Narimah Samat

• Lecturer at University of Science Malaysia

Commuting patterns are shaped by a variety of factors, including economic considerations, convenience, and access to transportation options. Demographic characteristics, particularly gender and age, have garnered increasing attention in recent studies as significant determinants in transportation choices. In metropolitan areas such as Georgetown, P...

Low-income households far from employment opportunities experience restricted job accessibility owing to spatial mismatch. The study aims to identify geographical mismatch and evaluate the degree of employment accessibility for low-income workers residing and working on Penang Island, Malaysia. A quantitative survey was conducted with 306 participa...

The map has widely been used to depict and disseminate information on the spatial distribution of various diseases, including cancer cases. Increasingly, population-based cancer data need to incorporate spatial information that enables various spatial and proximity analyses to be conducted whereby results can be graphically presented. Yet, disease...

Cancer is one the leading causes of death in developed countries and the second leading cause of death indeveloping countries. Awareness and knowledge of the danger of cancer and the need for cancer screening andearly detection can reduce the risk of cancer-related deaths. This study examines the level of awareness andknowledge of cancer, cancer ri...

Sudan and Malaysia have shown some socio-economic similarities especially when it comes to the issue of addressing poverty. After independence, almost half of the entire population of both countries were living under poverty line. The successive national governments in both countries have embarked on eliminating the extreme poverty. The aim of this...

Rapid urbanization and its negative impact have become major challenges for planners and policy makers especially in the developing nations. Urbanization is not a problem of its own but, when drastic increase of urban population occurs especially in the countries that lack resources and personnel to deal with it. In Malaysia, for example, urban pop...

Poverty has been a major problem around the world for many years. Therefore eradicating poverty has become the first agenda in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its achievable target. In Malaysia, poverty rate is relatively low, decreasing from 49.3% in 1970 to 15% in 1990, then, to merely 0.6% in 2014. Although poverty rat...

An increasing number of Malaysians are migrating from urban regions, primarily as a result of the rising housing expenses in the city. Another motivating factor for individuals to relocate to suburban locations near major cities is the opportunity to inhabit larger residences at a lower cost. This study aimed to elucidate the dwelling location pref...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the issue of inequality to the forefront, exacerbating economic uncertainty and social injustice, which has led to widespread social disorder. This study examines the relationship between inequality and crime in urban and peri-urban neighborhoods in Penang; Moreover, an association between inequality and the incide...

A comprehensive analysis of regional climate changes is essential in arid and semi-arid regions to optimize water resources management. This research aims to evaluate the changes in temperature and precipitation across the Mujib Basin in Jordan, using the most recent Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) model. Firstly, the perform...

Ground observations are often considered as the most reliable and precise source of precipitation data. However, long-term precipitation data from ground observations are lacking in many parts of the world. Gridded precipitation products (GPPs) therefore have emerged as crucial alternatives to ground observations, but it is essential to assess thei...

Great efforts have been made to support the innovation and development of commercially available aquaculture to realize improved inputs and culture systems, enhancing productivity. In general, culture production systems are not a new phenomenon that attracts managers to conduct evaluation assessments. Broader aspects of the innovation and developme...

Sustainable mobility emerges as a more viable approach for addressing urban mobility challenges and enhancing overall quality of life. The primary cause of urban mobility issues may be attributed to the urban built environment, wherein various physical features such as buildings, public infrastructure, and transit systems have significantly contrib...

In Malaysia, the annual tuberculosis (TB) cases exhibit a consistent upward trend, and Penang has experienced a similar increase since 2011. This research aims to analyze the trend, distribution direction, and spatial patterns of TB in Penang from 2015 to 2017, utilizing data from 4,015 TB cases obtained from the TB/Leprosy Unit of the Penang Stat...

With rapid urbanization, flooding disasters caused by heavy rainfall and floods have brought huge economic and social losses. Therefore, it is critical to seek a scientific and effective stormwater management solution. Using GIS technology, this study focuses on the growing urban flooding problem in three stages: before, during, and after the rains...

The cost of living has become an economic problem for everyone. Studies on the cost of living often connect income and inflation as the cost of living factors. This study aims to look from a different perspective by analysing the influence of lifestyle on the household cost of living in Malaysia. Lifestyle changes are one effect that arises from ch...

Global warming is threatening human population, one of which is the frequent climate disasters, i.e., floods and drought, which affect the global food security. However, the assessment of regional climatic changes is constrained by the lack of high-quality long-term climate data. Taking the Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia as the study area,...

As the world population grows, the aquaculture sector faces challenges in the use of production systems to ensure the adequacy of the food supply. Technical efficiency analysis has been shown to be useful for improving resource management and production. This study provides a literature update and uses meta-regression analysis to examine the variat...

Many countries are committed to boosting renewable energy in their national energy mix by 2030 through the support and incentives for solar energy harnessing. However, the observed solar data limitation may result in ineffective decision making, regarding solar farm locations. Therefore, the aim of this study is to utilise GIS-based multi criteria...

Continuous oil palm distribution maps are essential for effective agricultural planning and management. Due to the significant cloud cover issue in tropical regions, the identification of oil palm from other crops using only optical satellites is difficult. Based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE), this study aims to evaluate the best combination of...

Aquaculture plays a huge role in supporting the needs and demands of fish and other aquatic organisms globally. Being a vital contributor in the fisheries sector, aquatic sources derived from the aquaculture industry are well-known for their high nutritive values that are compromised with high-quality protein, essential omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin...

The 2021–2022 flood is one of the most serious flood events in Malaysian history, with approximately 70,000 victims evacuated daily, 54 killed and total losses up to MYR 6.1 billion. From this devastating event, we realized the lack of extreme precipitation and flood inundation information, which is a common problem in tropical regions. Therefore,...

Google Earth Engine (GEE) can effectively monitor aquaculture ponds, but it is underutilized. This paper aims to review the application of GEE in mapping aquaculture ponds around the world using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. A total of 16 journal articles have been identified since 2019 from...

This study aims to evaluate the effects of landscape design on place attachment by considering the mediating roles of place satisfaction and perception of safety. The data were collected from 283 residents in Penang, Malaysia. By confirming the reliability and validity of the scales using composite reliability and confirmatory factor analysis, the...

Climate and land use land cover (LULC) are two major key drives that affect the hydrological cycle pattern within a river basin. This study aims to evaluate the capability of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative land cover (ESA CCI LC) product in representing land use pattern in Sungai Kelantan Basin (KRB), Malaysia; to analyze the c...

Information on the spatial distribution of aquaculture ponds, especially the inland brackish aquaculture, is crucial for effective and sustainable aquaculture management. Google Earth Engine (GEE) has been utilized to quickly map aquaculture ponds in different parts of the world, but the application is still limited in tropical regions. Selection o...

Urban encroachment into the peri-urban areas has blurred the borders between urban and rural areas. Thus, the urban growth boundary (UGB) has been used to encourage the sustainable development of cities and improve long-term planning efficiency. Studying the understanding of the UGB concept in ensuring sustainable development in Malaysia would be b...

Although the aquaculture industry contributes less than 0.2% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Malaysia, it has slowly become an important economic activity due to the high-value species productions for domestic and international markets. In addition, aquaculture can potentially be used as a sustainable solution for food security in the future...

Study region The Muda River Basin (MRB), Malaysia. Study Focus This study proposed a framework to improve the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative Land Cover (ESA CCI LC) products through the integration with the Annual Oil Palm Dataset (AOPD). The improved land use land cover (LULC) maps were then used to produce five LULC scenarios as...

Community engagement and involvement is vital for the success of urban water management. However, poor public engagement, cheap water tariffs, apathetic attitude and lack of public interest are identified as the main reasons for high water wastage in Penang State, Malaysia. The N Park Resort Condominium rainfall harvesting and water saving project...

This study introduces a hydro-climatic extremes assessment framework that combines the latest climate simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) HighResMIP with the Soil and Water Assessment (SWAT) model, and examines the influence of the different climate model resolutions. Sixty-six hydrological and environmental f...

Penang State is one of the most developed and urbanised states in Malaysia, but is a “water-stressed” state with limited water resources availability. In the light of global climate change and El Nino, prolonged droughts have resulted in water crises that are expected to be exacerbated. The objective of this paper is to examine various strategies t...

Weather plays a vital role in the transmission of infectious diseases. This study evaluates the correlation between seven weather variables and COVID-19 in Malaysia. Based on the previous literature, there is a lack of information about the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on environmental factors in Malaysia. Spearman rank correlation test was selec...

Existing adaptation planning processes are inadequate to address the impacts of flooding. The goal of the study is to design adaptation pathways for enhancing livelihood resilience of flood-affected households in Bangladesh—one of the most flood-vulnerable countries in the world. We developed adaptation pathways by using three sequential steps: (1)...

Although the negative economic impacts of COVID-19 are undiscovered, the tourism industry is recognized as one of the most vulnerable sectors. Considering tourism’s contribution to Malaysia’s GDP, this study aims to examine vendors’ attitudes and perceptions towards international tourists in night markets after the emergence of COVID-19 and the imp...

Dalam kehidupan harian kita, terdapat pelbagai faktor yang boleh mempengaruhi tingkah laku dan keputusan tidak kira dalam apa jua perkara. Hal ini termasuklah tingkah laku pengguna dalam membuat pilihan terhadap produk akuakultur. Di negeri Pulau Pinang terdapat kepelbagaian sumber makanan protein sama ada hasil tangkapan mahupun akuakultur. Namun...

Identification of reliable alternative climate input data for hydrological modelling is important to manage water resources and reduce water-related hazards in ungauged or poorly gauged basins. This study aims to evaluate the capability of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (NCEP-CFSR) and China Met...

Drastic growth of urban populations has caused expansion of peri-urban areas-the transitional zone between a city and its hinterland. Although urbanisation may bring economic opportunities and improve infrastructure in an area, uncontrolled urban expansion towards peri-urban areas will negatively impact the environment and the community living with...

Rivers are important natural resources of a country as they provide a wide range of ecosystem services. However, the problem is that rivers in Malaysia are badly degraded due to mismanagement, neglect, pollution and abuse. River management in Malaysia is largely based on the government-centric top-down model which is sectoral-based. This model is i...

River water resources are very important for human society to sustain life, as a source of food and for income generation, main source of freshwater supply to the communities, hydro-electric power and many more. Unfortunately, many rivers in Kelantan State in Malaysia are badly polluted, bringing severe negative impacts to habitat and human society...

High demand of seafood products combined with over-harvesting of wild catch aquatic products have elevated aquaculture as the alternative way to strike a balance between seafood product supply and demand. However, uncontrolled aquaculture activities are found to affect the environment negatively as well as the health of consumers. Better awareness...

A holistic framework was introduced to project the potential hydro-meteorological droughts of the Kelantan River basin, Malaysia. The framework integrates the multi-model high-resolution climate projections of the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment – Southeast Asia (CORDEX-SEA) and the widely applied Soil and Water Assessment Tool...

The state of Kelantan in Malaysia is a flood-prone state exposed to seasonal Monsoon rains that bring seasonal floods resulting in significantly losses. Flood management in the state is modelled after the country’s predominant government-centric top-down approach focused on flood-control technologies via structural measures such as multi-purpose da...

Abstract Although Malaysia has achieved economic development in various sectors, poverty still remains as a problem in many areas. One of the ways to eliminate poverty is through information and communication technologies (ICTs) which is often promoted as central to reviving and sustaining regional communities. In the context of Malaysia, however,...

Rapid urbanisation has raised major issues, especially in cities in developing nations. In Malaysia, for example, the urbanisation rate is at 74%, but the size of urban land is less than 10%. This phenomenon has caused urban expansion to encroach on to its fringe areas. At present, although much has been said about the economic benefits of urban ex...

Rapid urbanisation has raised major issues, especially in cities in developing nations. In Malaysia, for example, the urbanisation rate is at 74%, but the size of urban land is less than 10%. This phenomenon has caused urban expansion to encroach on to its fringe areas. At present, although much has been said about the economic benefits of urban ex...

Aquaculture is quickly becoming a major food production industry on a global scale. However, public health concerns about aquaculture influence consumer behavior when it comes to purchasing aquaculture products. The purpose of this research is to learn about green consumer awareness and health consciousness in the consumption of aquaculture product...

Assessments of “resilience” are becoming a priority across multiple sectors. Specifically, the coastal agricultural system in Bangladesh faces a multitude of problems such as sea level rise. Building resilience for this system is thus important in accelerating the country’s socio-economic development. Therefore, the objectives of this study are (a)...

Trends in precipitation and temperature extremes of the Muda River Basin (MRB) in north-western Peninsular Malaysia were analyzed from 1985 to 2015. Daily climate data from eight stations that passed high quality data control and four homogeneity tests (standard normal homogeneity test, Pettitt test, Buishand range test, and von Neumann ratio test)...

The rapid development of Satellite Precipitation Products (SPPs) has heightened the need for a hydro-meteorological assessment of the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) products in different climate and geographical regions. Reliability of the IMERG early (IMERG_E), late (IMERG_L) and final (IMERG_F)...

Poverty has been a major problem around the world for many years. Therefore eradicating poverty has become the first agenda in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its achievable target. In Malaysia, poverty rate is relatively low, decreasing from 49.3% in 1970 to 15% in 1990, then, to merely 0.6% in 2014. Although poverty rat...

The importance of location has been revisited and reinstated with the emergence of concepts such as “creative economies, creative cities”. In a creative city, the defining characteristic is the clustering of creative human talent or the “creative class” to drive growth, progress and economic development. In the literature, selected locations in urb...

Malaysia likes other Asian countries has experienced rapid urbanization due to economic development, industrialization, massive migrations as well as natural population growth. This expansion particularly the unplanned has impacted negatively on farming activities and creates huge pressure arable agriculture areas. Thus, identification of potential...

In order to reduce the burden on low income people and the poor, an initiative to open stores that sell basic necessities at cheaper prices was undertaken. Community Shop in the United Kingdom, Social Supermarket in Australia, and Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M or 1Malaysia People's Shop) in Malaysia are among initiatives undertaken to lessen the bur...

The emergence of the creative cities/creative economies notion has re-visited the role of place and given this concept a new lease of life. Widely contested though, urban policy-makers in both developed and developing countries alike are planning and transforming their cities to become a Creative City. A Creative City harnesses on both its culture...

Poverty has been major problems for many years. Thus eradicating poverty is, in fact, the first agenda of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Malaysia has succeeded to reduce poverty rate from 49.3% in 1970 to 15% in 1990, then, to just 1.7% in 2015. Policy implemented since 1970s has succeeded in reducing the number of poor hous...

This book consists of chapters that review concepts and theories to empirical evidences and case studies of cluster development in five Asian countries - Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. It explores the dynamic of clustering in linking its potential and challenges to economic development, policy making, innovation and social networ...

Urban growth, which caused spatial land use and land cover changes has affected various physical environment, social, and economic activities. Thus, in order to understand the dynamic process of urban spatial growth, researchers throughout the world have implemented diverse approaches, where spatial models have been developed to predict and simulat...

Urban growth, which caused spatial land use and land cover changes has affected various physical environment, social, and economic activities. Thus, in order to understand the dynamic process of urban spatial growth, researchers throughout the world have implemented diverse approaches, where spatial models have been developed to predict and simulat...

Gleick (1996) has claimed that 50 liters per person per day of clean water should be considered a fundamental human right, as it is the minimal amount that is needed by a person to perform all his/her daily requirements. However, in reality, with the exception of water-stressed countries, most people in the world use much more than this amount. For...

According to Timmermans (1997) in his paper “Decision Support Systems in Urban Planning”, the planning of urban infrastructures has important spatial implicationsthat needs decision support system. Decision support systems (DSS) enable evaluation of alternative courses of action that requires the explicit consideration of multiple criteria as they...

Urban development, expansion, and Land use changes in the urban environments are a global phenomenon, by 2050, urban population in the world will increase to be more than 6.6 billion inhabitants and they will live with less than 1% of the world land surfaces. Political instability is one of most important drivers that effecting on the land cover/la...

Multicriteria evaluation approach has become useful mechanism in selecting choice possibilities based on number of alternatives. This approach has become useful for planners and engineers especially when dealing with allocating suitable sites for tourism development, which has often being undertaken within environmentally sensitive areas. Taking La...

Malaysia likes other Asian countries has experienced rapid urbanization due to economic development, industrialization, massive migrations as well as natural population growth. This expansion particularly the unplanned has impacted negatively on farming activities and creates huge pressure arable agriculture areas. Thus, identification of potential...

This book includes selected working papers based on their interesting reviews on concepts and theories to empirical evidences and case studies in cluster development in selected Asian countries, namely, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The articles in this book discuss the dynamic of clustering in linking its potential and challeng...

Sudan and Malaysia have shown some socioeconomic similarities especially when it comes to the issue of addressing poverty. After independence, almost half of the entire population of both countries were living under poverty line. The successive national governments in both countries have embarked on eliminating the extreme poverty. The aim of this...

The peripheral and semi-peripheral roles of islands are being challenged and contested as contemporary island cities assume positions as engines of growth and become centres of progress for driving economic development. Notably, island cities around the globe have become instrumental in shaping and influencing the dynamics of urban development as c...

A heightened interest in the notions of 'creative cities, creative industries and creative economy' has propelled research in these emerging areas of the New Economy. As an emerging area, some conceptual and methodological issues need to be addressed prior to adopting the creative city paradigm as part of the strategic and policy framework towards...

A heightened interest in the notions of ‘creative cities, creative industries and creative economy’ has propelled research in these emerging areas of the New Economy. As an emerging area, some conceptual and methodological issues need to be addressed prior to adopting the creative city paradigm as part of the strategic and policy framework towa...

Currently, Malaysia like other Asian countries has experienced rapid expansion of urbanization due to economic development, industrialization, massive migrations as well as natural population growth. This expansion particularly unplanned consumed a huge amount of arable land in the urban milieu and in its surrounding areas. This paper aims to measu...

Currently, Malaysia like other Asian countries has experienced rapid expansion of urbanization due to economic development, industrialization, massive migrations as well as natural population growth. This expansion particularly unplanned consumed a huge amount of arable land in the urban milieu and in its surrounding areas. This paper aims to measu...

This paper discusses the importance of informal networks and informal economic association as safety nets among low-income women in Penang, Malaysia. It investigates the ways women strategize in order to maintain households livelihood through various number of informal safety networks. A survey was carried out on 80 economically-active women with f...

Due to increase in the prices of basic goods and services, the Malaysian Government recognised the need for a more focused approach to help ease the peoples' concerns over the rising cost of living. This saw the introduction of the Addressing the Rising Cost of Living NKRA (COL NKRA) in July 2011.The COL NKRA has implemented a number of initiatives...

The unprecedented increase in population and rapid rate of urbanisation has led to extensive land use changes. Cellular automata (CA) are increasingly used to simulate a variety of urban dynamics. This paper introduces a new CA based on an integration model built-in multi regression and multi-criteria evaluation to improve the representation of CA...

Urbanization is a major planning and policy concerning all spatial scales. This is due to more than half of the world's current population live in urban areas and overwhelming majority emerges in developing countries. The adoption of industrialization policy has led to rapid growth of urban population in the Asian countries including Malaysia. For...

Background The aim of this study was to assess a colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programme using a faecal occult blood test (FOBT) kit in Penang, Malaysia. Methods A total of 1000 FOBT kits were distributed between June and November, 2009, to attendees of CRC public health talks in Penang state. Data for demographics, knowledge of CRC, and aware...

The cellular automata (CA) model is an important tool in land use change studies. Swift increases in population and long-term expectations of rapid urbanization have led to extensive land use change, and normal living conditions have affected the natural resources of the land. This paper highlights and analyzes the historical urban changes in Kirku...

Rapid urbanization has caused land use transformation and encroachment of built environment into arable agriculture land. Uncontrolled expansion could bring negative impacts to society, space and the environment. Therefore, information on expansion and future spatial pattern of built-up areas would be useful for planners and decision makers in form...

Currently, Malaysia like other Asian countries has experienced rapid expansion of urbanization. This expansion is at the expense of agriculture land at the fringe and rural areas, thus affecting the likelihood and culture of the rural communities. In order to achieve sustainable development, an understanding of public attitudes towards environmenta...