Sustainable Urbanism: Pathway to Resilient Strategies in Adapting Early Malay Town towards Low Carbon City

Abstract

Due to an alarming rate on the impact of global climate change, the integration of low-carbon goal in regeneration of historic urban areas is regarded as a key part towards the implementation of sustainable urbanism practises based on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Much studies on the planning and design of low carbon strategies concerned overwhelmingly on the new planned cities without much emphasis given on the implemented at old town centre. In the context of Malay early town, the adaptation of the low carbon planning as shifting in environmental conditions is regarded as paramount importance particularly in the planning of the urban form to address the growing complexity of urban fabric at the town. This paper therefore explores the developed framework of Low Carbon City initiative and integration of resilience as an approach in urban transformation and regeneration of Malay early town to provide the platform for understanding the complexity of urban-natural environment from morphological perspective. The purpose of this research is two-fold; firstly, to examine the role of discourse in implementing Low Carbon City Framework (LCCF) in Malaysia at large. The second objective is to identify the place-specific mechanisms based on resilience approach to understand the capacity of urban form system to absorb, adapt or transform in ensuring the dynamic equilibrium of the urban-natural system. Considering Kota Bharu as representative of Malay town, a discursive-analytical perspective framed to examine the upsurge of the LCCF that helps to understand the pathway towards integration of framework at national, state and district level. Such comprehension on implementation measure formed a basis to identify the interactions between environmental performance and urban forms pattern as strategies for resilience. A case study with mapping analysis were employed that revealed significant relations between socio-cultural and environmental dimension which shaped the formation and transformation of urban morphology of the town. This study concludes with an examination of possible future directions for integration of space-morphological approach to general urban resilience for future adaptation planning of Malay towns towards Low Carbon City.