ecosystem was conducted to assess the body of research that highlights green infrastructure in Southeast Asia cities which include Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Bangkok. The major themes derived from the findings were categorised into three: (i) quantity of existing green infrastructure, (ii) studies on green infrastructure contributions to well-being of urban residents, and (iii) significant attribute parameters that emerged from the studies. The review has found that even though the concept of green infrastructure may be new for many countries in the region, the areas of research have gained recognition in the urban public health dimension. In other words, the governments of the region must consider urban residents’ health derived from green infrastructure to be of important resources for future urban sustainability. There are also challenges especially on green infrastructure’s implementation that need to be addressed in city planning and urban design. The findings implicates that accumulation of research can promote public health of Southeast Asian cities that ultimately lead to environmental sustainability. 

 

Keywords: Green infrastructure; Southeast Asian region; urban residents’ well-being

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Dr.Ismail Said

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Dr.Ismail Said

Ismail Said (PhD) is an associate professor and departmental head of Department of Landscape Architecture at Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He has been teaching at the university since 1985.  He also has taught landscape architecture at King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia in 1991 to 1993 and did his sabbatical at School of Environmental Design, National University Singapore in 2002. His major research areas are children’s environment and vernacular architecture. He has published 130 papers in journals and conference proceedings and 5 books on materials of landscape architecture and architecture. Currently, he is supervising 12 PhD students studying a variety of topics including the impact of green infrastructure on urban residents’ wellbeing, place attachment on open spaces, walkable city environment, typology of landscape spaces in hospital setting, and children’s play plot ratio in residential setting.

LA VILLE ALGERIENNE, 50 ANS APRES Bilan & visions d’avenir

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L’année 2012 coïncide avec le 50ème anniversaire d’indépendance de l’Algérie. Ce rendez-vous important constitue pour le laboratoire VUDD l’occasion idéale pour programmer un colloque ayant pour objet d’établir un bilan des politiques urbaines successives, depuis l’indépendance a nos jours, et de s’interroger sur l’avenir de nos villes. Les villes algériennes, a l’instar des autres villes des pays de la Méditerranée, notamment celles de sa rive Sud et Est, connaissent des mutations rapides de leurs contextes politique, économique, démographique, sociétal et spatial. Ces mutations s’opèrent pour une grande part dans les villes où l’essentiel de la richesse économique est produit et où vit une population de plus en plus importante.

Sectional Analysis of Pendentive Dome Mosques During Ottoman Era

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Ahmad Sanusi Hassan, Mehrdad Mazloomi, Spahic Omer

Abstract

This study analyses types of pendentive dome mosques based on their variations from sectional view of documented drawings. The scope of this study is limited to the mosques constructed in Ottoman period which refers to the pendentive dome mosque architecture. The methodology applies descriptive analysis to classify its variation. This analysis takes into account that the main dome plays important role in classifying the variation. There are 51 mosques selected for the case studies. The study found that five types of the pendentive dome mosques can be identified accordingly. The number, position and organization of the dome design become the determining factors that influence the categories. The analysis also finds that all main domes share similar position located at the center of the prayer hall. The number of main domes comprises two and three units in the third category and it has more than three units in fourth category whereas the number of main dome is not more than one unit in other categories. The dome with higher rank of category show higher quality in terms of aesthetical value leading to visual feeling of domination in section view. In overall, the rank of the mosque’s category besides corresponds to the level of its dome organization. The mosques in the higher ranked categories have more elaborated dome organization. This fits well with the logic of the hierarchy of importance to the corresponding category. Keyword: pendentive dome; section; mosque; Ottoman era;

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Housing Lessons from the Life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh): The Form of the House

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{jcomments on}Assoc. Prof. Dr. Spahic Omer
Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design
International Islamic University Malaysia
E-mail: spahico@yahoo.com

While building and observing others do the same, and while using houses, the Prophet (pbuh) taught his followers that in the realm of housing the function of the house is paramount. It is more important than the sheer form. It is more important how a house functions than how it looks like. It is more important that a house functions as a lively and dynamic family development center, regardless of how it looks like, than that its exaggerated and embellished form leaves a nice impression on neighbors or passers-by, but leaves in terms of its expected function much to be desired. The sophistication of the function in a house easily makes up for the simplicity of the form rendering it as marginal, whereas the sophistication of the form cannot mask or compensate for the flaws and defects of the function. It may even cause such flaws and defects to be more conspicuous and wanting. The Prophet (pbuh) alluded to the importance of the function and the overall life and soul of the house as a leading criterion in determining whether a house is good or otherwise, when he said: “The best Muslim house is the one where an orphan is treated kindly, and the worst Muslim house is the one where an orphan is treated harshly.”[1]  

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An Alliance of Knowledge and Power

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{jcomments on}Assoc. Prof. Dr. Spahic Omer
Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design
International Islamic University Malaysia
E-mail: spahico@yahoo.com

It is an undeniable truth that a proper education is a key to the Islamization and revival of Islamic culture and civilization. A comprehensive educational vision and plan, coupled with concrete policies and laws and their avid and wise enforcements, account for the most powerful force that can lead to making the idea of a contemporary Islamic civilization a reality. A clever synthesis of knowledge and authority is the best way for taking the idea of a modern-day Islamic civilization from the world of abstract ideas to the real world of corporeal challenges and realities.

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