Residential density gradients of Iskandar Malaysia’s neighbourhoods from 1970s to 2000s

Abstract

At the Conference of Parties 21 (COP21) in 2015, Malaysia as a developing country is expected to make changes to reduce carbon emission parallel with the main agenda on targeting to limit the global temperature rise by only 20C or less. In spite of all the efforts to promote sustainable development in Malaysia, limited research has been carried out about the sustainability reality of neighbourhood design especially in Iskandar Malaysia. Thus, this study intends to explore the trend of residential density gradient within neighbourhoods in Iskandar Malaysia. A total of 133 neighbourhoods were studied based on the secondary data obtained from Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) office that included the type of land uses and road networks. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were also conducted among developers, planning consultants and planning officers to get their opinions on sustainability of neighbourhood designs in Iskandar Malaysia. Residential density analysis was conducted by using ArcGIS10 software to determine the residential density pattern in neighbourhoods. The analysis indicated that the trend of neighbourhood designs in Iskandar Malaysia was going opposite to what was thought of as ideal. What happened in most neighbourhoods was the higher the residential density, the higher the distance to commercial center. As a result, there would be more carbon emitted because more residents need to travel longer distance for their daily routines. The interviews meanwhile revealed that the planning consultants have limited understanding and awareness about ideal neighbourhood design involving density gradients compared to developers and planning officers. Several planning experts also agreed to a point that marketing purposes was the main reason behind this scenario and majority of the respondents agreed that Iskandar Malaysia’s existing neighbourhood designs did not mitigate climate change because of higher dependency on private vehicles. Therefore, as Iskandar Malaysia is turning into a region with more and more neighbourhoods to cater for approximately 3 million residents by the year 2025, a relook at its neighbourhood design policies or guidelines can certainly help its vision of becoming a low carbon city.