Hill land development challenges in Penang Island

Abstract

Land has become one of the circumscribed source in Penang Island due to its hilly topography and limited flat lands, which is about to exhaust. Although some land reclamation has been completed, it is not enough to meet high demand of flat areas within the island. Therefore, developers move to hilly areas for new projects. Hilly areas are considered high potential for development due to the attractive setting they provide. However, such developments are open to risks and challenge to people and the environment. Examples of environmental risk and hazards includes downstream flood, soil erosion, downstream river siltation, landslide, slopes failures which raises many issues such as danger to life, damage to property, environment and economy. Therefore structured mitigation action should have drawn towards sustainable hill land development without compromising public and environmental safety. The objective of this study is to identify the challenges in current practice of hill land development and to find the risk mitigation factors for “safe” hill land developments. The methodology of this research includes conducting a comprehensive literature review, interview, questionnaire survey and sampling by case study for data gathered from project practitioners like local authority, civil and geotechnical consultants, planners, architects and developers. According to the respondent’s knowledge, the biggest challenge of hill land developments in Penang Island during pre-construction stage are lengthy approval for project proposal and land use suitability classification based on slope gradient. Survey results also indicate that, down stream flooding and slope failures are other life threatening test during project construction stage. Safe and sustainable hill land developments would be achieved if all parties involve work hand-in-hand in dealing with hill land developments issues and challenges.