LESTARI ROUND TABLE DIALOGUE

Today I have a chance to attend one day a Round Table Dialogue "MODELLING THE COMPLEXITY OF LIVABLE URBANIZATION" organised by Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), National University of Malaysia (UKM) and Centre for Advance Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London, United Kingdom in Equatorial Hotel Bangi. The Livable City is a normative idea that has been developed to help guide thinking about the way our cities function and develop.

The purposes of the dialogue are :

a. To present the state of international and local effort in modelling the complexity of urbanization;

b. To discuss issues pertaining to information needs and modelling perspectives given the changing urbanization process for sutainable development; and

c.To develop a collaboration for future research in urbanization and sustainability modelling.

I met my friends from Federal Department of Town and Country Planning (FDTCP), Encik Kamalruddin Shamsudin, Deputy Director General 1, Puan Noraziah and Puan Shamsaini. Dr Jalaludin and Dr Siva from FSSK are also attended. A few interesting papers have been presented such as :

a. Modelling and Visualising Sustainable Urban Change: Current and Future Research Agendas by Prof Michael Batty from CASA, United Kingdom;

b. Local Variation of Racial Integration /Segregation in Seremban by Prof Dr Ruslan Rainis from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

c. Modelling the Reality in Planning and Decision Support System : Experience in Malaysia by Prof Dr Alias Abdullah from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

d. Heuristic Approaches to Urban Liveability by Assoc Prof Dr Ray Wyatt from University of Melbourne, Australia

e. Decision Support System for Urban Sustainability Planning by Prof Dr Ahris Yaakup from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

f. Modelling the Complexity of Urbanization by Assoc Prof Abdul Hadi Harman Shah from LESTARI, UKM.

The conclusion from the dialogue:

a. The multiple and overlapping structures and actors that makeup the urbanization process have made attempts at managing it difficult;

b.Over time better tools and conceptualizations are developed to allow for a better understanding of the city;

c. Current efforts at achieving the good life in the city are oriented towards developing sustainable cities;

d. Human-oriented and environmentally friendly, with features that make it attractive and make living in it conveient, safe, and pleasant; a high degree of sustainability is a component of this characteristic;

e. The concept of livability is represent the characteristic that "depends on the attractiveness of an area as a place in which to live, work, invest, and do business;

f. A city may be physically beautiful, but if it suffers from high unemployment, it probably will also suffer from crime and other social problems; and

g. Economically viable and efficient