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.