Resilience of Pontian farmers in the face of the impact changes of rapid development in Iskandar Malaysia

Abstract

The issues of community resilience arise from the need to develop an understanding of how people would respond to internal and external disturbances. In-depth discussion towards the impact of a city to a neighbouring district has little been discussed. The District of Pontian is located west of Iskandar Malaysia. It has received an unprecedented level of infrastructural development to boost the economy of Iskandar Malaysia. This study examines the land use pattern change of Pontian District impacted by Iskandar Malaysia. Additionally, the study aims to assess the social, economic and environmental capital and the factors that contribute to the adaptabilities and resilience of farmer communities in Pontian. Build-up area for each period using Google earth satellite imagery from the year 2005 to 2015, was classified to analyze the change of build-up area. Markov Chains technique is applied to predict changes of land use. Next, survey questionnaires were utilized to measure the levels of community resilience. Subsequently, an interview was employed to identify the factors that contribute to the stresses. The results indicate that rapid development of Iskandar Malaysia gave an impact to agricultural land and changed the land use pattern of Pontian. The findings revealed the perspective of individuals, community, and system resilience capacity to survive. It was found that farmers were able to adapt to various stresses. The result indicates that individuals and communities can be adaptive, absorptive, and transformative. The findings can assist in formulation of strategies for communities to be better prepared for the current and future impact of the triple threat of urbanization, globalization and climate change.