Subdivisions in Iskandar Malaysia: do their designs encourage increase in travel carbon emissions?

Abstract

This study looks into the travel impact of distribution of housing densities within a subdivision on local travel patterns within neighbourhoods of Iskandar Malaysia. The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between these distributions of housing densities and travel carbon emission in Iskandar Malaysia. It attempts to show how the location of various housing densities (high density, medium density and low density) with respect to commercial centres affects the residents’ travels, thus affecting carbon emission too. This study involves over three hundred subdivisions in Iskandar Malaysia. The housing densities were determined through ArcGis software while CommunityViz software was used to determine the amount of travel carbon emission. The findings indicate that most of Iskandar Malaysia’s subdivisions do not meet the preferred design standards for carbon reduction and can contribute to higher carbon emission. The design of these subdivisions focuses more on its aesthetic aspects rather than being functional and sustainable. However, this is only looking at the travel minimisation aspect of the design though it is not a minimal aspect itself.