The development of an environmental resilience index for Selangor, Malaysia

Over the years, rapid urbanisation aided with advanced technologies and population increment has altered the natural environment into concrete jungles resulting in significant environmental degradation. In order to mould a sustainable, resilient and green future, global efforts and directive have been introduced, such as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, low carbon cities, and others at international and local levels. Nevertheless, grassroots initiatives and actions are crucial in producing results. Presently, there is no mechanism to measure the relevant environmental components into a comprehensive system indicating the level of resilience level in Selangor. Though the local governments have to report their development performance via MURNINET, a system developed by PLANMalaysia, this system does not include environmental resilience. As such, this study on the Environmental Resilience Index (ERI) was embarked, proposing five environmental components that can be used by local authorities to assess the environment, which are environmental resources, built environment, climate condition, natural disasters and environmental issues. On the other hand, this paper shares an ERI pilot analysis on the component of environmental resources of the study area, Selangor, Malaysia, consisting of 9 districts. This data used to analyse are majorly secondary data from official reports of responsible technical departments and agencies in Malaysia to ensure validity and reliability of data. The output of this analysis was generated using ArcGIS software as it relates to the weightage of different components and sub-components. The results show that most districts in Selangor have an ERI level of moderate level, while two districts, namely Sabak Bernam and Petaling, are categorised as low ERI levels