2. Figure 3: Road view in Klang Figure 4: Map view of Klang roads
Chapter 12- LAND USE PLANNING
12.4. Problems Associated With Unplanned Urban Growth
INTRO: With the growth of human population, more facilities have been needed in urban
areas. Urban planning consists of carrying tasks which include constructions of buildings,
roads, drainage systems and more according to the Land use planning policy. This involves
a lot of time and effort spent in analysing the area where the city/town will be built and
adding to that, there is the construction process itself and the maintenance. However, the
problem is that while planning, people do not think about what will happen in the future.
Therefore with increase in transportation and construction of new buildings, we start having
problems in urban areas because it was not planned well. This has a big impact on
nature/environment and the city/town such as pollution, increase of energy cost,
transportation problems and aesthetic issues.
Transportation Problems
From the land use policy, roads should be taking a minimum amount of space with carefully
planned directions. It should also cause less damage to the environment physically and
aesthetically, during and after their construction. However the enhancing of working, living
and business environment of urban centres attracts more and more people. This mass
increase requires more transportation facilities
The first problem that was not thought of when planning was the increase of the amount of
cars on the road. According to Figure 1, in Malaysia, there is at least one car per family.
Country Motor vehicles per 1000 people Notes
United states 809 2011
Australia 723 2014
Japan 588 2010
Malaysia 361 2010
Figure 1: Number ofvehicles per 1000 people
Due to this bad planning, I can say that there are more cars than the surface of the road.
The roads are now not adapted to this increase, which leads to a lot of traffic jams. Also
more and more people, living in the suburbs, travels to and
from the centre causing parking problems. The creation of
new parking, to solve this problem, requires clearing of natural
areas that are replaced by asphalt or gravel, and this is
unpleasing to have nature destroyed. The same thing
happens for roads. To decrease traffic jams, roads are added
or enlarged. The environment problem here is bigger in scale
when roads have to be constructed since it spans over a
larger surface and therefore requires more trees to be cut and
open spaces to be used. (Covering 70% of surface area in the
city)
Figure 2: Traffic jam in Klang Valley
3. In Malaysia, only Rm 3.3 billion (1.2%) is allocated to transport (budget 2015). This is why
the systems and construction for transportation are cheap and most of the times low in
quality. With addition/subtraction/modification of housing patterns and commercial sectors
new roads has to be constructed. Each time, new roads keeps on being added which in the
end gives us an unorganized planning of roads, as seen in Figure 4.
Placing roads/ rails in more organised and strategic ways can decrease destruction of the
environment and also reduce traffic jams or other difficulties in transportation.
Death of Central City
Central cities, like KLCC and Klang city centre, mostly have buildings used for commercial
purposes such as offices, shopping, services and others. So there are no residential areas
there. As proposed by the Land use policy, large scale retails should be built in the city
centre. But now since more and more of shopping centres and service buildings are built in
the suburbs, less people go to the centre resulting in less income of the city.
Figure 5: Monthly expenses in Klang and Outside of Klang
From the graph in Figure 5, more expenses are made outside of Klang city centre. This area
is concentrated with commercial buildings and offices and no living area at all. The decrease
of income in this part results in less money spent on renovation and modernisation of the
urban area therefore leaving it as old and faulty as it was.
High infrastructure and energy loss
Development of houses and commercial buildings on the outskirt of the city gives the need
for municipal services to extend to this area. Sewer and water services, natural gas and
electric services, schools and police stations and roads are all needed to support the new
growing population.
As the city is growing, more buildings are added, which requires services like sewage,
electricity and water. Sometimes there are buildings that are constructed in an unorganised
way which leads to the services to be unorganised also, such as in Klang valley and Kuala
Lumpur where this is common especially in areas with a large amount of buildings packed
4. together. This results in faulty parts such as water leakage, loss of electrical energy. These
faults causes loss of energy and resource.
Figure 6: Energy usage
Loss of open space and farmland
There are positive and negative impacts for urban growth but the negative impacts are more
highlighted because of its uncontrolled and unplanned urban growth. Developing urban
growth does help improve the economic and provide more opportunities of people whose
finding a job. It also serve better facilities such as sewer, transportation, educational and
health care.
However, when urban growth went uncontrolled and unplanned, the cause can be
devastating. For example, Urbanisation generally, and sprawl in particular, contribute to loss
of farmlands and open spaces (Berry and Plaut 1978; Fischel 1982; Nelson 1990; Zhang et
al. 2007). Urban growth, only in the United States, is predicted to consume 7 million acres of
farmland, 7 million acres of environmentally sensitive land, and 5 million acres of other lands
during the period 2000–2025 (Burchell et al. 2005). This case is enough to visualise the
world scenario.
Figure 7: Farmlands’ value
5. Based on the bar chart above, we can conclude that farmlands’ value are increasing
overtime. Hence, it is very precious.
Uncontrolled and unplanned urban growth contribute to loss of farmlands and open space.
This action is predicted to consume 7 million acres of farmland, 7 million acres of
environmentally sensitive land, and 5 million acres of other lands during the period 2000–
2025. Provincial tax and land-use policies combine to create financial pressures that propel
farmers to sell land to the developers. The global markets will make more profit in the long
term if farmers sell their low priced lands to them due to the long run of bad economy.
Farmers usually sell it rather than continue farming it.
Thousands of relatively small parcels of farmland are being severed off to create
rural residential development. Collectively, these small lots contribute to the loss
of hundreds of hectares of productive agricultural land per year.
The loss of agricultural land to urban sprawl means not only the loss of fresh
local food sources but also the loss of habitat and species diversity, since
farms include plant and animal habitat in woodlots and hedgerows. The presence
of farms on the rural landscape provides benefits such as greenspace, rural
economy stability,andpreservationof the traditional rural lifestyle.
Water and Air pollution:
Uncontrolled urban growth also has serious impacts on water quality and quantity.
With miles of roads, parking lots and houses having paved over the countryside and
rainwater are unable to soak into the ground and replenish the groundwater aquifers.
In the urban area, water runs off into storm sewers and ultimately into rivers and lakes.
Extra water during heavy rain can dramatically increase the rate of flow through wetlands
and rivers, stripping vegetation and destroying habitats along riverbanks.
It can also cause damaging floods downstream and lead to an increase in water pollution
from runoff contaminated with lawn and garden chemicals, motor oil and road salt. This can
be threatening because the pollutants can be absorbed by humans when they consume the
contaminated fish from the affected water bodies.
Figure 8: The sickness caused by air pollution and its sources
The car-dependent lifestyle imposed by unplanned urban growth leads to increases in
fossil fuel consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases. Urban sprawl contributes to
poorer air quality by encouraging more automobile use, thereby adding more air pollutants
such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ground-level ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
Asthma
Bronchitis
Lung
Problems
Allergies
Other
TYPE OF RESPIRATORY
ILLNESS DIAGNOSED FROM
AIR POLLUTION
6. oxides, volatile organic carbons, and microscopic particles. These pollutants can inhibit plant
growth, create smog and acid rain, contribute to global warming, and cause serious human
health problems. Dynamic urban growth can certainly boost a country’s economy but
unplanned/uncontrolled growth of cities can lead to unfavourable health issues.
Water pollution :
In Malaysia, about 95% of water comes from the inland river systems. As the country
progresses towards realizing Vision 2020 (becoming a developed nation) through the
implementation of its policy agenda for heavy industrialization and urban-expansions, water
demand has increased steeply and greater pressure is on preserving the current water
resources as well as finding alternative course of action to deal with the water pollution.
Figure 10: Study Area (Klang River)
Figure 9:
Causes of water
pollution
(Malaysia).
7. It is located within the states of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As the state of
Selangor and the city of Kuala Lumpur are undergoing remarkable development, the river is
subjected to pollution from the point and non-point sources. The water quality of the Klang
River basin, one of the most densely populated areas within the region, is significantly
degrading due to human activities as well as unplanned urban growth.
The Klang River drains an area of 1288 km from the steep mountain rain forests of the main
central range along Peninsular Malaysia.
Water Quality Data (Klang River):
Water quality monitoring is an essential component of water resource conservation,
management and treatment. Parameters measured at this site include pH, dissolved oxygen
(DO), conductivity, turbidity and temperature. Laboratory analyses were performed to
determine water quality parameters, i.e. biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical
oxygen demand (COD). The Figure below depicts the 20 selected station sites. The stations
are labelled as St. 02–18, St. 23, 24 and St. 26. Stations St.02 –10are located along the
main Klang River with St. 02 nearest to the straits of Malacca, stations St. 11–13 along Sg.
Damansara, stationsSt.14and15alongSg.Penchala and Sg.Rekah, respectively, St. 16 and
26 along Sg.Kerayong, stations St. 17, 18 and 24 along Sg. Gombak and station St. 23
along Sg.Ampang.
Figure 11: The sources of pollution with the land use for the Klang River.
8. Unplanned urbanization contribution to river water quality decrement are mostly
concentrated in the middle and downstream of the river basin. For the main river, Sg.Klang,
the water quality remains at Class IV for stations located downstream (St. 2-6).
Figure 12: Changes of WQI (Water Quality Index) classes
The next three stations further upstream (St. 7,8,9) see an improvement from class IV to
Class III, and the furthest station (St.10) moved WQIclass towards better, From III to II. For
the tributaries, WQIreadings at all DOE stations along Sg.Damansara (St. 11,12 and 13),
Sg. Rekah (St.16) and Sg. Ampang (St.23) improved from Class IV to Class III, while
Sg.Penchala (St.14) improved from Class V to Class IV. Regarding Sg. Gombak, thereading
at St. 24 (upper stream) remained unchanged at Class II,while that at St. 17 and 18
(downstream) improved from Class IV to ClassIII. FigureX illustrates the sources of pollution
with land use of the Klang River, while in the figure above, the changes of WQI classes can
be observed.
Floodplain Problems:
Most cities were established along water, many cities are located in areas called
floodplains. They are the low areas near rivers and thus are subject to periodic flooding.
Over the years, flood has become one of the most destructive phenomena all over the world.
Flood impact:
Flood does not only disrupt the economy as they destroy and damage infrastructures, but
also affecting the service sections and health issues of the affected area.
South-East Asia is the most flood-affected region, accounting for nearly 50% of flood-
related fatalities in the last 25 years (Mooney, 2010). Recently, heavy monsoons rainfall
triggered floods along Malaysia’s east coast as well as in southern state of Johor in 2006
and 2007. The hardest and Pahang (Pradhan, 2009). Floods and their impact are likely to
increase in the future due to urbanization and land use changes, high concentrations of poor
and marginalized populations and a lack of regulations and preparedness efforts (Berz,
2000). Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) through a detailed study, issues the
results that about 29 000 sq. km or 9% of hit areas are along the east coast of peninsular
Malaysia in the states of Kelantan, Terengganu the total land area and more than 4.82
9. million people (i.e. 22% of the population) are affected by flooding annually and the flood
damage was estimated to be ranging from RM915 million (about £160 million) per year
(Ghani et al., 2009).
Study area: The study area about flooding, Kota Bharu is located in Kelantan state at the
east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Kota Bharu is one of the main districts in Kelantan and
become the capital city of Kelantan which was the main location of commercial centre.
Figure 13: Location map of the study area (DSM, 2005)
Due to its geographical characteristics, unplanned urbanization and proximity to the South
China Sea, Kota Bharu has become extremely vulnerable to monsoon flood every year. The
unprecedented in November, 2005 which was triggered by monsoon, has been described as
one of the worst natural flood in the history of Kota Bharu. Peninsular Malaysia faces the
most extensive flood damage in the history of Malaysia where in the year of
1926, a severe flood with strong winds destroyed most of the state in Peninsular
Malaysia including the study area.
Figure 14: Number ofevacuees & total death (1983 – 2005 flood event)
The figure above shows that the flood event in 1988 is the most destructive flood event in
Malaysia’s history. 55 lives were taken due to the huge impact of the flood. On the bright
side, the precaution and mitigation was improved by the government.
10. Figure 15: The total loss for the flood event (1983 – 2004)
Floodplain building ordinances usually allow current residents to remain. Relocations are
allowed usually at a financial loss, the only alternative. Such situations are unfortunate:
perhaps proper planning in the future will prevent these problems.
Wetland Misuse
Wetlands serve several important functions for ecosystems and human communities. They
filter pollution, protect against shoreline erosion, offer aesthetic and recreational enjoyment,
provide habitat and critical refuge for countless species and provide natural flood protection
by absorbing and holding high waters.
In the 1600s, more than 220 million acres of wetlands existed in what is now the lower 48
states. By the 1980s, more than half of those wetland acres had been destroyed. Wetlands
were drained and converted to other uses such as farming or development (industrial,
commercial and residential). The years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970’s were a time of
major wetland loss. Recent estimates indicate continuing losses are between 58,000 to
60,000 acres annually.
In addition to these acreage losses, wetlands have suffered degradation from chemical
contamination, excess nutrients, sediment and depositions from the air. Calculating the
effects of degradation is difficult.
Ongoing development poses one of the greatest threats to wetlands today. Protecting
wetlands is a major challenge because, although they provide many public services, 74
percent of remaining wetlands are on private property.
11. KLANG GEOLOGICAL AND RESOURCES LIMITATION
Seven maps depicting general geology, physical properties, environmental geology, soils,
soil thickness, slope, and fracture intensity describe the land in klang. The maps, descriptive
text, and interpretive tables provide the basis for evaluations of land-use capability. The
general geologic map shows variations in bedrock, in surface deposits, and in the structural-
geometrical relations of the units. It is a basic data source for constructing and interpreting
the other maps. The physical properties map presents qualitative engineering characteristics
of substrate and surface materials. Most of the klang vicinity is underlain by carbonate rocks
that are generally stable foundations for construction. The environmental geologic map is
based on variations in processes, landforms, and surface and bedrock materials.
Human resource support has slowly but surely become one factor contributing to the
competitively advantage
Aesthetic Issues
Aesthetic issues are basically the bad feeling associated when you find the state in which an
area is.They are most likely things like unpleasant odours, disagreeable tastes, annoying
sounds and also offensive sights.They occur due to lack of land use planning effectively.
For example, building residential areas near highways may appear to be appropriate so as
to facilitate transportation but will result in a lot of annoying sounds being exposed to them.In
some cases barriers are used to reduce the volume of the noise but here also the latter is an
eyesore to the residents.Another one would be placing homes near landfills, junkyards, or
industries which comes with many asethetic issues.Furthermore, if no proper planning for
accomodation for residential, transportation and urban facilities are provided, extra
infrastructure would be required but scarcity of land will high as most of the land would be
12. used up.Thus, sometimes we may find important buildings, roads, or houses being totally out
of the city context.
Noise from unresolved traffic problems and ineffiecient road planning.It’s an eyesore and is a
major source of noise to surroundings.
Unpleasant odours and offensive sights from excessive population waste due to crammed
housing areas.
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- Road-http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community/2014/01/30/Progress-and-its-effects-
Urbanites-share-their-views-on-Kuala-Lumpurs-pressing-issues/ (Images, n.d.)
- http://www.jobstreet.com.my/aboutus/did-not-ask-for-too-much-salary-freshgrad.htm
- "GDP Per Capita by State for the year 2008-2010 at Current Price" (PDF). Department of
Statistics, Malaysia. Retrieved 15 January 2013
- Mohammad Muqtada Ali Khan, Nor Ashikin Shaari, Arham Muchtar Achmad Bahar and
Md Azizul Baten, 2014. Impact of the Flood Occurrence in Kota Bharu, Kelantan Using
Statistical Analysis. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14: 1944-1951.
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of Survey and Mapping, Kelantan, Malaysia.
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