Community perceptions on the impacts of coastal development in Pantai Klebang, Melaka

Abstract

This paper presents the perception of local communities regarding coastal development that is growing rapidly along Pantai Klebang, Melaka. Coastal development started many years ago and the development includes commercial buildings and public realm for recreational activities. However, most of the commercial buildings are left vacant and the new areas have not functioned as planned. These developments contribute to the changing socio-economic of communities living near the beach. This research also focuses on the socio-economic impacts of coastal development on local communities. A convenient sampling of 100 sets of questionnaires was distributed to local communities in Pantai Klebang, Melaka. The Relative Important Index (RII), Spearman test and also Chi-square test were selected to correlate the relationship between variables. The results demonstrate that coastal development along Pantai Klebang increases job opportunities for the communities, especially for hawkers but it also affects them negatively as it contributes to social problems, especially among teenagers. Besides, the result also shows that there is significant relationship between some of the demographic characteristics of respondents and perceptions on the impacts of the coastal development. Further analysis and discussion show that some issues can be solved by improving the main road, increasing safety and security, encouraging effective public participation in decision-making, and having public awareness campaigns.