WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics
Print ISSN: 1109-9526, E-ISSN: 2224-2899
Volume 13, 2016
A Proposed Urban Environmental Sustainability Indicators Framework: The Case of Malaysia
Authors: ,
Abstract: The process of urbanisation and industrialisation has triggered off the emergence of big cities in Malaysia. The number of big cities exploding in recent years creates not only a huge demand for resources but also a desperate environmental situation. This paper seeks to propose a framework for indicators of urban environmental sustainability in Malaysia from twofold aspects. Firstly, we construct a set of sustainability criteria and indicators for urban environment. Secondly, we devise an integrated index to monitor urban environmental performance as well as to serve as a tool to raise awareness among the local urban authorities in Malaysia. This paper focuses on the four major cities in Malaysia, namely Penang(PG), Malacca (MC), Kuching (KU) and Kota Kinabalu (KK), which are steadily gaining in popularity as a tourist attraction and worldwide recognitions of World Heritage Site in the recent decades. Environmental health and services are the two main criteria proposed in the paper. There are sixteen indicators reflecting these criteria identified in this study. The results show that Penang and Kota Kinabalu have poorer performance than Malacca and Kuching in terms of environmental sustainability, be it environmental health or environmental services. Last but not least, it is interesting to generalise from the results of this study and conclude that various relevant strategies are needed to develop environmental sustainable cities in Malaysia due to the different nature of cities in terms of the level of urbanisation, stages of development, geographical location and historical background.
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Keywords: Urbanisation, industrialisation, urban environmental sustainability, sustainability criteria, sustainability indicators framework, environmental health, environmental services
Pages: 522-528
WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1109-9526 / 2224-2899, Volume 13, 2016, Art. #48