Step 4: Clarify facts as well as feelings.

4.1 In your initial reading, some of the case's facts, elements or issues may not have seemed
very important. As you reflect on the case, are there items which have grown in importance
in your mind?
One of the most obvious elements is the socioeconomic of people in Kuala Lumpur, the
vendors, people that work at Kuala Lumpur but live in different cities, building owners, and
residents of Kuala Lumpur. The increase in the frequency of hazardous events has a severe
impact on urban areas through disruption in various important and critical aspects of city life
(Bhuiyan et al., 2018, ). Flash floods in Kuala Lumpur happen every month occasionally and
only half a day of rain can make an instant flash flood and be a burden to everyone that resides
there. The vendor would have loss thousands of ringgit everytime flood happened and they can't
avoid this natural disaster. Most of the floods happen without any warning and for vendors that
don't prepare for this kind of situation, they will face a lot of loss. People that work at Kuala
Lumpur and drove their vehicle would always worry about their vehicle drowning even only
after half days of rain. They need to apply for insurance and wait for a long time to be able to
buy a new one. Another obvious element is the value of building in the area would decrease
drastically, who would want to rent or buy a building where it will be flooded every time it rains.
In the end they could only sell the building and land to the developer and get less than the market
value. The one victim that faced all the lost and mentally exhausted is Kuala Lumpur’s resident
itself. The amount of money and fortune that they lost due to the flash flood is unbearable,
especially their house and vehicle.
Second most obvious element is urbanization, making the land in Kuala Lumpur unsafe
and worse is the increase of infrastructure with no limit. According to Daim & Alagesh (2022),
the flood mitigation system of drain and flood could not handle the heavy downpour and the
doubt of the actual capacity when the new development project started. Rapid development on
Kuala Lumpur causes two major rivers, Sungai Gombak and Sungai Klang to be overflowed and
unable to contain the water level especially during heavy rain. The lack proper planning from the
government by not considering the possibility of climate change and ignoring the huge amount
of development that causes the clogging and overtopping of rivers.
The third element is impacting the victim's emotion and mental state due to consistent
fear of flood after heavy rain. Most of the victims suffer from PTSD (Post-traumatic stress
disorder), anxiety and depression after the event of flood. Despite the duration of flash flood it is
short but impacts on the victim for the unexpected flood and leaves people unprepared. The
physical pain, the mental exhaustion that could be severe have a big impact on people (Bhuiyan
et al., 2018,).

4.2 What items need clarification? In order to process the case study, will you have to make
some assumptions about some key unstated facts?
The difference between normal flood and flash flood is that a normal flood lasts longer in
the term of time, it might last for days while flash flood only lasts for a few hours. Flash floods
are surprises that are caused by heavy rainfall in a short period of time generally less than 6
hours. Normal floods on the other hand will give their victims time to prepare and collect all the
important documents in time. While flash floods can happen even without rain, it may happen
due to overflowing water from a lake or river, especially with addition of stone and sand from
surrounding.
Flash floods in Kuala Lumpur were heavily affected by huge development and no proper
discharge plan. The already developed project was miscalculating the waterflow and land of use
and the calculation cannot be used in the worst-case scenario. It believe that in 10 years time,
these issues will get worse if our government fails to do anything regarding this unplanned
development in the urban center of Kuala Lumpur.

4.3 What feelings do you and others have after reading the case study?
I feel pity for all the victims that always face the anxiety everytime it rains and how they
need to make sure all their family members are safe and need to look after their property, it is a
constant fear in their mind. Their safety is on the line, not to mention their income for the people
that work at Kuala Lumpur and the business owner. The victim and family related would be
angry cause there seems to be no action taken by the government to help them to manage this
natural disaster. Flood is not something uncommon for Malaysians but if it happens every month
and takes a long period for the government to take action, it will end up making them in rage.
Step 5: Consider the case study from different angles.
We can take this to two different angles, the victim and the organization that is involved
in order to solve this issue. The victims would be resident’s in Kuala Lumpur, workers that work
in Kuala Lumpur but live in different cities, business owners that own shops in hot places that
always flood. The organization responsible would be DBKL ( Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur)
and (DID) Department of Irrigation and Drainage.
The residents in Kuala Lumpur will always be extra alert when it is raining in their place
but we cannot ignore the fact that this natural disaster will help to build relationships between the
neighbors. People that don’t talk to each other on a daily basis, interact with one another and
help each other have such a harmonis view. These residents also will set a very minimalist
lifestyle due to the fact they always need to prepare for the upcoming flash flood. Meanwhile the
workers that work in Kuala Lumpur would use public transport instead of using their vehicle to
their workplace. It is very convenient as they will never need to feel anxious or worried
regarding their motorcycle or car whenever heavy rain hits the city. Plus it will save their money
on petrol since the gas money keeps increasing day by day. Business owners will be more
creative in their shop design to avoid all the loss in terms of raw material, furniture and safety
hazards.
DBKL plan in 2022 for handling flash flood in Kuala Lumpur can be seen as a
government try-out to handle this never ending saga of flood that happens every month in Kuala
Lumpur. They plan to use Water-absorbent Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) for the road and public
area, it is expensive but it is water repellent material and it will not damage the land of use due to
constant contact of long period water from the flash flood. DID on the other hand keep
upgrading their drainage system to be at par with the development that is going on in Kuala
Lumpur. The old drainage system cannot afford the amount of water from heavy rain and from
the on-going development, hence DID will need to step up on their game and keep improving to
avoid this issue to resurface everytime heavy rain hits the city. These two organizations better be
quick in solving this issue, if this flash flood keeps on-going the country will need to prepare for
the possibility of another epidemics. The continuous flash flood that happen every month in the
city could increase dengue, malaria and other water-borne disease epidemics (Tahir et al., 2020).

Step 6: Dig around for resources

 The one organization that can decrease the amount of flash floods that happen in Kuala
Lumpur is DID (Department of Irrigation and Drainage). The constant change of land due to
climate change makes all the old drainage systems “fail” to do their work. The government also
plans to use water-absorbent Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) to increase the possibility of limiting
flash floods every time there is heavy rain. DID need to upgrade their drainage system and clean
all the rubbish and dirt that cause all the blockage and contribute to the possibility of flash flood.
DID also need to do collaboration with Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART) to
fix this issue together. These two organizations should be working together to fix this tissue as
they both are needed to solve these issues.
National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) partnership with the Meteorology
department would be a huge help for the victims or possible victims to be prepared for flash
floods. NADMA will be sending a message or short message service (SMS) to all Kuala Lumpur
residents as soon as they get information from the Meteorology department regarding their
reading. They also can post on LED Billboard regarding the heavy rain and possibility of flash
flood in the road to keep the driver alert and the water level and ensure their safety. They also
can post on all social media and even traditional media like radio and television for possible
heavy rain and the estimated period of the rain to make people prepare for the possibility of
floods. This might not solve this issue but this definitely saves a lot of victim property and life
by knowing the danger ahead of them.
Step 7: Make some assertions
Create mini forests like New York city for pedestrians to walk in and to reduce flood
prone areas so the forest will act as barriers against the overflow water from heavy rain and to
strengthen the soil to avoid erosion. Not only that, this solution can help in minimizing the
possibility of flash floods but also help to balance the biodiversity of the city. This plan can be
done by DBKL and researchers already recommend this to the government. These researchers
also recommend building swales at house and shop areas or low-are and highway that are prone
to flash floods. Swales is a sunken hole that is a shallow channel that can manage water runoff,
filter rubbish or any pollution material and increase rainwater infiltration.
Early warning system and disaster risk reduction that are continuous and always updated
to help to handle the issue. Organizations like MetMalaysia and the National Disaster
Management Agency (Nadma) could apply Geographic Information System (GIS) to produce
flood hazard maps daily especially in areas prone to flooding (Yeo, 2022). This will help people
within the area to be prepared and help the victim to avoid any fatal that would need to be death.