Chap.5 Built Environment of Kajang

This study is about the Built Environment in Bandar Kajang, Malaysia covering accessibility and historic building.

This sub-topics cover accessibility in the city including pedestrian accessibility , Pedestrian Accessibility, Accessibility And Spatial Neighbourhood In City Development and Traffic System And Transportation.

MILLENIUM Group reported Willis et al. (2004) highlighted the human movement behaviour in urban spaces where the authors discuss the implications design and modelling of effective pedestrian environments. Individual movements relate to the desired walking speed, microscopic position preference, and interpersonal distance between companion while walking. These variables are influenced by the various personal, situational and environmental factors that characterize the context in which pedestrians move. The age, gender, level of mobility, group size, time of the day and location were found to have significant effects on movement preferences across the range of locations studied. While the study is on able-bodied people, it would be beneficial if consideration is given to persons with disabilities.

Several studies looked at traffic congestions in cities. Alrawi and Hadi (2020) highlighted the city of Baquba’s bus rapid transit (BRT) system for reducing daily trips hence the traffic congestion in the city. In the research, the BRT system runs on two-way axis from the eastern side of the intersections of Kanaan and Mafraq to the University of Diyala with a length of nearly 20 km. The BRT can further improve traffic congestion when it can cover all over the city of Baquba. Arbi I.Ben (2019) found traffic congestion becomes very difficult to use the classical traffic management methods because of non-linearity, and time-variability in the system. To improve the performance of urban traffic signal control system efficiently, many intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have been developed inclusing review traffic light control projects and solutions based on artificial intelligence and queuing theories that are proposed. Considerations for linking up with shopping malls area, high rise buildings or commercial buildings are recommended for the design of best ingress and egress circulation at the point of multi-traffic convergence. Such intelligent transportation systems (ITS) shall consider the rate of traffic congestion for the area and the timing and causes of heavy congestions.

In summary, this study supports improving human-nature interaction and stimulate public involvement by creating engaging public spaces and physical features that lead to better social experience also can be done as studied. Accessibility, inclusive of PWD, are critical spatial characteristic where transportation and land-use must merge. Efficient performance of urban traffic signal control systems combined with intelligent transportation systems are strongly supported while longer route feeder buses are proposed to align with incoming and outgoing BRT system.

United Kajang Group reported Mariana and Yulis’s (2020) study on the redesigned pedestrian-way in Block M area as a pathway of sustainable urban mobility where the authors study to create sustainable transport planning to minimize the impact of travelling to the environment. The authors state that the promotion of public transportation mode must be accompanied by the construction of road infrastructure that focuses on pedestrian according to sustainable urban mobility principles. If necessary, Mariana and Yulis (2020) recommend adjustments to the facilities with provision of good public spaces for pedestrian safety, comfort and pleasure space for users who pass through it.

Salleh, A.H., Ahmad, M. S.S., and William, G. W.W., (2020) highlighted about the feasibility study on the walkable city through the implementation of car-free zones in Georgetown, Penang using GIS network analysis where the author studies the feasibility of car-free zones in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. Salleh et al., (2020) stated that there are three preferred areas as car-free zones. The results found that each localized traffic has a longer travelling distance. Yet, due to the roads that the traffic was diverted to allow a higher travel speed, the travel time is sometimes reduced. Overall, the increase in travel distance ranges from 12.88% to 174.92% while travel time ranges from 0.29% to 119.40%.

Ja’afar, N. H., (2018) highlighted about the influence of building condition to the walkable environment in traditional streets of Melaka Historical City where the author determines the heritage building conditions that contribute towards the walkable environment in traditional streets in Melaka Historical City, which are Jalan Tukang Besi, Jalan Tukang Emas and Jalan Tokong. Ja’afar, N. H., (2018) stated that good building condition is essential to encourage a street with the walkable environment and the finding inform designers sand planners of the importance to preserve our heritage buildings in street design and development.

Nordh, H., Vistad, O. I., Skar, M., Wold, L. C., Magnus, B., Kim, (2017) highlighted about walking as urban outdoor recreation and promoting public health to everyone where the author investigates the frequency of neighbourhood walks (both for recreation and for transport) is associated with various indicators of demographic, socio-economic position, selfreported physical activity and perceived health status. Nordh et al., (2017) found neighbourhood walking appeals to all adults regardless of the demographic or socioeconomic situation when it reveals a higher frequency of walks from home for transport than for the walk itself (recreational purpose).

Abdulrazzaq et al. (2020) highlighted about the Traffic Congestion: Shift from Private Car to Public Transportation where the authors aim to develop a modal shift model for car users to shift to Public Transport (PT) and determine the factors that affect the performance of the mode of transportation. Among the explanatory factors they studied include trip distances, a trip rate per day, trip time, gender, age, and occupation, which are important variables. The result showed that Mode Choice Model (Car vs Bus) show the travel time and distance travelled are significant factors to increase the use of public buses and reduce dependence on the car. While in Model (Car vs Train), the travel time is an important variable that effects of the switching decision between car and train. The fact that younger people are more likely to switch in both models may guide future city planning decision.

Shahid, S., & Minhans, A. (2016) highlighted about the climate change and road safety. They reviewed the influence of climatic variables on road accident to assess the possible impacts of climate change on road safety in Malaysia. The results showed that most imminent and certain impacts of climate change on road safety are due to an increase in temperature and rainfall related extremes but they are moderate changes over a long period. Any potential risk would be possible to mitigate by educating the people on possible impacts of climatic extremes on-road environment and motivating them to change their driving behaviour during extreme weather events.

In summary, this study proposes redesignation of a pedestrian-friendly environment to promote accessibility in Bandar Kajang as an incentive to celebrate walking as urban outdoor recreation and promoting public health and help reduce congestion in the city centre and improves the accessibility of each facility to the residence. Moreover, preservation and maintenance of heritage buildings in Kajang Heritage Zone would add value to the green walking zones.

HeART Group reported Guan et al., (2019) presented walkable cities from the perspective of urban planning and design in the era of digitalization and urban big data. The researchers started with historical walkable cities schemes; followed by a deliberation on what a walkable city is and what the spatial elements of a walkable city are; and a discussion on the emerging themes and empirical methods to measure the spatial and urban design features of a walkable city. They emphasize both the physical (walkways, adjacent uses, space) and the perceived aspects (safety, comfort, enjoyment), and then they look at the variety of spatial elements constituting a walkable city. The third part of this paper looks at the emerging themes for designing walkable cities and neighborhoods before discussing the application of urban big data enabled by growing computational powers and related interdisciplinary approaches which include spatial planning, urban design, urban ecology, and public health. The proposed development of Kajang can benefit from their ideas about walkable cities and spatial elements that were recommended.

A study by Liu et al. (2020) highlighted about the impact of the street-scaled built environment on pedestrian metro station access/egress route choice where the author understands the relationship between micro-scale built environment and pedestrian trips from/to metro stations is important to stimulate walking as the key egress/access mode. This study supports improving the impact of street-scaled built environment on disabled people and cyclists, instead of solely for pedestrians, besides providing covered walking facilities.

Omar et al. (2016) highlighted the walkability design for urban public housing. The authors measured the users’ perception of existing spaces in the urban public housing environment that have been covered and uncovered with the walkability linkages. Results found that if the walking design is appropriate, safe, maximize and capable of reaching every inch of the spaces, such housing environment provides good connectivity thus allowing people to walk freely and accessible in many ways. People have great chances to meet each other or having potential outdoor activities without any challenges. More studies are recommending pedestrian system for residents to access the public park to create a better living space for the youth and extend them to cover commercial facilities.

Several studies, such as Yassin (2019), Elhamy (2012), Zahari (2020), and Baris & Uslu (2009), focuses on providing safe accessibility for persons with disabilities. Yassin (2019) proposes an integration between the pedestrianization and livability with much exploration to re-attract people to the city’s core through its walkable environment and eventually the city’s sustainable urban development. Such pedestrian-friendly approach is strongly urged to include people with disabilities. Elhamy (2012) highlights the relationship between increased pedestrian safety with improved road layout in an urban environment in Corniche, Alexandria. Elhamy (2012) found new road practices is causing safety problems, particularly for pedestrians. In studying heritage conservation, Zahari (2020) highlights two findings of his research: the heritage buildings themselves became a barrier to the disabled persons, and the heritage act was not properly established to enforce said facilities to be made. For Baris & Uslu (2009), they are concerned with the accessibility for persons with disabilities specifically those who are visually impaired and walking-impaired in the built environment of Ankara, Turkey. Physical barriers challenges access to the built environment, the existing infrastructure impedes their independent individual movement, as well as slowing down their social communication which makes them feel excluded. They are very concerned on the psychological factors regarding barriers in the built environment for the disabled persons, which urban planning and design are strongly recommended to include.

heriTECH Group reported several potential solutions and technologies to help ease traffic congestions. Serok & Blumenfeld-Lieberthal, E. (2019) reveal the inter-relations between the dynamics of traffic flows and urban street networks in different areas of a city and between cities must be aligned to reduce traffic congestions. The most effective solution is provision of on-site parking, but it does not reduce incoming traffic into the city. However, provision of more infrastructure such as more carpark and basement has to be incorporated at the commercial area. Litvinov & Konovalova, T. V. (2019) suggest an integrated approach to identify causes of road accidents. While their study focuses on road accidents, it is recommended to look into creating pedestrian walkways as a new element in people’s ground movement. They propose bigger and longer walkway with roof to cover the people for connecting public facilities like schools or work.

Abdullah, M. E., & Masirin, M. I. B. M. (n.d.) described how the government uses Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) as planning tool to assess the feasibility and rationality of a development. They reported TIA is an effective method in controlling traffic congestion problems while encouraging people to share their transportation every day. Due to bad road conditions in Malaysia, this study recommends creating a new road access within the building site to avoid traffic problems surrounding it. Green, D., & Lewis, K. (2020) proposes an environment which assists road users to behave effectively and safely. It considers the role of traffic management in influencing road user behaviour, and provides guidance for practitioners specifically on road safety aspects of traffic management. In summary, recommendations for improving traffic congestions for Kajang town are called for while city planners can take advantage of improving current planning by-laws to enhance a system approach to the city’s traffic management.

This section is about the built environment in Kajang Town, Malaysia covering of historic building and conservations of heritage and edges nearby.

This section presents the attitude of designers regarding historic buildings. MILLENIUM Group reported Wang, Zhuo (2015) highlighted the values of cultural and commercial values of Chinese retail complexes designed in traditional vernacular styles. The purpose is maintaining the identity of historical values in modern China at the Fashion Island building in Yancheng City. His study pointed the importance to maintain the value of historical building into the modern architecture style. Another study by Widodo, J.(2012) respectfully describes the wisdoms of traditional building towards generating a rational architectural outcome from the local climate, material selection for building, building typology’s articulation, construction technology development, cosmopolitan urban culture, lessons, beliefs and rituals from generations generate.

The researcher explains the existence of an urban environment according to their different scale level and the way local wisdom would approach past experience in order to achieve the sustainability in environmental, cultural and economic aspects. This study proposes further studies on how to innovate new ideas to achieve sustainability by integrating modern technology and information for blending with past historical experience. In summary, maintaining the culture of a township and its historical buildings can add value to the built environment forming the city. It provides both tangible and intangible values to the physical being. It will be a sad turn if new development would cause losses of cultural heritage of traditional activities of the residents who are living in Kajang.

Several studies focus on consevations of heritage in a town furture development. The HeART Group reported a study by Wang et al., (2020) who found access to the natural environment and urban parks have given a certain degree of impact to local residents in terms of the health of the population. Using Tangxihe Park in Hefei City as case study, the researchers studied the impacts of urban parks on population health by analyzing the demographic characteristics, physical and mental health of park users, and park satisfaction. Results show that the quality of overall environment, green space and activity facilities of the park have a positive effect on improving the physical and mental health of the residents. The time of residents spending in the park have a positive effect on their physical and mental health where the longer residents spend in the park, the higher of the health benefits they received.

In a similar study, Othman and Abdul Majid (2016) highlighted the importance of revitalizing the urban river at Precinct 7 in the River of Life Project, Kuala Lumpur. There are two approaches to plan and preserve the value of an urban river while retaining its heritage value: diversifying the river's usage and retaining its heritage buildings along the river for its preservation. Yet, Othman and Abdul Majid (2016) study were limited to infrastructure solutions. They recommend to adapt nature-oriented along river urban area where the green and blue infrastructure could offer several social and cultural advantages as well as ecosystem services at lower cost and with long-term benefits. Such approaches can expect to increase the urban resilience and enhance human health and well-being in the face of climate change. Two other studies (Vileniškė, & Urbonas (2011) and Taher Tolou Del et al. (2020)) place architectural heritage as a socioeconomic opportunity for rehabilitation of historic built environment. In summary, the above studies recommend the revitalization of urban and heritage values on the environment in terms of the ecosystem generated that involves solutions for river intervention as well.

According to heriTECH Group, urban heritage conservation is important to a township. Wang & Wong (2020) have highlighted about repositioning urban heritage for active mobility based on the needs of heritage conservation and promoting walking in urban environments while van der Hoeven (2020) highlighted citizens’ perceptions of their historic urban landscapes through participatory heritage websites. van der Hoeven (2020) identified into five categories of heritage attributes that are remembered by citizens: built environment and public space; the social fabric and identity; culture and leisure; business and industry; and politics and public order.

A study by Steinberg (1996) addressed the need for urban rehabilitation and adaptive re-use based on the importance of rehabilitation and conservation of old inner-city areas and historical landmarks in developed world cities. Maintaining the typical urban tissue and key elements of both the historical areas and the lives of the communities residing are critical as well as adapting the physical structures and activities to some of the present-day requirements. The results show that historical landmarks must be treated as part of conservation areas and need to be integrated into new concepts of use in order to sustain and revitalize. Adapting the physical structures and activities to some of the present-day requirements as well as integrated into new concepts of use may extend a building’s usability.

Šćitaroci & Šćitaroci (2019) highlighted spatial, urban, and landscape contexts for the revitalization and enhancement of cultural heritage where the author explores deeper for its inclusion of contemporary life. This study follows their recommendations to use the urban and spatial planning methods, which takes into account the integrity of space and the cultural heritage can be used for place branding, infrastructure development. Studies in this section highlights recommendations to implement the urban rehabilitation and adaptive re-use approaches on existing residential urban heritage.

In view of Kajang built environment, it is not deniable that it is rich with its own heritage values worth of conservation. Enhancement of these values are proposed and recommended in the for of being linked up to engaging public spaces and green physical features. Concerns about sharing the heritage experience with disabled people and cyclists are high while recommendations to utilize high technology to solve traffic congestions have been put forth. eported several potential solutions and technologies to help ease traffic congestions. Additionally, revitalization of urban and heritage values on the environment in terms of the ecosystem generated are recommended to involve solutions for river intervention as well. The new Kajang township is expected to preserve its physical heritage while it creates new green heritage for the town.

Arlettaz, R., Lugon, A., Sierro, A., Werner, P., Kéry, M., & Oggier, P. A. (2011). River bed restoration boosts habitat mosaics and the demography of two rare non-aquatic vertebrates. Biological Conservation, 144(8), 2126–2132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2011.05.003

Baris, M. E., & Uslu, A. (2009). Accessibility for the disabled people to the built environment in Ankara, Turkey. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 4(9), 801–814.

Darieva, T. (2015). Modernising the waterfront : urban green, built environment and social life of the Baku promenade. Europa Regional, 22(1–2), 65–79.

D’Ayala, D., Wang, K., Yan, Y., Smith, H., Massam, A., Filipova, V., & Pereira, J. J. (2020). Flood Vulnerability Assessment of Urban Traditional Buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, April, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2020-96

Elhamy, M. (2012). Improvement of Road Layout and Safety in an Urban Environment: Towards a Pedestrian-Friendly Street Corniche of Alexendria as a Case Study. International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, 1(4), 335–350. https://doi.org/10.1260/2046-0430.1.4.335

Guan, C., Keith, M., & Hong, A. (2019). Designing Walkable Cities and Neighborhoods in the Era of Urban Big Data. Urban Planning International, 34(5), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.22217/upi.2019.389

Gyawali, S., Techato, K., Monprapussorn, S., & Yuangyai, C. (2013). Integrating Land Use and Water Quality for Environmental based Land Use Planning for U-tapao River Basin, Thailand. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 91, 556–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.454

Khalid, M. S. Bin, & Shafiai, S. B. (2015). Flood Disaster Management in Malaysia: An Evaluation of the Effectiveness Flood Delivery System. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 5(4), 398–402. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2015.v5.488

Kim, D., & Park, J. (2020). Assessing Social and Spatial Equity of Neighborhood Retail and Service Access in Seoul, South Korea. Sustainability, 12(20), 8537. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208537

Liu, Y., Yang, D., Timmermans, H. J. P., & de Vries, B. (2020). The impact of the street-scale built environment on pedestrian metro station access/egress route choice. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 87(August), 102491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102491

Omar, D., Omar, K. A., Othman, S., & Mohd Yusoff, Z. (2016). Walkability Design for Urban Public Housing Park. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 1(3), 311. https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v1i3.375

Othman, A. R., & Abdul Majid, N. H. (2016). Urban River and Its Heritage Value: A river of life at Precinct 7, Kuala Lumpur. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 1(1), 58. https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v1i1.272

Penića, M., Svetlana, G., & Murgul, V. (2015). Revitalization of historic buildings as an approach to preserve cultural and historical heritage. Procedia Engineering, 117(1), 883–890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.165

Roche, K., Jurajda, P., Šlapanský, L., & White, S. M. (2020). Turning back the tide? Local-scale impacts of climate change may have positive effects by restoring natural riverine habitat and reducing invasive fish density. Freshwater Biology, 65(11), 2010–2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13604

Shafii, H., Meryam, S., & Musa, S. (2010). Urban Transportation: Issue and Solution. Journal of Techno-Social, 2(2), 31–46.

Taher Tolou Del, M. S., Saleh Sedghpour, B., & Kamali Tabrizi, S. (2020). The semantic conservation of architectural heritage: the missing values. Heritage Science, 8(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-020-00416-w

Vileniškė, I. G., & Urbonas, V. (2011). Architectural Heritage as a Socioeconomic Opportunity for Revitalization of Historic Urban Centres : a Global Perspective. 5(January 2011), 27–37. https://journals.rtu.lv/index.php/AUP/article/download/aup.2011.003/22

Wang, J., Liu, X. D., & Lu, J. (2012). Urban River Pollution Control and Remediation. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 13(2011), 1856–1862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2012.01.179

Wang, Z., Zhang, C., Chen, Y., Liu, X., & Guo, J. (2020). The effects of urban park on residents’ health: an empirical study based on Tangxi River Park in Hefei. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 569, 012073. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/569/1/012073

Yassin, H. H. (2019). Livable city: An approach to pedestrianization through tactical urbanism. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 58(1), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2019.02.005

Zahari, N. F., Ani, A. I. C., & Rashid, R. A. (2020). Profiling disabled facilities and accessibility provided in national heritage buildings in Malaysia. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(5), 109–115. https://doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.05.18