Managing Urban Sprawl in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
[MUSIC PLAYING] MALIK ASGHAR NAEEM: City regions in developing countries are experiencing tremendous urbanization that contributes to sprawled development, a daunting challenge posing a threat to sustainable urban growth. Take the example of Malaysia. Nearly 73% of its total population lives in cities, making it one of the most urbanized countries in Southeast Asia. The Kuala Lumpur metropolitan region witnessed a higher rate of increase in its physical area than that of its population over a period of 20 years. During that time, the population approximately doubled, but the area increased by two and 1/2 times. Urban sprawl is characterized by an inefficient use of land resources. For example, building low-density housing and commercial buildings will lead to the horizontal expansion or sprawl of the city. Look at the example of two cities-- Atlanta, the capital of the US state of Georgia, and Barcelona, the capital of Catalan in Spain. The same number of people resides i...