AL-FATIHAH....FOR PROF DR. AHRIS YAAKUP

Today 9 October 2008, I received sms from Dr Jalal dan a few friends from Federal Department of Town and Country Planning, Peninsular Malaysia, to inform that Prof Dr Ahris Yaakup Senior Lecturer from Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment (FAB), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, (UTM) has passed away in New Zealand. Allahyarham Prof. Dr. Ahris created a planning support system that can be used by local councils and planning agencies to control and monitor urban development. Allahyarham Prof. Dr. Ahris has written a few articles related to urban planning such as:

• GIS and Decision Support Systems for local authority in Malaysia

• A GIS Approach to Spatial Modeling for Squatter Settlement Planning in Kuala-Lumpur

• Incorporating GIS into sustainable urban and regional planning. The Malaysian case

• Geoinformation Technology and Urban Planning: From Database to Knowledgebase

• A geographic information system (GIS) and multi-criteria analysis for sustainable tourism planning , etc

Even I was not UTM student or his student, I have attended a few seminar and workshops delivered by Prof Dr Ahris. I think he is a urban planning scholar. For him.... "planning methodology has changed over the years as emphasis has shifted from producing plan, which described a state of affairs expected of some future date to one, which acknowledged the continuous and cyclical nature of planning. Thus planning should be based on the identification of needs and goals, the formulation and evaluation of alternative courses of action and monitoring of adopted programmes. By tracing the evolving view of planning, this paper will discuss the likewise evolving concern of the information technology. It can be demonstrated that the development of planning support system run parallel to the database to information followed by the current focus on applied science approach in the 1960s through a focus on the political process in the 1970s to an emphasis on communication in the 1980s."

Prof Dr Ahris is so passionate about the development of Geographical Information Technology (GIT) as a tool for planning in Malaysia indicates the growing GIT application in planning process. For him Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be used to assist decision–making, taking into account among other things, the current scenarios of the proposed development, physical constraint and future impacts. ... AL FATIHAH...may god bless you and rest in peace...