What had I learned?

Whenever has a starting, it must have an ending. The same apply to this RPK 539 subject. After attending 15 consecutive weeks without failed, there are a lot of things that may change my life in the future that I had learned. The most important part is of course the sustainability issues which is not only about the protecting the environment as I had thought earlier. 

In the class I had learned that sustainability comprise 3 main aspects which is people, economic and environment. Then there are some others aspect that is exist between each of the aspect such as cultural, quality of life, built environment, energy/sources and also language. Language? Yes, based on my own readings, I found that the languages also are one of the sustainable aspects of the people that should be maintained for the future.

For example, my own Malay language is being used by about 250 million of people in the Nusantara region, mainly in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and some part of Thailand and Philippines. It is interesting to see this language to become one of the next major world language like the English, Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic. Even though the Government had initiates many actions to make the language sustain in the future, yet I still cannot understand why in some university or college the subject is taught in English. (sorry no offence here. =)). 

Will it ever happen in the future? 

Next, based on the subject taught by Dr Nurwati and the others, I had learned what are the current issues regarding sustainable framework. For example, the exploding of the urban population all over the world which no one could imagine it would threat the world resources badly. For example, in the Malaysia context; it is expected by the year 2020, about 75% of population will be live in the urban. As we all know, the urban consume what are the rural people produce. Now, what can we expect in the year 2020 if the 25% of the Malaysian population are being forced to work hardly just to feed the urban dweller? No one want imagine that. And nobody wants to become a slave for the people who think they are better than one another!

Not and never happen in Malaysia please.. =)

Rural is never destined to be consumed by the urban!

The next issue that is interested for me is the creative city as the next economic sources for Malaysia. We had discussed it earlier and I think that the creative industry in Malaysia should provide a better infrastructure and initiatives from the Government for the players in the industry. For an example video gaming. It is another creative industry aspect that can be introduced in Malaysia as the global gaming market nowadays exceeds 90 billion USD in sales per year. The gaming industry include the gaming designing which of course requires a lot of money. Generally (in my own readings), to design a game it would requires a publisher to invest around 20-30 million USD which involving the programming, designing, motion capture (just like movies) and publishing and marketing. 

The return however would be surprisingly higher based on the popularity and quality of the game. For example, the much controversy game, Grand Theft Auto V broke 1 billion USD in sales in just 3 days on the market and has broke the record as the fastest selling entertainment product in the world. In the context of Malaysia, we already have our own Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) which supervises all the multimedia related industry in Malaysia. By providing better infrastructure such as studios, lower taxes and publishing right, it is possible that many famous gaming studios in the world would set up here like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, just like in Singapore. We also have our own talents in various sources such as Lim Kok Wing University, Multimedia University and many other private college that serve as the large nucleus for the gaming industry in Malaysia. 

Game designing as the creative industry in Malaysia?

And lastly, the most important thing that I had learned is that anything we do in this world, it would be affect the life of the future generation. There is a quotes from my Geographic subject during Form 6: ‘even if u meditate alone in the cave, you will still interrupt the jungle” which in Malay as: “kalau kita bertapa dalam gua pun, kita mesti akan rosakkan tumbuhan-tumbuhan sekitar”. I still stand on this principle when it comes to planning and developing process. Like it or not, any development must have an impact to the environment; big or small. But what are most important is whether the development bring a better benefits for the people or not? If we just simply protecting the trees then, our people are starving without food then we must cut down the trees, clean the forest and make a good use of it (agriculture?). now that is what I call as the sustainability of mind. How we keep evolve our mind when it comes to new challenge, environment and times. I think that is enough for now. Thank you for spend your precious time reading my blog. =)

Me and my friends in Matang Mangrove Conservation Centre. =)

Seminar Paper: Sustainable Urban Landscapes

Sustainability in urban landscape design is become more essential and recognized in order to address the environmental issues which became much more serious nowadays. The urban landscapes are the space all around and between buildings, ranging from streets and squares to parks, gardens, urban woods, stream corridors, and many other types of green space.  Urban landscape perform many essential functions for urban dwellers such as provide shelter, cooling or shading, cleaning the air by filtering the pollutants, provide aesthetic values to occupants, spaces for social cohesion and use for various activities and also as habitat for urban wildlife.

Sustainable landscape incorporate human, nature and built environment 

The design processes will take into account several components of urban landscape that can be designed sustainably. The components are spaces, shelter, air movement, shading, drainage and many more. In terms of spaces, the design can optimize the usage of space around the buildings for accessibility          by creating an urban landscape that is pedestrian friendly and also universal design. In terms of shelter and shading, the natural shelter which is using tree as shelter will give shading and cooling effect to the environment in a sustainable way.

By using trees, the air movement in the landscape can be improved and reducing the usage of non-renewable energy for cooling the environment. In terms of drainage, by using grass and trees, the run-off water after rainfall can be reduced and absorbed properly. A well-designed landscape will attract the urban wildlife to make the landscape as their habitat. This will act as a medium for connection between the people and the natural environment. In fact, natural environment will help in reducing stress of working environment in urban areas such as help people to restore themselves during lunch or between working hours.

KLCC landscape - too artificial? 

By designing urban landscape in a sustainable way, environmental issues can be addressed. The urban landscape will be able to perform an important role in micro-climate improvement in which minimising the need for artificial air conditioning, improving filtration of storm water, providing shelter and many more. In other words, it can reduce the urban heat island effect.

Sustainability approach has been implemented in designing urban landscape in many countries around the globe. The approach is been implemented by designing the landscape that suits local environmental conditions, conserve water, avoiding use of harmful chemicals, minimizing the non-renewable energy consumption, use of sustainably and locally sourced products and materials and apply energy conservation, waste minimisation and pollution prevention in build and construct the landscape.

Back to basic - peace, calm and harmony landscape in Taiping

Wildlife Coservation in Bota Kanan

Back in the early stage of my blog, I have discusses about the wildlife conservation generally in the Malaysia perspective. In this entry I would like to discuss about the wildlife conservation in my hometown: The River Terrapin Conservation Centre in Bota Kanan. First of all, river terrapin is not a tiger. As the name suggest, it is actually a creature that live in the river. The river terrapin or its scientific name, Batagur Baska ia the native dweller in the beach along the Perak River, mainly near the Bota.

River Terrapin aka Tuntung

This creature resembles a lot like a turtles or tortoise. It lays its eggs in the sandy beach in a certain months in the year. It mainly a herbivore and its diet consist of the water spinach “kangkung” and the buah berembang which is easily available near the river. River terrapin also has become one of the main identities when people come to Bota Kanan as the population of this creature is said to be the largest in this area compare to the other location in Malaysia.

Tuntung Conservation Centre in Bota Kanan

However, due to the human activity in the Perak River, the population of this creature has decrease over the year. One of the reasons is the pollution in the river due to the logging activity in the upstream. When there is logging activity in the upstream, the mud from the logging area comes to the river during the rain. This has caused the river been polluted with the muddy water. The muddy water also affected the life of the river inhabitant such as fish, shrimp, and river muscles and of course the terrapin. Before I forgot, the local call this creature with “tuntung”.

Happy terappin in the pond. =)

Then, there is also the sand digging activity nearby which has caused much damaged to the terrapin habitat. Not only their habitat is actively shrinking over the years, the level of river also has become decrease and become warmer the deep of the river is now being exposed with the direct sunlight. The warmer water is not suitable for the young terrapin as they are very sensitive to the temperature changing.

The young terrapin also face serious threat from their major preys such as big fishes, predator birds, lizard and also human.  The human also take the young, premature eggs of terrapins to be eaten and is believed to have a good impact to their overall health based on their old believes.

Their precious eggs

To counter the issue, the Jabatan Perhilitan Malaysia have set up a wildlife conservation where in this place, the terrapin is collected and are protected from the human activity in its natural habitats. The centre also take an initiative to increase the population of the river terrapin by providing a specialized place for them to mates and produce the eggs that will be lay in the sandy pond. Once the egg is matured, the young terrapin wil be put in a separated pond to make them feels comfortable with the environment.

Tuntung's natural habitat. now being endangered.

In this centre, the young terrapin will be given some tags before they reach their suitable ages and released to the Perak River just like the sea turtles in Terengganu. The tags is functioned as the Ids for each terrapin so that the Jabatan Perhilitan would notice which one is the natural born and which one is born at the conservation centre. The data is very crucial as it reflects whether the works done by them are succeeded or not. Up to this day, the population of river terrapin in Perak River have increased even though there are many challenges to be faced. =)

“the harmony in the nature can only be achieved if we can coexist”