Evaluation of carbon sequestration rate towards landscape planting design at urban parks in Subang Jaya, Selangor

Abstract

This research is done based on the current environmental issues concerning the high released of carbon emissions. Carbon emissions are expected to continue to increase unless major changes are made in the way carbon is managed. Managing urban carbon emissions has emerged as an area of critical research and has become a key national agenda since the last century. This understanding leads to research questions and objectives about the carbon sequestration by plants and its contributions. A promising approach to reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere is by carbon sequestration through selecting appropriate plant materials as well as optimisation of spatial and space organisation of green spaces. Thus, the aim of this research is to evaluate the carbon sequestration rate (CSR) towards landscape planting design of urban parks in Subang Jaya, Selangor. While, the objectives of this research are to calculate the carbon sequestration rate produced by different landscape planting design at selected urban parks, to identify which type of landscape planting design is effective in sequestering carbon emissions and lastly, to offer recommendations toward optimising the carbon sequestration rate. The research methodology addressed three steps approaches consisted of inventory and analysis, calculation, lastly followed by recommendations to overcome the issues. In this study, the information needed to calculate CSR are only the plants specifications such as heights, diameter, age and quantity and lastly the size of area and percentage of green area of the selected sites. Thus, the landscape planting plan of selected sites was collected by local authorities. Three urban parks with different landscape planting design comprising Subang Jaya Urban Park (Informal Landscape Planting Design), Putra Heights Neighbourhood Park (Curvilinear Landscape Planting Design) and Linear Park (Linear Landscape Planting Design) were assessed for the relationship between the landscape planting design and the carbon sequestration rate. Our findings revealed that, the informal landscape planting design is more effective in absorbing the carbon emissions rather than curvilinear and linear landscape planting design. The study also found that the tree is the most powerful agent in absorbing the carbon emissions in the atmosphere. The significant outcomes of this assessment will be a novel landscape design approach to neutralising carbon emission which is cost effective and environmental friendly. This study offers new knowledge for various parties such as developers, designers and landscape architects to reduce global carbon emissions.