The Main Issue in EIA on Large Housing Developments

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Name:

OOI CHEL GEEStudent ID:

005093

Module:Environmental

AssessmentModule Code:

H82 ENMTopic:

The main issues in EIA on

large housing developments

Name:

OOI CHEL GEE

Year:2009

Topic:

The main issues in EIA on large

housing developments



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1 Summary

Leading and stimulating the economic growth and social maturity of ASEAN, Malaysia

has done outstandingly after 52 years of endeavour. Likewise other developing countries,this fame has left the emerging country with torrents of environmental associated criticisms.

Bothered by the booming population and uninvited concerns, large housing construction

industry has to focus more on implementation of environmentally sustainable and viable

management. As the term µlarge¶ sounds, it requires doubled involvement of manpower,

acreage and commitment, as well as, contribution and influence. EIA, Environmental Impact

Assessment, is, therefore, a tool to help housing constructing authorities to identify potent

environmental issues that affect the health and safety of their residents as well as the site

and surroundings. Terrain potential, construction material and residues from sites cover

most of the EIA issues for a sustainable building.

2 Introduction

The census report from Department of Statistics Malaysia has recorded an increase

from 28.31 million of population in 2009 compared to the 27.72 million in the preceding

year (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2009). The same source has shown the

construction sector has expanded significantly from the second quarter of 2009 compare to

the previous quarter, indicating the potential and crucial role of comprehensive housing

development and management scheme in the country (Department of Statistics Malaysia

2009). Numerous issues have to be concerned along with the performance of the entire

development involves planning, design, construction, commissioning, management and

maintenance of buildings.

Under the Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities)(Environmental Impact

Assessment) Order, 1987, housing development in Malaysia that takes up a precinct of 50

hectares or more is conventionally large housing development (MIDA 2009). A detailed

environmental assessment report is made compulsory by Department of Environment (DOE)

for large housing development project as a threshold to examine and approve the

residential plan.



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Assessment of housing building plan is not easy since it encompasses a large scoping

range. To meet different standards and legislations, each country has customized own

assessment impact scoping method so is Malaysia. After comparing with the categorisation

methods performed by Hong Kong(HK-BEAM), British(BREEAM) and America(LEED), the

various aspects can better be sorted into site aspect, material aspect, pollution, energy use,

indoor environment quality (HK-BEAM Society 2004), which the first three important

aspects will be further evaluated.

3 Main Issues in EIA on large housing developments

Both authorities and public have parallel tendency to mitigate the adverse effect of

building on the environment whilst ensuring its quality. Sticking to the implementation of

sustainably viable housing, the main issues that will possibly arise environmental tribulation

are discussed.

3.1 Site aspect

Among all, site aspect is always the priority in distinct reports investigated as it is

the key to sustainable pathway. Not to mention the wide range of facets it covers, it can

hardly be modified or changed if it is inappropriate after the construction. Site aspect

includes siting, investigation of terrain and geological potential, ownership of sites,accessibility, local transport and last but not the least availability of neighbourhood

infrastructure and amenities.

Throughout the process of designing and managing, an inclusive Geologic

Information System (GIS) database is required to serve as an early warning system

correspondent to sources of friction, shortfalls and failure of intended sites (Yaakup et al

2007). Data comprises natural and artificial features such as roads, rivers, hypsography,

census, existing and future land use patterns are pooled to investigate their spatial

relationship (USGS 2004).

It is always hard to strike even a delicate balance between development and

preservation as people have inexplicable keen of short-term well-being. Somehow, the

designated building project is discouraged to build on a site which may cause a decisive

destruction on the ecology and also the cultural heritage. Moreover, contractors are mostly

encouraged to reuse reclaimed land and previously developed land, thus instant remediation



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is necessary to rehabilitate the site if the past land use, notwithstanding contaminated land

or landfills, is incompatible or inheritable (BREEAM 2008). Large housing area in Malaysia, in

general, is located at the sub-urban area, such as Petaling Jaya, Cheras, Kepong etc. Either

developing in pristine rural or congested metropolitan area, the site has to ad its own

deterrence to ensure the living quality of residents. For instance, a particular size of buffer

zone has to be integrated into the residential area in city to alleviate the effects of air, water,

noise and land (DOE 1994).

Highly accessible large housing region can decrease the carbon footprint generated

by travelling. Same concept is applied to the availability of infrastructure and amenities.

Currently in Malaysia, the open space ratio based on the population is 1.5 acres per 1000

residents, which much lower than the ideal statistics (Md Dali 2004), suggested that the

planners should be put more attention on this aspect.

3.2 Material aspect

Types and impact of the bilateral materials and waste have to be identified so that

proper approach to manage waste is practised. Basically, the waste can be categorised into

construction waste, biomass waste, general refuse, household and commercial waste. The

concept of ³from cradle to cradle´ is introduced in the developed country to account the

waste problem from its whole life cycle. Often, the life cycle analysis (LCA) is the way to

validate the usage of a material by analysing the construction, maintenance anddecommission of the properties (G.P. Gerilla et al 2006).

The main construction type in Malaysia

is steel reinforced concrete (SRC) housing.

The report done by Department of Civil

Engineering of Saga University, Japan, has

reviewed that this housing type has

contributed to a detrimental amount of green

house gases emissions, which are carbon

dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxides and

suspended particulate matter (SPM) (G.P.

Gerilla et al 2006).

Figure 1: Environmental impact on calculated emissions

(Abstracted from G.P.Gerilla et. al. 2006)



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The building materials not only encompass the body of the house, it also includes the

hard landscaping and protection as the peripheries, which is the buffering zone mentioned

above (BREEAM 2007). The best measure to efficiently reduce the construction,

refurbishment and demolition waste is by identifying the most suitable environmental-

benign materials and optimizing the amount of components needed so that no excess waste

has to be loaded to the landfill. It is also particularly imperative to apply modular and

standardised elements in proposed design to reduce the virgin materials needed as well as

the waste formed (BREEAM 2008). Aside from reducing the waste, we can, in fact, apply

other models in the 3R, reuse and recycle. Reusing leftover or recovering the in-situ existing

building façade are also perceived as a decisive abatement of cost and waste in a big

project (Devon).

In order to minimize the municipal garbage amount during the earthwork, it is

encouraged to use well-managed forest product for temporary works. During the beginning

of the project, a waste management system should be introduced to sort out non-

recoverable waste and dispose it accordingly to its nature (HK-BEAM 2004). Although it is

still not too common in Malaysia, indisputably it can benefit both the constructor and the

residents in the district.

3.3 Pollution

The emissions from the site include air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution,

light pollution and so on. They can be simply produced in two phases which is the

construction phase and operating phase.

The chief contributor of the air pollution is the exhaust gas originated from the

vehicles and residue from the construction work. Transporting the ample building goods and

labour force to the site escalates the carbon footprint (DOE 2007). Same concept applies to

the availability of facilities and recreation parks as mentioned in the site aspect. Adequate

mitigation approaches for air and dust emissions can be applied to compliance with the air

pollution restrictions.

The noise pollution that will bring upon mental distress is avoidable during the

building period as the noise is predictable via published data. As indicated by EIA Guidelines

for Housing and New Township Development Project released by Department of

Environment Malaysia in 2003, acceptable noise level for some machines is by far 30m. As



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a matter of fact, noise problem is not a main concern in Malaysia under daylight, whereas,

all construction works have to halt after 7 p.m. to prevent mental disruption of populace

around (DOE 2007).

Study states that the main sources of water contaminants are suspended sediment

from soil erosion and runoff during building and functioning stages (DOE 2007). The effect

of using polluted water seems to be not noticeable but it will accumulate and cause impacts

over time (Steven Winter Associates, Inc. 1996). Thus, the quality of water supply is

appraised by Interim National Water Quality Standards and Water Quality Index whilst the

effluent discharge is evaluated against Environmental Quality (Sewage and Industrial

Effluents) Regulations 1979 (Nahrim 2008) to make sure the developers are obligated by

sense of duty.

4 Conclusion

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure in Malaysia introduces as a

guideline for new or existing large housing development projects. It seems to be essentially

curative as a precaution for any possible failure. Aside from site aspect, material aspect and

pollution problem, other issues that are relatively important should also be taken into

consideration including energy use, water use, indoor environment quality, health and well-

being etc. However, some are remained to be not solved due to the lack of mandatory

surveillance and public review. Prevention is better than cure. Planning is the utmost

important stage in a process and should be seen as an evaluation phase for further

improvement and prospect (Chadwick, 1971).

5 References:

BREEAM (2007), Methodology for Environmental Profiles of Construction Products, Britain:

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method

BREEAM (2008), BREEAM Multi-residential 2008 Assessor Manual , Britain: Building ResearchEstablishment Environmental Assessment Method

Chadwick, G. (1971) A System View of Planning. Britain: Oxford, Pergamon Press.

Department of Statistics Malaysia (2009) N ational Summary Data Page- Population [online],

Malaysia: Jabatan Perangkaan Malaysia, available:

http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/ index.php [accessed: 24 October 2009]



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Department of Statistics Malaysia (2009) N ational Product and Expenditure Accounts

Second Quarter 2009 [online], Malaysia: Jabatan Perangkaan Malaysia, available:

http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/index.php [accessed: 25 October 2009]

Devon (2006), The Problem with Waste [online], UK: Devon City Council, available:

http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/ [accessed on 31 Oct 2009]

DOE (1994), Guidelines for the Siting and Zoning of Industries, Malaysia: Department of

Environment.

DOE (2007), EIA Guidance Document for Housing, Activity 7 in Areas Gazetted for Housing,

Malaysia: Department of Environment.

G.P. Gerilla, K. Teknomo and K. Hokao (2006), An environmental assessment of wood and

steel reinforced concrete housing construction, Japan: Elsevier Ltd

Lim, G.T. , Shum, C.H., Wong, J. (2007) Development of Environmental Assessment Criteria

and Protocol for Residential and Commercial Development , Singapore: National University of

Singapore(NUS)

HK-BEAM Society (2004) An Environmental Assessment for N ew Buildings Version 4/04,

Hong Kong: HK-BEAM Society.

Md Dali, Melasutra (2004), Urban Open Spaces Uses as a Function of Lifestyle and Spaces

Characteristics: the Malaysian Context [online], available:

http://www.openspace.eca.ac.uk/conference/proceedings/PDF/Mddali.pdf [accessed on 26

Oct 2009]

MIDA (2009), Environmental Management [online], available:

http://www.mida.gov.my/en_v2/index.php?page=environmental-requirements [accessed

on 22 October 2009]

Nahrim Malaysia (2008), Interim N ational Water Quality Standards for Malaysia[online],

available:

http://www.nahrim.gov.my/download/pkkaas/Table%202_%20INTERIM%20NATIONAL%20

WATER%20QUALITY%20STANDARDS%20FOR%20MALAYSIA.pdf [accessed on 31 October]

Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (1996), Environmental Assessment Guide for Public Housing [online], available:http://www.huduser.org/publications/pubasst/enviro.html# [accessed on 15 October 2009]

USGS (2007), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) [online], United States: U.S.Geological Survey, available:http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/gis_poster/ [accessed on 26 October 2009]

Yaakup, A., Sulaiman, S., Musa N., Mohamed J.M., Mohd. Z. I., (2007) GIS as Tools for Monitoring the Urban Development in Metropolitan Region: A Case of Klang Valley Region, Peninsular Malaysia, available:http://gisdevelopment.net/proceedings/gisdeco/sessions/s5_ahris.htm [accessed on 1

November 2009]

The Main Issue in EIA on Large Housing Developments

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