FACULTY OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT

DEPARTMENT OF QUANTITY SURVEYING

ACADEMIC ENGLISH SKILLS

ULAB 1122 SEC-01 (2013/2014)

HOW CAN WE TRANSFORM OUR URBAN TO BECOME

SUSTAINABLE CITY?

LECTURER: MISS ATIQAH SHAHARUDDIN

GROUP MEMBERS:

OOI MIAW SUAN A13BE0134

PHUA SZE WEI A13BE0136

SOONG SUET LI A13BE0155

TOH KA BEAN A13BE0167

 A sustainable city or commonly known as eco-city is a city designed with consideration
of environmental impact, inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of
energy, water and food and waste output of heat, air pollution and water pollution. Due to the
pollution that getting serious nowadays, the problem of global warming, greenhouse effect and
scarce of natural resources are on the rise. The emission of harmful gases to the atmosphere
through vehicles and factories had caused the greenhouse effect occur in our city. High rise
buildings which are made up of high refractive index glasses will trap the greenhouse gases as
well as the heat from sun ray, in our atmosphere, thus causing global warming to occur from the
impact of greenhouse effect. The usage of non-renewable natural resources such as petroleum
and natural gas in our daily life will cause us to face the problem of scarcity of natural resources
in the future. In order to overcome the above problem, a series of transformation steps will be
carried out in order to transform our urban to become a sustainable city. Later in this essay, we
will discuss about how can we transform our urban to become sustainable city in different
aspects that is building design, efficient use of energy and transport system.

Building design plays a vital role in transforming our urban into a sustainable city. First
of all, building shape become the first element to be considered. For instance, buildings which
are circular or octagon in shape can be constructed to allow the surrounding hot air and wind to
flow freely without being trapped inside or within the space of buildings. This explicitly assisting
in prevent the phenomena of Heat Island Effect. In addition, this building shape concept also
helps in keeping an optimum temperature inside the building so that the temperature will not get
too high as this concept promote good ventilation within the building. As a result, the occupants
can save the electricity energy by reducing the operation of air-conditioning system. Apart from
this, roof tops design of a building also is an important element to guide us towards a sustainable
city. In this context, Green Roof or so called Eco-Roof concept can be applied. What is Green
Roof? Actually it is a roof of building which purposely designed with partially or completely
embedded with vegetation and grow medium, planted over waterproofing membrane. Green
Roof also can reduce the energy utilization by improving thermal performance of roof. In this
situation, building will be able to better retain heat during cooler winter while reflecting and
absorbing solar radiation during hotter summer which allows building to remain cooler. For
example, Germany, the pioneer of Green Roof technology, that applied most Green Roof concept
in building construction and possesses most advanced knowledge in modern Green Roof
technology, is well-known in the stage of world. Besides that, Egypt, the honest follower of
Green Roof concept also applied it for agricultural purpose. This is because Egypt possesses of
insufficient soil area which is suitable for plantation and agriculture activities. As to fulfill the
food demand of citizens, soil-less agriculture techniques, Green Roof concept is applied to grow
plants and vegetation on building roofs. The last element of building design towards sustainable
city to be considered here is thermal insulation of building components. Thermal insulation is
reduction of heat transfer between objects in thermal contact. Thermal insulation of building can
be achieved in various ways such as types of building materials used. For this subtopic, building
components such as wall, windows and doors are to be constructed with thermal insulation
materials. As heat flow is an inevitable consequence of contact between objects with different
temperature, thermal insulation applied helps to provide a region of insulation in which thermal
reduction is reduced and the condition of overheating and overcooling of a building will not
occur. This keeps the temperature in the building always in an optimum manner thus directly or
indirectly save the energy used by reducing the use of air cooler or heater in building. Wood is
the example of insulation materials used as wood is poor heat conductor. In order words, wood
provides good thermal insulation because it reduces the transfer of heat within inner and outer
part of building. Hence, wood is widely used in constructing certain parts of buildings to serve
the sustainable purpose. In a nut shell, building design such as building shape, roof tops design
and thermal insulation of building components are important considerations to determine the
successibility for achieving sustainable city from urban.

Besides innovation in building design, efficiency energy is also one of the methods that
used to transform our urban to become sustainable city. Nowadays, new technologies begin
increase in the whole world. We can easily get it everywhere. Modern appliances provide many
function to users compared to olden appliances. One of the most important functions is save
energy function. For examples, ovens, washing machine and refrigerator are some of the
appliances that provides save energy function. Those appliances are playing a main part in every
house. Hence, townsman also contributes to process of sustainable city if they use it. Next, new
technologies also contribute to transportation. Transportation plays a main role in the process of
becoming sustainable city. Transportation is indispensability for townsman to move from a place
to final destination due to work, to shop or gathering. Car, motorcycle and bus are commonly
used for townsman. Fuel efficient models have been designed and put it in that transportation.
For examples, low fuel-sipping cars, Toyota Vios and Honda City are some of fuel efficient
models products. Not only modern appliances and transportation but also advanced tools or
machine use in industry. All of them are make an offer to efficiency energy. For examples,
advanced boilers and furnaces can operate at higher temperatures while burning less fuel. These
technologies are more efficient and produce fewer pollutants. Those technologies are contributed
to efficient use of energy especially for Malaysia, a country that walking on a path to become
industrial country. Due to the development of the industrial sectors, a lot of factories had been
built in order to speed up the process of transforming our country to become developed and
industry-oriented country. Besides new technology, use of renewable energy also is a way to
contribute in the effort of transforming our urban to become a sustainable city. Renewable energy
such as wind power, hydropower and solar power are used to replace non-renewable energy such
as fuel and natural gas. It can be widely used in our daily life. For examples, solar energy can be
used in vehicle, house and appliance. In this case, the solar energy can be used to propel the car,
which commonly known as solar car, while the solar panel is used to fix on the top of the roof in
order to convert the solar energy to electricity to every part of the house such as heater in the
bath room and the lighting system. On the other hand, individual behavior also important to
achieve the process of transforming urban to a sustainable city. Every townsman is responsible to
use energy efficiently in order to create a sustainable city. For examples, they can buy product
which provide save energy function or install the solar panel in their own house. So that they can
save money besides support the urban to become sustainable city. If not, the process of
transforming our urban to become a sustainable city will become slow and not desirable. Thus, it
can be say that behavioral change is an indispensable part in order to transform our urban to
become sustainable city. Townsman can start their responsibility in their daily life such as save
the electricity. They can use the electricity when they need. For examples, do not open air-
conditioner when raining or in cold weather. For those townsman who live with their friends,
they can implement the car pooling activity. So that, it can reduce the use of fuel for vehicle
instead of one person one car. Although those things look small and tiny, it is the basic and the
big step to transform our urban to become sustainable city.

Apart from the efficient use of energy, changing in transport system will be a very
important element in order to build a sustainable city. This is because of the transport system
such as cars or lorries will release carbon monoxide that will lead to air pollution. First, rail
transport system which is environmental friendly such as light rail transit (LRT), monorail, trams
and other similar transport should be build. This system operate using cable, rail, electricity and
so on. The route of these transport system should be plan so that the people will choose to use
this transport system instead of driving their own vehicles. For example, the route of the rail
transport system should pass through the destination that many people will go such as shopping
complex, popular scenic spots and so on. As a result, the people will go to the destination by the
rail transport system but not driving their own car. Therefore, air pollution can be reduced. For
example, in Masdar city, a personnel rapid transit (PRT) system run under the city. It runs on
magnetic tracks. Therefore, it will not pollute the environment. Other than the transport system
that stated above, active transport can be used to reach the objective of becoming sustainable
city. Active transport relates to physical activity undertaken as a mean of transport. It includes
travel by foot, bicycle, non-motorised vehicles and so on. Walking is a very important element in
transforming urban city into sustainable city because walking do not produce element that will
pollute the environment. Therefore, walking should be encourage because it brings benefits to
the people such as walking can make people become more healthy. Walking can be encourage by
preparing a green corridor for the walkers. The green corridor is corridor that build above the
roads so that people can walk around using the corridor. Walking on the green corridor is safer
than walking beside the busy roads. The green corridor can connect the hot tourist attractions that
located nearby. By this, people can walk to the spots instead of driving a car which will cause air
pollution. Besides, the corridor should be covered so that people can walk around although it is
raining. It can protects the walkers from the rain and the hot sun. For example, in Australia, there
is a green corridor walking track that joins the township of Wyalong and West Wyalong. The
green corridor is 4.4 kilometer long and there are some beautiful views along the way. On top of
that, cycling activity should be encouraged because cycling does not produce any element that
will lead to air pollution. What should be done to encourage people to cycle? Firstly, government
have to prepare some infrastructures for the cyclists. For example, government can build some
station for the cyclists to rest. When it is raining, the cyclists can rest in the station until the rain
is stopped. Vendors can do some business in the station such as selling some foods or drinks to
the cyclists. When the cyclists feel thirsty or hungry, they can buy something to eat or drink.
Besides, government can prepare some station for renting and returning the bicycles that borrow
by the cyclists. The station can be put in some popular scenic spots such as Pulau Langkawi. This
enable the tourists to cycle around the place instead of renting a car. Some people may think that
cycle on the roads is dangerous. This can be solved by preparing a cycling lane for the cyclists.
As a result, the cyclists do not need to cycle besides or on the busy roads which is dangerous to
them. Nowadays, the number of vehicles on the roads are getting increase, this reflect that the air
are getting more pollute because the vehicles will release carbon monoxide that will pollute the
air. Therefore, changing of the transport system into sustainable transport system must be done
for our earth.

As conclusion, in order to transform our urban to become sustainable city we need to

introduce innovation in building design, energy efficiency and transport system for our city. A
series of transformation steps had carried out to overcome the problem that cause pollution in our
city and due to those problem, global warming, greenhouse effect and scarcity of natural
resources are on the rise. Hence, approach to become sustainable city had carried out to design a
city with consideration of environmental impact together with the dedication of people to
minimize the required inputs of energy, water and food which in turn can reduce the waste output
of heat, air pollution and water pollution. This step can lead us to walk on the path to become
sustainable city in the future.