What is a sustainable neighbourhood?

Understanding about......

Nowadays, there has been much debate around the need for sustainable neighbourhoods. But what is a sustainable neighbourhood exactly? Why are neighbourhoods important and why is sustainability crucial at this scale?

A sustainable neighbourhood is a mixed used area with a feeling of community. It is a place where people want to live and work, now and in the future. Sustainable neighbourhoods meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are sensitive to their environment, and contribute to a high quality of life. They are safe and inclusive, well planned, built and run, and offer equality of opportunity and good services to all. (Bristol Accord, 6-7 December 2005).

Sustainable district planning aims to accomplish long-term socially, environmentally and economically feasible communities by focusing on:

Governance
Well managed neighbourhoods with effective and inclusive participation, representation and leadership.

Transport and Mobility
Well connected communities with good transport services and communication linking residents to their work places and services (health, education, recreation, commercial areas etc). Residents should be able to assure as many of their needs as possible within walking distance from their homes. A street pattern should take the form of a continuous web with paths linking one place to another. Good public transport infrastructure is essential in order to limit car use.

Environment
Providing the opportunity for people to live in an environmental friendly way (low energy consumption or passive buildings, minimised waste generation, recycling, use of natural and environmental friendly materials, minimising water consumption etc) and enjoying clean, safe surroundings.

Economy
A flourishing and lively local economy.

Services
Availability of public, private, community and voluntary services which are accessible to all residents.

Equity
Fair for each resident and for both present and future generations (decent homes at prices people can afford, services reasonably priced for all, public open spaces accessible to all).

Diversity
Create socially cohesive and diverse communities through a mix of social categories (mix of housing types and employment opportunities, shared community activities by all) and mix of generations.  

Mixed used
As a crucial difference to existing suburbia areas which are often zoned (keeping separately residential areas from industrial and commercial quarters), a sustainable neighbourhood offers mix of functions (living, working, making use of recreational and commercial areas).

Identity
Active, inclusive and safe with a strong local culture and other shared community activities; provide the sense of community and belonging that many residents seek. Therefore, each neighbourhood needs a clear centre (a place where residents can find shops, social and cultural activities etc).

Citizens and residents participation, cooperation and involvement
Residents need to interact and be involved in the co-creation of their neighbourhood and they need to have a say on the way their community is managed. Neighbourhoods do more than house people; they form a support for wider activities, providing many of the social services that link individuals with each other, giving rise to a sense of community.

The quest for more sustainable communities and neighbourhoods requires that we look at qualities such as these and that we investigate what can be done both in the suburbs and cities to give a boost to different areas. We need to work from the centre outwards, ’layer by layer, starting by reconnecting the innermost neighbourhoods which are only minutes on foot from lively centres’.

 

Bajet 2014

LESTARIKAN BAJET ANDA UNTUK KEHIDUPAN MASA HADAPAN

Cara-cara Melaksanakan Pembangunan yang Lestari

"Kita tidak mewarisi alam sekitar daripada nenek moyang kita, sebaliknya kita meminjamnya daripada generasi akan datang. Oleh itu, jagalah alam sekitar supaya anak dan cucu kita dapat menikmatinya." Kata-kata Mahatma Gandhi ini sudah cukup membuktikan bahawa alam sekitar merupakan harta paling berharga yang perlu dijaga kepentingannya. Alam semula jadi menjadi tonggak utama negara sebagai kawasan tadahan hujan, habitat flora fauna dan sumberkayu-kayan. Malangnya, Hari Bumi yang disambut setiap 22 April bagaikan tiada kesan apabila sumber-sumber alam ini masih lagi rakus diterokai untuk manusia menikmati pembangunan. Oleh itu, kita perlu merencanakan pembangunan yang mapan atau pembangunan lestari.  Pembangunan mapan atau pembangunan lestari merupakan gabungan antara pembangunan yang maju dengan pemuliharaan dan pemeliharaan alam sekitar. Kita perlu menitikberatkan pembangunan yang seimbang. Sebagai rakyat yang bertanggungjawab, kita harus melakukan anjakan paradigma untuk mewujudkan pembangunan yang lestari dengan melakukan beberapa pendekatan yang pragmatik.

      Program kitar semula memainkan peranan yang penting dalam menyokong dasar strategik kerajaan bagi pengurusan alam sekitar dan sumber semula jadi yang mapan dan lestari. Secara spesifik, program ini bertujuan untuk mengurangkan intensiti pencemaran dan sisa daripada aktiviti pembandaran dan perindustrian, di samping memastikan alam sekitar bersih dan sihat supaya dapat memenuhi keperluan dan aspirasi rakyat. Amalan kitar semula harus bercambah, berakar dan menghijau di setiap pelosok tanah air. Amalan kitar semula boleh dijalankan di peringkat nasional, kawasan, komuniti, serta individu. Oleh itu, kejayaan program kitar semula banyak bergantung kepada kerjasama yang erat dalam kalangan semua pihak. Semua pihak perlulah menjadikan kitar semula sebagai amalan hidup. Pelaksanaan program kitar semula ini mesti diteruskan secara berpanjangan, bukannya bermusim seperti hangat-hangat tahi ayam.  Usaha untuk memastikan program ini berjaya perlu diterapkan dalam kalangan masyarakat, khususnya generasi muda yang bakal mewarisi teraju kepimpinan negara kelak. Tegasnya, program kitar semula dapat mencapai pembangunan yang lestari, berkualiti dan seimbang.

      Selain itu, orang ramai digalakkan menggunakan petrol tanpa plumbum bagi kenderaan bermotor. Mencari alternatif selain minyak juga adalah penting bagi tujuan mengurangkan kesan pencemaran alam sekitar. Dewasa ini, kajian bagi menghasilkan minyak enjin biomass daripada tumbuh-tumbuhan sedang giat dijalankan. Contohnya, di negara kita, ahli sains telahpun menemukan sejenis minyak daripada kelapa sawit yang boleh mengurangkan pencemaran udara tanpa menjejaskan kecekapan enjin. Sungguhpun penemuan ini masih terlalu baharu untuk dipastikan sama ada praktikal ataupun tidak namun penemuan ini patut dijadikan satu titik permulaan bagi meningkatkan usaha kita ke arah mencapai konsep pembangunan lestari. Oleh itu, penggunaan petrol tanpa plumbum turut membantu dalam melaksanakan pembangunan lestari.

 

Salah satu langkah lain yang dapat digunakan untuk mewujudkan pembangunan lestari ialah pihak berwajib perlu menjatuhkan hukuman terhadap  individu atau organisasi yang telah didapati bersalah memusnahkan alam sekitar semata-mata untuk kepentingan diri sendiri. Pihak berwajib seperti Kementerian Sains, Teknologi, dan Alam Sekitar wajar menguatkuasakan undang-undang yang sedia ada untuk menghukum pihak-pihak yang berkenaan. Hukuman yang dikenakan hendaklah setimpal dengan kesalahan pihak terbabit mencemarkan dan memusnahkan alam seperti mengenakan dendaan yang tinggi. Selain itu tindakan penguatkuasaan undang-undang hendaklah dilaksanakan tanpa sikap memilih bulu dan dilakukan secara tekal dan tidak seperti melepaskan batuk di tangga. Individu dan organisasi yang mencemarkan alam biasanya tidak serik dengan hukuman yang dikenakan. Mereka akan mengulangi perbuatan keji ini jika hukuman yang dikenakan terhadap mereka tidak begitu berat. Malahan ada yang sanggup membayar denda kerana mencemarkan alam sekitar kerana mereka tahu denda tersebut hanya sekali sahaja. Mereka bebas melakukan kesalahan setelah menjelaskan denda yang dikenakan. Oleh itu pihak berwajib mestilah lebih tegas dalam mengenakan hukuman terhadap pihak yang merosakkan alam sekitar. 

      Di samping itu, pihak sekolah hendaklah memperkenalkan pendidikan alam sekitar kepada murid-murid sekolah. Pendidikan alam sekitar melibatkan pelbagai aspek yang menjurus ke arah pengekalan alam yang sejahtera. Satu kurikulum yang khusus perlu digubal agar pendedahan yang sistematik dapat dilaksanakan. Kurikulum ini boleh diselitkan dalam mata-mata pelajaran lain dan boleh juga dijadikan mata pelajaran khusus. Hal ini bertujuan untuk menyemaikan kesedaran secara lebih berkesan. Murid sekolah khususnya yang belajar di sekolah rendah wajar didedahkan dengan pengetahuan tentang alam sekitar dengan lebih sistematik. Jika sejak kecil mereka diberikan pendedahan sedemikian, mereka akan berasa lebih bertanggungjawab terhadap alam sekitar apabila mereka dewasa nanti kerana alah bisa tegal biasa. Langkah ini akan melahirkan generasi yang dapat menguruskan pembangunan negara yang lestari dan mapan. Jadi, pengenalan pendidikan alam sekitar di peringkat sekolah merupakan satu langkah untuk mewujudkan pembangunan yang lestari. 

      Jika kita lihat dari sudut yang lain pula, aktiviti penanaman semula perlu dilakukan. Hal ini dikatakan demikian kerana  penanaman semula dapat menggantikan pokok-pokok yang telah ditebang untuk melakukan projek pembanguan negara. Dengan ini, keseimbangan alam sekitar dan ekologi negara tercapai. Sesungguhnya, memang tidak dapat kita nafikan bahawa negara kita perlu membangun untuk mencapai negara kelas pertama. Namun begitu, kita tidak boleh bertindak mengikut nafsu tanpa memikirkan risiko yang bakal menimpa. Kita haruslah memiliki minda yang lestari iaitu setiap pokok yang ditebang perlu diganti kembali. Pengusaha kayu balak dan pihak  pemaju tidak harus bersikap bagai enau dalam belukar melepaskan pucuk masing-masing dan mereka seharusnya berminda lestari dalam memastikan pembangunan lestari tercapai. Ironinya, pembangunan lestari dapat dicapai melalui aktiviti penanaman semula.

 

      Sebagai konklusinya, terdapat pelbagai langkah yang dikenal pasti dapat membangunkan negara dengan lestari jika dilaksanakan dengan penuh iltizam. Dalam hal ini, semua pihak perlulah bekerjasama untuk memastikan langkah-langkah yang dirancangkan dapat dilaksanakan dengan berkesan kerana alang-alang menyeluk pekasam biar sampai ke pangkal lengan. Jika pembangunan lestari terbantut, generasi akan datang pasti menghadapi masalah alam sekitar yang lebih buruk. Kerjasama dan kesungguhan semua pihak menyelesaikan masalah ini diharapkan dapat  mewujudkan pembangunan yang seimbang tanpa melakukan kemusnahan alam sekitar.  Semoga generasi cucu cicit kita dapat menikmati kemajuan dan pembangunan negara  dengan diselimuti  kehijauan alam sekitar.

SKVE- South Klang Valley Expressway

Being part of nation building brings us pride and a feeling of achievement.

Infrastructure plays an instrumental role in today's economy and provides ascent to the position of a global economic powerhouse to any region that understands and plans. This is the dream and ambition we have for our nation.

Outlined in a series of major undertakings, we are but honored to be granted the task to design, build, operate, maintain and manage the Expressways we have simple come to call as SKVE.

Playing our vital role in what can be termed as a bold move head, the SKVE Expressways are TOMORROW'S LINK TODAY providing logistical and transportation needs to our nation's future.

Enthralling at the roof of transportation and logistical connectivity as one of the most original thinkers in the world, we are SKVE- South Klang Valley Expressway.

Visit us @ http://skve.com.my/index.php

 News Highlights



Route Map/Interchanges

	Putrajaya		Tanjung Dua Belas
	Wetland		Teluk Panglima Garang
	SKVE		Pulau Carey
	SKVE Saujana Putra		Pulau Indah

[ + ] Click the map to view it larger

Photo Gallery Click Here

Design for Sustainability by Professor Jerry Connor

Professor Jerry Connor of the Civil Engineering Department at MIT gave a series of lectures at WIT on Design for Sustainability.
Sustainability, Jerry recalled “means that the needs of the present generation are met without comparing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Report, 1987). The concept has two important aspects, ie social, to meet human needs and ecological, to preserve the environment.
Sustainable design aims to produce objects using renewable resources and which, in operation, deplete only renewable resources.
The objectives of sustainability are:

• Eliminate contributions that increase substance concentrations from the earth’s crust.
• Reduction of material flows (increase resources productivity and produce less waste).
• Exchange products and processes.

There is no doubt, in Jerry’s opinion, that we need to eliminate our present impact on the environment and make more efficient use of natural resources and land. More caution in the modification of nature should also be exercised. The human needs in society worldwide ought to be faced, avoiding problems such as ecological pollution in developing parts of the world.
In engineering terms, engineers need to make more use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine the effect of the products on the environment, looking at them from “cradle to grave”.
LCA also provides useful information for decision making for processes with environmental consequences. It is a quantitative tool, based on scientific data.
LCA may also involve evolution of problem shifting, such as evaluating electric cars using diesel or gas powered engines. It also should point out if the waste is shifted from region to region or from country to country. Another aspect of LCA is the possibility of recycling contaminated material into another product. Typical examples of this are rubber tyres used in motoring construction or flyash in concrete.
LCA allows the designer to produce not only Impact Assessments but also Improvement Assessment with which one can evaluate opportunities for improvement.
Jerry Connor explained how to produce a process flow matrix where the rows relate to flow of variables and the columns to the different processes involved. This matrix is usually divided into 2 parts, the first rows representing the economic effect and the others the environmental effect. The analysis usually produces a rectangular matrix which can be overdetermined (more economic flows than processes) or underdefined (more processes than economic flows).
Overdetermined systems can be solved simply using least squares but another strategy is to add more processes to be able to invert a square matrix. This addition in practice may result in a new idea such as power plant heat being used for another application instead of being dissipated, which results in more economic processes, having less harmful effect on the environment as well as making economic sense.
Impact Assessment issues are of different types and scales, ie:

• Climate change and resulting Global warming
• Acidification affecting vegetation
• Toxidity harmful to humans
• Resources depletion

The scientific challenge now is how to identify measures for the different effects in order to quantify the problems. This has given rise to considerable work on indicators, which are measures relevant to each category.
The research is now continuing and Jerry’s Research Group at MIT are now fully committed to Sustainable Design.

Intelligent Building

Definitions Historical overview There is a short history for the concept of intelligent building. It occurred initially in early 1980s. The definition of intelligent building has been evolving with different emphasis, mainly driven by the development of relevant technologies and the changing needs for the built environment. The short history is summarized below: to 1985: intelligent buildings are buildings automatically controlled to function. 1986 to 1991: intelligent buildings are buildings capable of responding to the changing needs. 1992 to present: intelligent buildings are buildings with features effectively satisfying the changing needs. A new approach EIBG (European Intelligent Building Group): Intelligent building is one that incorporates the best available concepts, materials, systems and technologies integrating these to achieve a building which meets or exceeds the performance requirements of the building stakeholders, which include the owners, managers and users, as well as the local and global community. Also from EIBG but more often quoted: Intelligent building is one that maximizes the efficiency of its occupants and allows effective management of resource with minimum life costs. IBI (The Intelligent Buildings Institute, US): Intelligent building is one that provides a productive and cost-effective environment through optimization of its four basic components - structure, systems, services and management - and the interrelationships between them. SMART- ACCELERATE project, Intelligent Building is defined as: An Intelligent Building is one that: Provides a productive and cost-effective built environment through optimization of its four basic components - structure, systems, services and management - and the interrelationships between them: Focusing on the benefit of the owners and their desired indoor environment. So as to maximize the efficiency of its occupants: Focusing on the benefit of the users and creating desired indoor environment for occupants Allows effective management of resources with minimum life costs: Focusing on the benefit of the Managers and the environmental and economic impact of creating desired indoor environment. Therefore: The built environment should be productive, safe, healthy, thermally, aurally and visually comfortable. The building has potential to serve future generations: sustainability, or adaptability over the life cycle of the building and safeguarding the earth and environment resources. Financial aspect: the building can be built within some cost constraints whilst retaining market value.
Home Intelligent Buildings Definitions Assessing the Intelligence of an Building - Matrix Tool A HANDBOOK for Intelligent Buildings Training in Intelligent Buildings Technology Partners

Pelancaran Polisi Pembangunan Lestari JKR Oleh Ketua Pengarah Kerja Raya

Sinopsis : Di peringkat JKR sendiri, banyak inisiatif telah di ambil samada secara bersendirian mahupun secara kolektif. Bagi menentukan semua inisiatif tersebut adalah mempunyai halatuju yang sama, Polisi Pembangunan Lestari JKR ini telah digariskan. Ia adalah sebagai bukti komitmen pengurusan atasan JKR ke arah pembangunan secara lestari. Polisi ini adalah selaras dengan Kerangka Strategik JKR 2012-2015 yang mana salah satu temanya ialah “Memacu Kelestarian”. 29-07-2013

Polisi Pembangunan Lestari JKR telah dilancarkan oleh Y.Bhg. Dato' Seri Ir. Hj. Mohd. Noor bin Yaacob, Ketua Pengarah Kerja Raya Malaysia pada 17 Julai 2013 bertempat di bilik Mesyuarat Utama, Ibu Pejabat JKR Malaysia. Di peringkat JKR sendiri, banyak inisiatif telah di ambil samada secara bersendirian mahupun secara kolektif. Bagi menentukan semua inisiatif tersebut adalah mempunyai halatuju yang sama, Polisi Pembangunan Lestari JKR ini telah digariskan. Ia adalah sebagai bukti komitmen pengurusan atasan JKR ke arah pembangunan secara lestari. Polisi ini adalah selaras dengan Kerangka Strategik JKR 2012-2015 yang mana salah satu temanya ialah “Memacu Kelestarian”.

Pembangunan Lestari memerlukan komitmen semua pihak secara bersepadu. Penubuhan Jawatankuasa Induk Pembangunan Lestari JKR adalah diperlukan bagi menyepadu, menyelaras dan memantau inisiatif-inisiatif tersebut dan seterusnya merealisasikan Pembangunan Lestari di JKR. Kepakaran-kepakaran sedia ada di dalam JKR dapat digembelingkan melalui penubuhan Jawatan Kuasa Induk dan Jawatan-jawatan Kuasa Kerja di bawahnya. JKR juga komited mengaplikasi inisiatif di atas untuk mencapai persekitaran kerja yang kondusif bagi menerapkan budaya kerja cemerlang dan lestari.

Selepas perasmian tersebut, satu pertunjukkan video berkenaan dengan Polisi Pembangunan Lestari JKR telah ditayangkan kepada seluruh hadirin mesyuarat. Y.Bhg. Dato' Seri Ir. Hj. Mohd. Noor bin Yaacob juga telah menyampaikan polisi tersebut kepada para Timbalan Ketua Pengarah sebagai tanda permulaan pelaksanaan polisi tersebut. Warga JKR juga boleh memuat turun buku polisi tersebut di Portal JKR (Menu Dokumen Terkini).