ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN RELATION TO URBAN PLANNING AND HUMAN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Abstract The world is changing everyday in a fast pace that makes majority of the urbanized areas becoming more congested and polluted by the development. The planning of the urban world has brought about a great impact towards the environment and health. With the large number of human population, urban areas will have various kinds of activities that contributed to the higher rate of pollutants compared to areas with less development. In a car oriented urban development pattern, majority of the population will choose automobiles as their transportation modes rather than walking or cycling. Due to that, the air emission in urban areas will increase rapidly, and reduce the physical activity. Air pollutants contribute to various health problems, especially respiratory infection. Besides, lacking of physical activities also increase the health risk. However, there is limited study on the relationship between urban land use setting and health in developing country. Thus, a study had been carried out to establish the relationship between urban setting and human health. It involved air quality data collection, observation on land use setting, and questionnaire survey on human health and the lifestyle. Findings from the relationship analysis had been discussed with suitable recommendation and conclusion. Keyword: air quality, health, neighborhood design, physical activity, urban areas Abstrak Perubahan pembangunan dunia yang kian pesat kearah kemajuan masa hadapan telah menyebabkan permasalahan kesesakan dan pencemaran. Pembangunan bandar memberi kesan yang besar keatas persekitaran dan kesihatan. Penambahan populasi manusia di kawasan bandar menyebabkan kadar pencemaran meningkat lebih tinggi berbanding dengan kawasan kurang membangun. Dalam era pembangunan bandar yang berorientasikan kenderaan ini, penduduk cenderung memilih kenderaan sebagai mod pengangkutan mereka berbanding berjalan kaki mahupun berbasikal. Dari segi kesannya, pencemaran udara kian menjadi-jadi berlakunya dan manusia semakin kurang dalam melakukan aktiviti fizikal. Pencemaran udara menyebabkan pelbagai masalah kesihatan seperti jangkitan pernafasan. Kekurangan aktiviti fizikal juga meningkatkan risiko kesihatan. Walau bagaimanapun, kajian adalah terhad dalam bidang perkaitan di antara guna tanah dan kesihatan terutamanya dalam negara sedang membangun. Oleh yang demikian, kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk mengenalpasti perkaitan di antara pembangunan bandar dan kesihatan manusia. Kajian ini meliputi data kualiti udara, pemerhatian guna tanah dan soal selidik terhadap tahap kesihatan dan gaya hidup penduduk. Hasil kajian telah dibincang berserta dengan cadangan dan rumusan