Current Issue: Volume 8, Number 2 (2020) Geospatial Technology in Sustainable Cities and Communities

Introduction

This issue comprises selected papers that were presented at the 7th International Conference on Geomatics and Geospatial Technology (GGT) 2021 on 24th March 2021 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After a normal review process, five articles have been published that demonstrate the use of geospatial technology for sustainable cities and communities.

Nurul Idris, Nur Afiqah Ahmad Bakhtiar, and Mohamad Hafis Izran Ishak present the GIS-based travel time analyses for the children registered at the Special Education Integrated Program (SIEP) and reveal that a small group of special-need students takes more than 20 minutes to reach the school hence exposing them to many threats (mental, physical, etc). The effects of the lengthy commute to school could be further investigated, as these children are vulnerable and any negative impact on their mental, emotional, or physical development must be addressed.

Nafisah Khalid, Maisarah Abdul Halim, and Siti Nur A’tirah Shahimi assessed the accuracy between Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from ASTER and SRTM in Johor State of Malaysia for watershed delineation by comparing the output with the Department of Irrigation and Drainage delineated watershed. The technical evaluations show a remarkable agreement and promising results of both ASTER and SRTM. This finding is very important in addressing city areas that are suffering from flash floods after rainstorm events, and initial and rapid mapping may help the local authority to strategize and perhaps avoid massive damages to the urban dwellers and infrastructure.

Nurfadhilah Ruslan, Nabilah Naharudin, Abdul Hakim Salleh, Maisarah Abdul Halim, and Zulkiflee Abd Latif on the other hand studied indoor walkability by using a portable mobile mapping scanning system called the GeoSLAM ZEB REVO. This study revealed an alternative data collection strategy especially for the narrow and inaccessible space with affordable options without jeopardizing the data accuracy. Addressing the walkability issue is equally important with urban climate, and it is another way of promoting a healthy lifestyle and the use of public transport among the city dwellers. Moreover, given the climate condition in Malaysia, pedestrians are likely to choose to walk indoors than outdoor.

Irwan Gumilar, Brian Bramanto, Rifky Yusuf Ananta, Dwi Haryanto, Hasanuddin Zaenal Abidin, Surono Surono, and Nobuhiro Kishimoto evaluated the performance of the GNSS augmentation system for the Real-time Precise Point Positioning (RTPPP) method in Indonesia. Leveraging on the capability in correcting the measurements using precise ephemeris, clock, and other augmenting corrections, the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is adopted to assess the performance of vertical and horizontal accuracy. The study concludes that the QZSS-RTPPP method has a sufficiently steady precision and mapping accuracy level based on the two-day comparison between QZSS-RTPPP and DGPS-Veripos measurements. However, both accuracy and precision were still lower than the DGPS-Veripos technique, indicating that more research is needed.

Ainyyafiatty Arifin and Nor Aizam Adnan compared the multi-sensors active and passive remote sensing technologies of Landsat 8, Sentinel 1 and 2 satellite data in lineament mapping, based on automatic image processing tools between the state boundaries of Selangor and Pahang in Peninsular Malaysia. Geological lineaments have previously been mapped using traditional field work. This study proposed automatic lineaments extraction techniques that are less time-consuming compared to the semi-automatic and manual approaches as the algorithms for lineament detection have been integrated in the software. Lineament mapping is crucial for many urban natural disaster studies such as landslides, and it is an important part of any structural geological investigation. This finding has made the mapping more efficient for the local council to make an informed decision. This article has been accepted for publication but not posted yet.

Guest Editors:

Siti Aekbal Salleh (aekbal@uitm.edu.my)

Zulkiflee Abd Latif (zulki721@uitm.edu.my)

Nazri Che Dom (nazricd@uitm.edu.my)

Review Article

Research Articles