Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 37(3): May 2011 RESULTS Urban Greenspace Planning and Management in Malaysia Policy arrangement and actors Figure 1. Location of the Klang Valley and the case study cities included in the survey. Clockwise from the top right: maps of Malaysia, location of Klang Valley, location of case study cities (sources: Google Maps, Asia Maps, and Selangor Maps). case studies, offering a good picture of cities in the val- ley. Like other cities in the Klang Valley, the cities are experiencing rapid increases in population, as well as in industrial and technological development. While Klang, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, and Subang Jaya can be re- garded as typical for most cities in the region, KL and Putrajaya have been included because of their domi- nant role in the valley, as well as their status of capi- tal city and the new governmental center, respectively. The data was collected according to a simple comparative framework for analyzing greenspace policy and planning in- spired by Konijnendijk (1999) and Ottitsch et al. (2005). The framework considers different key elements of greenspace planning and management, under the headings: city infor- mation, area and functions of greenspace, policy and legis- lative framework, actors and stakeholders involved, greens- pace plans and activities, and an assessment of greenspace planning and management by means of SWOT analysis. Policy documents, legislative documents, and other rel- evant written sources were identified and examined at the city level to assess the present status of, and challenges faced by greenspace planning and management. As a supple- ment to this, expert interviews were undertaken with one municipal greenspace officer in every case study city. This was conducted during the first months of 2009. The city’s Park and Recreation Department or Park and Landscape Department was contacted (depending on the local organi- zation), with the request to provide the name of an officer with good overview of the city’s public greenspaces and their planning and management. These experts then answered a set list of questions, including a question in which respon- dents were asked to mention strengths, weaknesses, op- portunities, and threats regarding greenspace planning and management in their city. During May 2009, the respon- dents were contacted again as a follow-up to the original mailing and to obtain more information. This second con- tact was by e-mail or by telephone, thus giving respondents an opportunity to answer interview questions by telephone. There are three levels of governance in peninsular Malaysia: federal, state, and local. From a planning perspective, mu- nicipal plans need to be assessed by the state level before the plan is submitted to the federal level. At the federal level, three important bodies examine the plan: the National Physical Planning Council, the Town and Country Planning Depart- ment and the Regional Planning Com- mittee. Through this planning set-up, the government trusts that land use will be duly arranged for all private, munici- pal, and other public areas, with con- sideration of environmental, social, and economic interests (Halimaton 2007). The efforts of the Federal Town and Country Planning Department were strengthened by the establishment of the Public Park Supervision and Co- ordination Division in 1990. This division acts as an advisory body to the state governments, local govern- ments, and other government agencies with regard to plan- ning, and also provides services such as landscape de- sign to various other governmental bodies (Jamil 2002). The country’s Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172) and the Town and Country Planning (Amend- ment) Act 1995 (Act A933) emphasize the importance of open space as one of the social infrastructures that should be provided in a development area (Sreetheran et al. 2006). Generally the requirement for open and recreational space is planned in the Structure and Local Plans as well as the layout plan of a development by the planning authori- ties at state and local levels. As mentioned, ‘open space’ in Malaysia is defined by the Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 1995. However, there is no specific defi- nition for ‘greenspace’, as open space is a broader concept. The National Urbanization Policy (NUP) embodies an at- tempt by the Federal Town and Country Planning Department to guide growth as outlined by the 9th Malaysia Plan and the National Vision. The NUP was formulated to increase the ef- fectiveness in the quality of urban services for the creation of safer, modern, and attractive towns. One of its six ‘pillars’ concerns the creation of liveable urban environments with clear identity, with emphasis on environmental conservation and quality of urban life (National Urbanisation Policy 2006). Another important policy actor is the National Land- scape Department (NLD), established in 1996 under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. It was entrust- ed with the responsibilities of landscaping and greening the country, based on the approval by Economic Planning Unit (EPU). National Landscape Department (NLD), prepar- ing a National Landscape Policy and initiating the formu- lation of Landscape Master Plan for all cities in the coun- try (Kuala Lumpur Landscape Master Plan 2002). These ©2011 International Society of Arboriculture 101
May 2011
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