Residents` perception on the impacts of development on ambient air quality in Gombak district, Selangor /by Eni Tahiri

Abstract

Malaysia in general and Selangor in specific have been undergoing a rapid and major development in the recent years. The fast development of Klang Valley into an urban area during the last decades has affected many of the environmental issues, especially the air pollution. Many literature review address the sources of air pollution, for instance based on Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (2013), it was shown that the construction activities are more likely to produce a high amount of air pollution. Gombak District is located in the Klang Valley and being in this zone the air movement and pollutant levels in the study area are affected by the Klang Valley topography. Gombak District is an area with high density of people and houses that emit a high quantity of air pollutants. Air pollution level in Gombak increased because of development growth. Economic growth made Gombak District a developing area. Many residential, commercial and industrial areas have been constructed and the negativity of this development is the pollution of air. This study was undertaken to examine the quality of the air in Gombak District and the impact of development on air quality in Gombak District, Selangor. Extensive literature study of works related to the topic was undertaken before forming the objectives and research requirements. A questionnaire survey was undertaken with a sample size of 100 as the primary data of the research. The secondary data was obtained from local authorities, reports, articles, etc. Different types of data analyses were carried out to obtain different results. The purpose of literature review was to establish a departure point and to make it easy to understand the research subject. The data obtained from questionnaires survey were analyzed using the statistical program SPSS. Descriptive statistics and tables were generated to easily present the outputs of the survey. The secondary data obtained from Department of Environment in Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment that were collected to study the changes of air pollution index from year 2006 to 2013. The Air Pollution Index (API) daily measurable values were manually calculated to find the monthly average value. Then these data were presented in table to identify the changes of these values from one month to another. Finally, a comparison of two different years was done to show the Air Pollution Index’s values changes between the two years. From the findings it was found that air pollution has increased from year 2006 to 2013. Recommendations were made from the findings on the methods of how to reduce the air pollution and improve the air quality. These methods are: enforcement of laws, zoning of land use, land use class order and people awareness campaign. As conclusion, this research has fulfilled its targeted objectives in relation to its topic on the resident’s perception on the impacts of development on ambient air quality in Gombak district, Selangor.