This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.
Little attention has been paid to the impacts of institutional–human–environment dimensions on the outcome of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) abatement. Through the diagnostic social–ecological system (SES) framework, this review paper aimed to investigate what and how the multifaceted social, physical, and governance factors affected the success level of seven selected Asia-Pacific countries (namely, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and New Zealand) in combatting COVID-19. Drawing on statistical data from the Our World In Data website, we measured the COVID-19 severity or abatement success level of the countries on the basis of cumulative positive cases, average daily cases, and mortality rates for the period of 1 February 2020 to 30 June 2020. A qualitative content analysis using three codes, i.e., present (P), partially present (PP), and absent (A) for each SES attribute, as well as score calculation and rank ordering for government response effectiveness and the abatement success level across the countries, was undertaken. Not only did the standard coding process ensure data comparability but the data were deemed substantially reliable with Cohen’s kappa of 0.76. Among 13 attributes of the SES factors, high facility adequacy, comprehensive COVID-19 testing policies, strict lockdown measures, imposition of penalty, and the high trust level towards the government seemed to be significant in determining the COVID-19 severity in a country. The results show that Vietnam (ranked first) and New Zealand (ranked second), with a high presence of attributes/design principles contributing to high-level government stringency and health and containment indices, successfully controlled the virus, while Indonesia (ranked seventh) and Japan (ranked sixth), associated with the low presence of design principles, were deemed least successful. Two lessons can be drawn: (i) having high number of P for SES attributes does not always mean a panacea for the pandemic; however, it would be detrimental to a country if it lacked them severely, and (ii) some attributes (mostly from the governance factor) may carry higher weightage towards explaining the success level. This comparative study providing an overview of critical SES attributes in relation to COVID-19 offers novel policy insights, thus helping policymakers devise more strategic, coordinated measures, particularly for effective country preparedness and response in addressing the current and the future health crisis.
Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling; Nur Amiera Binti Md Suhud; Pau Chung Leng; Lee Bak Yeo; Chin Tiong Cheng; Mohd Hamdan Haji Ahmad; Ak Mohd Rafiq Ak Matusin. Factors Influencing Asia-Pacific Countries’ Success Level in Curbing COVID-19: A Review Using a Social–Ecological System (SES) Framework. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2021, 18, 1704 .
AMA StyleGabriel Hoh Teck Ling, Nur Amiera Binti Md Suhud, Pau Chung Leng, Lee Bak Yeo, Chin Tiong Cheng, Mohd Hamdan Haji Ahmad, Ak Mohd Rafiq Ak Matusin. Factors Influencing Asia-Pacific Countries’ Success Level in Curbing COVID-19: A Review Using a Social–Ecological System (SES) Framework. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18 (4):1704.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGabriel Hoh Teck Ling; Nur Amiera Binti Md Suhud; Pau Chung Leng; Lee Bak Yeo; Chin Tiong Cheng; Mohd Hamdan Haji Ahmad; Ak Mohd Rafiq Ak Matusin. 2021. "Factors Influencing Asia-Pacific Countries’ Success Level in Curbing COVID-19: A Review Using a Social–Ecological System (SES) Framework." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 4: 1704.
A few studies on outdoor human thermal comfort (HTC) have been conducted in the tropical region in a hot and humid climate; however, there is a paucity of discussions on how exactly different spatial settings influence HTC. Thus, this paper aims to examine how land use land cover (LULC) affects HTC on the basis of the simulation of Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) indices via ENVI-met and Rayman. The results reveal that people living in the urban area have a higher tendency to experience strong heat stress (25% of the areas with PMV ranging from 3.4 to 3.9 and 2% of the areas, where PMV reached 4.1), followed by the rural area (43% of the areas with PMV ranging from 2.1 to 2.4), and the suburban area (more than 50% of the areas with PMV values less than 2.4). Surprisingly, a concrete LULC in the suburb area exhibits a higher air temperature than an asphalt surface at 4 p.m., due to the large area of high albedo that increases the reflection of solar radiation, subsequently contributing to warming up the airmass. Similarly, sandy, and loamy LULC tend to emit more heat during nighttime, while the heat is absorbed slowly during daytime, and it is then slowly released during nighttime after 6 p.m. Spatial settings that promote heat stress in the urban area are mainly contributed by an LULC of asphalt, concrete, sandy, and loamy areas. Meanwhile, people in the suburban and rural areas are less likely to experience heat stress, due to agricultural plantations and lowland forest that provide shade, except for the barren lands-loamy areas. The result also indicates that tree-covered areas near the river in the suburban area afforded the best thermal experience with PMV of 2.1 and PET of 30.7. From the LULC comparison, it is pivotal to consider tree species (canopy density), surface material (albedo), sky-view factor, wind direction, and speed toward designing a more comfortable and sustainable environment.
Lee Yeo; Gabriel Ling; Mou Tan; Pau Leng. Interrelationships between Land Use Land Cover (LULC) and Human Thermal Comfort (HTC): A Comparative Analysis of Different Spatial Settings. Sustainability 2021, 13, 382 .
AMA StyleLee Yeo, Gabriel Ling, Mou Tan, Pau Leng. Interrelationships between Land Use Land Cover (LULC) and Human Thermal Comfort (HTC): A Comparative Analysis of Different Spatial Settings. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (1):382.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLee Yeo; Gabriel Ling; Mou Tan; Pau Leng. 2021. "Interrelationships between Land Use Land Cover (LULC) and Human Thermal Comfort (HTC): A Comparative Analysis of Different Spatial Settings." Sustainability 13, no. 1: 382.
People tend to spend approximately 87% of their time in the indoor environment. There is a possibility that they are exposed to volatile organic compound (VOC) and particle pollution, and to experience stress related disorder. This has potential threaten the well-being of indoor occupants if left untreated. Hence, plants were introduced to alleviate these negative impacts. This paper reviews past literature from 1990 to 2010s, to examine the relationship of plants with indoor environment and identifies how they influence people, psychologically and physiologically, and how they promote indoor environment quality. Most studies suggest that the presence of plants is associated with positive feelings and able to enhance productivity. In addition, they also may help to promote general health such as reducing blood pressure, perceived stress, sick building syndrome, and increase pain tolerance of the patient. Moreover, plants also help in improving the indoor environment quality (IEQ), for instance, they can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2), indoor ozone (O3) level, VOC, and particulate matter accumulation through bioremediation process. Despite all the benefits that the plants could offer, several studies pointed out that factors such as gender, perceived attractiveness of the space, physical characteristics of plants, and methods of interaction with plants may lead to non-identical results. Hence, the selection of the right species of plant in an indoor environment becomes mandatory in order to improve the indoor environment quality; to provide restorative effect; to invoke positive feelings and comfort of the people. In conclusion, this review may provide notable insights to landscape architects, gardeners and even interior designers to choose the right species of plant in an indoor environment, to maximize their psychological and physiological benefits, at the same time, improving indoor environment quality.
Lee Bak Yeo. Psychological And Physiological Benefits Of Plants In The Indoor Environment: A Mini And In-Depth Review. International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability 2020, 8, 57 -67.
AMA StyleLee Bak Yeo. Psychological And Physiological Benefits Of Plants In The Indoor Environment: A Mini And In-Depth Review. International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability. 2020; 8 (1):57-67.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLee Bak Yeo. 2020. "Psychological And Physiological Benefits Of Plants In The Indoor Environment: A Mini And In-Depth Review." International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability 8, no. 1: 57-67.
Lee Bak Yeo. Mapping Recreational Ecosystem Service At Sub-Districts Of Muar. AIMC 2017 - Asia International Multidisciplinary Conference 2018, 1 .
AMA StyleLee Bak Yeo. Mapping Recreational Ecosystem Service At Sub-Districts Of Muar. AIMC 2017 - Asia International Multidisciplinary Conference. 2018; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLee Bak Yeo. 2018. "Mapping Recreational Ecosystem Service At Sub-Districts Of Muar." AIMC 2017 - Asia International Multidisciplinary Conference , no. : 1.
Land use/ cover (LULC) changes in Malaysia are drastic and have caused many environment problems. In Malaysia, LULC mapping often emphasized on municipal level and a few on state and national levels. While, mapping in detail level such as village scale is still in dearth. Hence, this study aims to map the LULC changes in a village scale at urban, suburb and rural areas of Muar. Latest available Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial data year 2010 were obtained from Department of Agriculture Muar. The processing methods mainly involve the operation of GIS and Google Earth. We calculated the percentage of urbanization for every sub-district and selected three plots to compare the LULC changes in year 2010 and 2015, a five years’ interval. Results showed that urban area, Bandar Maharani has changed slightly in term of overall LULC. For Sungai Terap, agricultural land has greatly declined because it was converted to barren land and open space for new housing, industrial areas and commodity’s plants. For rural area, Ayer Hitam’s forest cover has shrunk due to deforestation, and therefore it has led to the increase of barren land. Generally, majority of the agricultural lands are abandoned at urban area. Furthermore, agricultural lands in both suburb and rural areas are in poor condition. In conclusion, mapping LULC in village scale is rather significant even a small change is noticeable which is important to consider, particularly for low carbon and sustainable development.
Lee Bak Yeo. Mapping Land Use/ Cover Changes and Urbanization at Sub- districts of Muar, Malaysia. 2017, 1 .
AMA StyleLee Bak Yeo. Mapping Land Use/ Cover Changes and Urbanization at Sub- districts of Muar, Malaysia. . 2017; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLee Bak Yeo. 2017. "Mapping Land Use/ Cover Changes and Urbanization at Sub- districts of Muar, Malaysia." , no. : 1.
This paper presents the concept of ecosystem services and its trend, scale and gradient, through reviewing articles, books and internet sources. Result shows that evaluation of ecosystem services in small towns within urban-rural gradient in developing countries still not being scrutinized explicitly, especially trade-offs’ concern. Environmental damages in the developing countries are burgeoning. As land conversion from natural capital to built capital is also keep on rising for temporal economic interests. Therefore, it has induced changes in ecological functions and affected the ecosystem services supply. In the context of Peninsular Malaysia, ungoverned built capitals and flaw of policy further contribute to fallacious decision making. And yet, there is still no specific framework or initiatives directly deals with ecosystem and biodiversity. A conceptual framework has been proposed to assess and value ecosystem services through integration of InVEST model (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) and bundle of ecosystem services. The framework allows stakeholders to have an insight of the pros and cons about the landscape changes, be it in ecological, economic or social-cultural perspectives. Therefore, it may help to ameliorate the trade-offs and enhance the synergies of ecosystem services that eventually can contribute to attaining human well-being, and to promote sustainable growth.
Lee Bak Yeo; Ismail Said; Kei Saito; Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling. Conceptual Framework of Ecosystem Services in Landscape Planning, Malaysia. International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability 2016, 3, 1 .
AMA StyleLee Bak Yeo, Ismail Said, Kei Saito, Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling. Conceptual Framework of Ecosystem Services in Landscape Planning, Malaysia. International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability. 2016; 3 (3):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLee Bak Yeo; Ismail Said; Kei Saito; Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling. 2016. "Conceptual Framework of Ecosystem Services in Landscape Planning, Malaysia." International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability 3, no. 3: 1.