Hong Ching Goh

University of Malaya | UM · Faculty of Built Environment

Perceived norms attached to public transport travel significantly reinforce mobility inequalities. Such mobility inequalities contribute to social exclusion, particularly among vulnerable groups such as older adults. Thus, understanding the antecedents of older adults' social exclusion behaviour is vital in advancing knowledge and promoting social...

The Philippine coastal marine ecosystem provides many Ecosystem Services (ES) and is a region where coastal communities are closely dependent on the sea. Previous ES studies focus mainly on biophysical and economic assessments with limited studies about Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), particularly in the Philippines. Here, we present the CES pro...

Diverse and inclusive marine research is paramount to addressing ocean sustainability challenges in the 21st century, as envisioned by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Despite increasing efforts to diversify ocean science, women continue to face barriers at various stages of their career, which inhibits their progression...

Background Many conservation management interventions have been set up to bring win–win outcomes for both biodiversity conservation and the well-being of the local communities. Nevertheless, the implementation process of marine protected areas (MPAs) can generate unexpected outcomes and fail to reach its objectives in addressing communities’ challe...

Neighborhood accessibility affects a wider range of people, especially the vulnerable groups. The disablement of the built environment imposes limitation for the vulnerable groups to reach facilities and services independently. The built environment can only be effective when it is interconnected and seamless. Research in the past focuses on proble...

Environmental governance systems are expanding in size and complexity as they become more integrated and ecosystem-based. In doing so, governance transitions often involve more actors and knowingly or unknowingly alter the autonomy of actors to make decisions, and thereby the ability of the governance system to self-organise. In other words, these...

Mangrove forests in Southeast Asia are continuously declining as a result of unsustainable practices, partly due to limited recognition of the value of mangrove services in land use decision making. Valuation practitioners have assumed that monetary valuation should inform local and national decision makers to ensure sustainable management of mangr...

Mangroves continue to be extensively replaced for alternative land uses despite global recognition of their value for ecosystem services. Limited effort has been directed into understanding how changes in mangrove ecosystems affect human well-being, especially in Asia. Using the inhabited Klang Islands, Selangor, Malaysia as a case study, this pape...

Transport can significantly contribute to independent and healthy ageing, but in Pakistan—as in various other countries across the globe—many older adults are dependent on others. Age-sensitive transport environments are crucial for generating positive experiences among older adults. Notably, psychosocial experiences significantly impact public tra...

Recycling and source separation (R&SS) are believed to have been the first attempt to minimise waste. This research adopted mixed methods that followed sequential quantitative then qualitative data collection, combining questionnaire surveys from 100 households, semi-structured interviews, and participatory observations to study the human dimension...

Successful buy-in and support for management of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) should acknowledge the existing cultural ecosystem services and their connections to the well-being of local communities to gain positive perceptions. It is necessary to engage local stakeholders, especially among the youths, to explore governance complexities of MPAs and...

Interdisciplinary research is paramount to addressing ocean sustainability challenges in the 21st century. However, women leaders have been underrepresented in interdisciplinary marine research, and there is little guidance on how to achieve the conditions that will lead to an increased proportion of women scientists in positions of leadership. Her...

Tongkonan is a style of vernacular architecture famous in Toraja, a mountainous region in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Tongkonan traditional house is a symbol of the Toraja people, representing the ancestors and the entire cosmos of life – from birth to death. The houses and their arrangement within a settlement form a social and cultural space that ga...

Environmental governance systems are expanding in size and complexity as they become more integrated and ecosystem-based. In doing so, governance transitions often involve more actors and knowingly or unknowingly alter the autonomy of actors to make decisions and thereby the ability of the governance system to self-organise. In short, we argue that...

Tourism and climate are inextricably linked to several interactions. In recent years, there has been a greater focus on the linkages between climate change and coastal tourism. This study aims to provide an overview of the literature on climate change and coastal tourism, identify core areas of interest and important sources and authors, and examin...

Ecosystem service potential Confidence scores Evidence gaps particularly scarce, especially in SE Asia. Given the growing coastal population and expansion in blue economy sectors in SE Asia, evidence to support effective marine planning, such as ecosystem service assessments, is urgently needed. Data deficiencies for marine systems, especially (but...

Mobility is a critical factor in promoting social sustainability. Previous studies have confirmed the critical psychological determinants that influence individual mobility. However, these studies rarely considered the relationships among different psychological factors of public transport users and social inclusion. The present study addresses thi...

Protected areas in Malaysia have always been managed using top-down approach that often exclude the local communities, who are the main users of ecosystem services, from the planning and management. However, a newly established multiple-use marine park in Malaysia, Tun Mustapha Park (TMP), aims for inclusivity in managing the park. This research ex...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused (and continues to cause) severe disruption in global and local economies and has forced countries, societies, and individuals to adapt quickly to the unprecedented and unpredictable situations. Despite the obvious negative consequences of the pandemic, many have called for efforts to identify transformative opportun...

The covid-19 pandemic brings tragedy to all aspects of life globally, and the tourism industry has been hit hard as national borders are closed with restricted travels permitted. Based on the field research experience of more than 10 years, attending webinars and extensive desktop study, this viewpoint paper describes the strategies proposed within...

Tongkonan, a Toraja vernacular architecture, reflects the tangible and intangible value of the social, economic, and political lives. Furthermore, the coffee culture, together with the Tongkonan, is part of the cultural landscape. For most Toraja people, coffee considers a primary income, but the current coffee value chain is operated in a long lin...

The GCRF Blue Communities programme is growing interdisciplinary marine research capacity and application in Southeast Asia.

Policy brief around more integrated mangrove management in the Klang Islands, Malaysia

In recent decades, the percentage of women working outside their homes has ascended in many developing countries depicts the needs on the understanding of how women travel daily. Many claims, public transportation facilities, and infrastructure related to it do not consider the needs of women travelers but fit men's standards. As a result, many fac...

The research found that the coffee value chain operates in a long linear path and has not adopted the local wisdom point of view. The real actors in the primary stage are community-based stakeholders. To employ the circular economy framework as the latest sustainable approach to the value chain, then the gap of the social value of the societal stru...

Despite wide recognition of the multiple ecosystem services provided by mangroves, they continue to experience decline and degradation especially in the face of urbanization. Given the interplay between multiple resources and stakeholders in the fate of mangroves, mangrove management can be framed as a nexus challenge and nexus thinking used to ide...

Mobility generally refers to the ability or capacity to move. The subject of women’s mobility has been well documented and investigated by researchers since the 1970s. Early studies were initially inspired by the issue of gender-based violence encountered by women. At the same time, there is increasing research on women transportation mobility du...

Transport planning and public health have been intertwined historically. The health impact of public transport services, such as social exclusion, is a widely discussed research topic. Social exclusion is a paramount concern for older adults’ health in the wake of emerging global challenges. However, there remains a significant research gap on how...

Introduction: Coastal areas in Malaysia can have important impacts on the livelihoods and health of local communities. Efforts by Malaysian government to develop and improve the landscape and ecosystem have been planned; however, the progress has been relatively slow because some of the coastal areas are remote and relatively inaccessible. Thus, t...

While cemeteries represent a part of any society’s cultural heritage, their continued existence in urban areas has raised concerns, mainly due to the scarcity of urban land. Referring specifically to the Chinese cemeteries of Kuala Lumpur, this paper explored the perceptions among the local Chinese residents of the possible multi-dimensional uses o...

Despite wide recognition of the multiple ecosystem services provided by mangroves, they continue to experience decline and degradation especially in the face of urbanization. Given the interplay between multiple resources and stakeholders in the fate of mangroves, mangrove management can be framed as a nexus challenge and nexus thinking used to ide...

The increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have been affected the Earth’s climate and contributed to the global warming issues which are the cooperation and responsibility of many stakeholders such as local communities play an important role to address the issue. The study aims to examine the local community awareness against greenhouse gas...

Several of the coastal zones in Sabah, Malaysia, are isolated and inaccessible. This study aimed to review the published literature on the health status of the coastal communities in Sabah. The following four main health issues were found: (i) malaria, (ii) tuberculosis (TB), (iii) seafood poisoning, and (iv) antenatal problems. Factors associated...

Protected areas are established for the conservation of unique and pristine environment. Although protected, they are subjected to possible environmental and social impacts due to increasing tourism activities. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Kinabalu Park's environmental interpretation in mitigating these impacts through the asses...

Values are the core of human when it comes to decision making. In the context of Antarctica, the study of Antarctic values helps to direct the future development in policy formulation related to the continent. The research on value perception in Malaysia has been quite recent and is focusing on young citizens in secondary schools and within the uni...

Half of the world’s mangroves disappeared in the 20th century, due largely to population growth in coastal areas and associated human activities. South-East Asia has seen 2% (100,000Ha) of its mangroves lost between 2000 and 2012. This trend is reflected at a local scale on the Klang Islands, a group of small islands 35 miles south-west of Kuala Lu...

There are thirteen islands gazetted as Malaysian Marine Park Areas (MPAs) in Johor State waters. This report on the 8 non-MPA islands provide information for the consideration of the Johor State government in creating a larger and improved SIMP by adding either a subset or all of these areas surveyed. There are 4 objectives in this study, which are...