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

Written by Administrator | 25 September 2011

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.

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Children’s Participation in Urban Heat Island Mitigation Strategies in Malaysia:

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

Written by Administrator | 25 September 2011

¹ Corresponding author:

This paper was presented at Second International Seminar on Sustainable Development on 21^st 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