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Malaysia has suffered a significant loss of forest cover over the years, mainly due to logging and land clearance for agriculture activities. Although the forest legislation has long been established and continuously enforced, it was not inclusive enough to protect the local natural resources. This study aims to identify public perception and awareness regarding values and essential aspects that affect the preservation of permanent forest reserves (PFR) in Malaysia. In particular, this study investigated the values of visual aesthetics to promote the preservation of Malaysian PFR within the existing legal framework. Results from the survey revealed that the public strongly perceived ecology and research education as the two most important aspects of preserving Malaysian PFR. The study also confirmed that visual aesthetics are considered a crucial aspect of forest classification and preservation beyond people’s health, safety, recreational, and economy. Interm of PFR functions, aesthetic is aslo the third most important factors after protection and research/education.

Visual aesthetic quality is the visual pleasure level that attracts people and makes them prefer certain areas. Visual aesthetic quality is valued and considered for urban forests but remains challenging. This could be due to a lack of understanding of visual aesthetic quality assessment variables based on visual aesthetic theories. This study supports an integrated conceptual framework based on the result of a systematic literature review study to describe and measure aesthetics that incorporates objective and subjective factors through urban forest visual character and urban forest visual quality. The results include defining and understanding a description of visual aesthetic factors and variables as well as a thorough explanation of visual aesthetic theories to comprehend how to assess the visual aesthetic quality of urban forests. This study agrees with and supports the visual aesthetic theoretical framework, and we believe that due to our shared evolutionary history, humans have a standard set of urban forest visual aesthetic features with preferences that change according to cultural and personal variances. Furthermore, this research provides a foundation of visual aesthetic variables of urban forests that will assist urban forest researchers, urban forest managers, and decision-makers in managing and protecting the visual aesthetics of urban forests.

Desertification hurts the agricultural lands and water sources, as well as the community's open spaces. Open spaces are regarded as an integral feature of the landscape in rural communities in semi-arid regions because they host the community's socio-cultural and economic activities. In North-Western Nigeria, the menace of land degradation is a result of desertification. Thus, this makes it necessary for the communities to develop some strategies to manage the open spaces. Therefore, there is a need to ensure an organized and well-managed open space in North-Western Nigeria to accommodate the culture and the ethical values of the communities. An in-depth interview with the community leaders and site observation approaches on community open spaces was conducted to investigate the community’s management strategies (local approaches) for the sustainability of open spaces in hosting the socio-cultural activities in a semi-arid region of North-Western Nigeria and the management strategies. The results were analyzed using ATLAS Ti with the actual analysis done during the writing phase and presented using simple statistical tools. The study revealed the typology and the functions of the community open spaces, and further, explored the stakeholders and management strategies. The study suggests that governments should recognize and support community-based organizations (CBOs) financially and otherwise, to enable them to achieve their goals in managing community open spaces. The result will serve as a guiding document for policymakers, resource planners, and decision-makers. It will also ensure proper order in the use of open spaces by the communities.

Recognizing the importance of population aging and urbanisation research in achieving healthy ageing in cities, the United Nations (UN) conducts continuing initiatives to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for people of all ages. Malaysia's population ageing has concentrated on the elderly and all areas of their well-being as the country aspires to become a developed nation by 2040. In the planning and design of urban environments, there is a critical requirement for adoptive social comfort among the elderly. User-centered design for the elderly is more complex than for other user groups. Researchers must be aware of the behaviors, sensory and cognitive abilities, and attitudes of the elderly when conducting the study. To address this issue, this study’s objective is to explore and analyse the existing methods and tools used in urban park study among the elderly. To meet the study's goals, the researcher should employ practical approaches. This study employed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method published in 2009. The authors used Science Direct and an archival Scopus database to manage the search results and systematically reviewed existing literature on the elderly in the urban park. Keywords related to "elderly and urban parks design" were examined in articles published between 2016 and 2021. Resulting in 31 relevant papers, the methods used have been analysed, and the effective way to be used in handling research in urban park design for the elderly in Kuala Lumpur. This article was to combine field observation and interviews with users and experts.

Grotto arts is gradually altered due to various reasons, such as time and environmental impact. The Longmen Grottoes, notably in the 2000 World Heritage List, is one of the affected grottoes. Several façades of Longmen Grotto Buddha statues are fading and unrecognisable. Therefore, the original characteristics of these Buddha statues were explored for restoration and reference. First, the exploration of Hercules and Bodhisattva statue characteristics in Longmen Grottoes used a systematic literature review (SLR). Second, Hercules statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty were found to exhibit the Central Plains Style, while the Bodhisattvas in Tang Dynasty bears more resemblance to the façade of “secularisation”. The historical Buddhist and art preservation for prospective appreciation might better be considered as grotto arts, which originated from India and flourished in China, are remarkable treasures clothing and be an essential step to achieving sustainability in the apparel industry.

Longmen Grottoes, one of the four major grottoes in China, has been listed on the "World Heritage List" and its excavated time was as long as four hundred years ago, which had gone through six different dynasties. Due to the different excavated times, this Buddha statue in each hole or niche has its unique features in clothing, face, body shape and other aspects. Due to climatic changes of wind, rain, frost, and snow, many of these Buddha statues have lost their original appearance. Hence, this study aims to use modern digital restoration technology to restore these grottoes in order enabling many people to appreciate these type of arts through the internet. This method will not only reduce the secondary destruction, but also may allow people to understand and appreciate better the grotto art through the internet. Furthermore, through this restoration, the complete history from a broken Buddha statue can be learned, and even more the culture of ancient China can be explored. The digital restoration of these grotto Buddha statues mainly adopts the modern technological means and detailed research materials of digital virtual restoration, the solemn dharma images that the real thing cannot be traced back are reproduced by virtual technology. The digital simulation is carried out by analyzing the apparel, face, and figure of the Buddha statues in the representative niches of different dynasties. The digital technology for restoring the Buddha statues not only avoids destruction of the Buddhas but also can be seen as efforts in restoring and protecting the grotto art.

The establishment of the forestry educational centre is a good effort made to protect and conserve the forest as well as assisting the public in understanding the landscape changes and sensitivity towards its sustainability. However, there are lacks of consciousness and obligation of the important of landscape conservation in the context of development planning that causes the problem of effective implementation of a conservation strategy exists. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss forest landscapes conservation, particularly in Malaysia with the objectives of to analyse the current landscape features of selected forestry educational centres and to increase awareness among the stakeholders on the importance of conserving and preserving forest landscape towards its sustainability. The study was conducted using two methods specifically via a case study where the Sultan Idris Shah Forestry Education Center (SISFEC) was selected and field observations were conducted to analyse the existing physical condition of the study site. Findings have indicated that SISFEC has successfully conserved the existing landscapes and delivered awareness and knowledge on forest conservation and preservation to the public through several activities such as forestry camps, nature walks, and environmental education programmes. On the other hand, the findings also suggested that the forestry management should give higher priority in maintaining the manmade landscape image of the forest and plan their activities well through good monitoring and efficient management planning which will ensure the site's sustainability in future.

This paper aims to determine potential spaces for sustainable future development at Hutan Simpan Ampang, Ulu Klang, Malaysia. The site is highly valuable due to strategic location and high availability of spaces. However, due to several landslide incidents happened in Ulu Klang over the past decades, the site isn categorised as a landslide-prone area. Therefore, Potential Surface Analysis (PSA) is conducted to determine the potential areas within the site that are safe and suitable for future development. All the factors were processed in Geographic Information System (GIS) through the overlay mapping technique, combining spatial and attribute data to obtain the suitability map. The result found that the majority coverage of the site is not suitable for any future development. There are only a few coverage areas that are suitable for small scale development. However, a combination of the very high suitability area and the high suitability area expanded the opportunity for sustainable future development.

Implementation of green building (GB) practice is one of the environmental practice taken by some developers in order to overcome the loss of green space in urban area. The developers who are implement GB practice are eligible to get GB certificate. As reported by Green Building Index (GBI) on 2016, only 8% out of 2,000 developers have GB certificate. Most of them are not interested and stated that adoption of GB certificate is not a preferred investment for their business. Their perception are contradict with the previous studies which have proved that the environmental practice is positively significant with firms’ financial performance. Hence, the objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of GB certificate on the firms’ financial performance. A total of 323 developers’ financial reports for the year 2015 were collected from Bursa Saham Malaysia and Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia. Using propensity score matching (PSM) technique, it was found that developers with GB certificate had higher return on asset (ROA) compared to developers without GB certificate. In conclusion, GB certificate have positive impact on firm’s financial performance. The finding of this study will motivate other developers to implement GB practice in their upcoming project development.

This paper introduces the types and features of Beijing Opera facial masks, as well as the limitations of the “essence determines appearance” thinking pattern of Chinese traditional culture. The Chinese Beijing Opera facial masks are one of the symbols of Chinese traditional culture, while carrying forward the essence, it also disseminates the dross that the good people look good and the bad people look ugly. It is a wrong way to pursue too much of the people’s appearance and even simply use it as a yardstick to judge good or bad. This method can provide misunderstanding to many good people who are not good-looking in real life. Applying the classification of the opera facial masks in real life will hurt many good people with the ordinary appearance and will also be deceived by the bad people with good-looking appearance. Obviously, it is very important to break the limitations of the traditional Chinese culture and eliminate its dross by means of correctly understanding and applying the Beijing Opera facial masks, and overcoming the value judgment that the good people look good and the bad people look ugly.

Private green spaces are considered an important part of urban greenery. However, the extent of private green spaces in an informal city like Kabul is unknown. To this end, this study has mapped out the private green spaces in the informal settlements of Kabul city. A Geographic Information System (GIS)-supervised image classification technique was used to identify these private green spaces in three of the 22 police districts (PDs) in the city. Briefly, the classification consisted of defining training samples, extraction of signature and classification of the imagery. As a result, 330.3 hectares were identified as private green spaces, which made up 12.3 % of the total area of informal settlements in these three districts. With 217.1 hectares, PD7 had the largest area of private green spaces among the three police districts, contributing to 65.7 % of the overall area of private green spaces, followed by PD8 (21.3 %) and PD16 (13 %). In future, the map generated in this study could be used to monitor, manage and conserve the existing urban greenery in the face of private green spaces. The results could also be utilised by the Kabul Municipality and other relevant departments to implement an upgrading programme in the informal settlements of Kabul city, which would lead to fulfilling the environmental needs of the residents.

The Forestry Educational Center is a place where the public can learn more about the forest environment, its importance and what people can do to help protect it. Thus, harmonizing design style to all man-made landscape elements in this site was necessary in order to respect the spectacular scenery and to conserve natural resources, as well as to deliver good education and experience to the user. However, how harmonized the man-made landscape elements are with forest environment in these centers is still in question. Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain people’s perception towards forestry educational centers of man-made landscape elements from the aspect of harmonious designs. An objective of the study is to analyse the user’s educational background on the harmonize design philosophy with regard to the man-made landscape elements of design harmonization towards the forestry educational center. The study is conducted at the Sultan Idris Shah Forestry Education Centre in Selangor, Malaysia, through a questionnaire with photograph surrogates. A total of 150 respondents participated in this study. Moreover, this study revealed that educational background had significantly affected the harmonise design perception that causes differences between education groups. However, results indicated that respondents perceived the present man-made landscape elements of these sites harmonized with the forest environment. As a consequence, harmonizing design approach in this center has enhanced the conservation efforts in protecting the forest destruction from harmful human activities. Indirectly, it helps in promoting the cultural identity of the locals while providing a better educational experience for the user and future generations.

In the past three decades, obesity rates affecting children in Malaysia have been rising rapidly, thereby presenting a major public health concern. However, physical activity and diet patterns in green space have been seen as effective environmental components that improve the quality of life. Hence, this study would determine the obesity levels at baseline (phase 1), after 90 days (phase 2) and after 180 days (phase 3). It further aimed to investigate the association of physical activity and diet pattern with the body mass index (BMI) of the respondents. The sample consisted of 12 respondents and this experimental study utilized a questionnaire and a checklist to record the measurements of height and weight by calculating the respondents’ physical activity, daily diet, and BMI. The scores were calculated to determine the level of obesity of the respondents by using paired sample t-test and linear regression model to analyze the influence of physical activity and diet patterns on the respondents’ BMI. The findings of this study show that there was a significant decrease in the levels of BMI before and after the study as participation in moderate to vigorous physical activities and more intake of fruits and water influence the respondents’ BMI. Therefore, this study reveals that physical activity and diet patterns in urban green space can have significant impacts on BMI and also play important roles in reducing childhood obesity.

Recently, the ideology of greenery city has received global attention which aimed to address the issues of rapid urbanization, population growth and climate change. Urban green spaces (UGS) seem as the most essential asset that could help cities to mitigate the adverse effects of rapid urbanization and urban sprawl in a sustainable way. It plays a vital role in our cities as an urban lung, discharging oxygen to reduce the city’s heat, the wall for harmful air pollution and offer greatest benefits in term of environment, social and economy to a city. However, the presence of UGS as one of the important sectors in urban planning are always been neglected. Nevertheless, UGS are loved by everyone however when it turns to the need, then it is often apparent as a liability and claim as non-commodity goods in a planning development process. Hence, this paper aims to understand the many benefits of urban green space development in the contemporary of urban sustainability thought. The systematic review has been carried out through scientific online database, documentation and relevant related papers.

Recently, the ideology of greenery city has received global attention, whichaimed to address the issues of rapid urbanization, population growth,andclimate change. Urban green spaces (UGS) seem like the essentialasset that could help cities to mitigate the adverse effects of rapid urbanization and urban sprawl in a sustainable way. It plays a vital role in our cities as an urban lung, discharging oxygen to reduce the city’s heat, the wall for harmful air pollution and offersmost significantbenefits in term of the environment, social and economy to a city. However, the presence of UGS as one of the criticalsectors in urban planning are always neglected.Nevertheless, UGS is loved by everyone however when it turns to the need; thenit is often apparent as a liability and claim as non-commodity goods in a planning development process. Hence, this paper aims to understand the many benefits of urban green space development in the contemporary of urban sustainability thought. The systematic review has been carried out through scientific online atabase,documentation and relevant related papers.