Community Involvement in Urban Environmental Management System

Abstract

The government of Malaysia has implemented various measures in the environmental management system, such as organizing an urban environmental management program. However, the environmental degradation problem in urban areas in the country is still alarming especially associated with the community engagement in protecting the urban environment. This study attempted to identify the level of community involvement in urban environmental management program in Malaysia based on 320 respondents. The results showed that the planning and enforcement activities by the community in the urban environmental management program were very low. In fact, the study also found that all the respondents in this survey did not execute their monitoring activities due to they assumed that the task should be undertaken by the government. The study concluded that contributing factors to the impairment of urban ecosystems in the study area is due to the vulnerability level of community involvement. Therefore, a better urban environmental management system is important to ensure higher community involvement in the urban environmental management program in strong collaboration with other concerned parties, especially the relevant government departments and the local authority.