The determinant factors of rooftop as urban farming in high rise residential building: case study at George Town, Penang / Nur Hayati Hashim

The world‟s population in urban areas has rapidly grown since 1950 where 30 per cent of the population is in urban areas and the number is projected to grow to 66 per cent by the year 2050.Consequently, the population growth in urban areas leads to the demand for housing in these big cities. A ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hashim, Nur Hayati
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2021
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Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/60368/1/60368.pdf
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Summary:The world‟s population in urban areas has rapidly grown since 1950 where 30 per cent of the population is in urban areas and the number is projected to grow to 66 per cent by the year 2050.Consequently, the population growth in urban areas leads to the demand for housing in these big cities. A marked increase in building densities occurs and this is indicative of the high values of the land. As more buildings are constructed, the urban area becomes compact and green space is being replaced by concrete jungles. Due to the limitation of the green space on the ground, it is shifted onto rooftops. Thus, the concept of green roof has the potential to be innovated into rooftop urban farming as an alternative in food production. Rooftop urban farming is one of the significant urban food productions in the urban area which contributes to food security. This research presents the ideas in implementing urban farming on the rooftop areas. The emergence of urban farming in handling urban problems mainly in food production is one of the methods in the initiative to develop a sustainable environment. However, the concern is to investigate an alternative way for urban dwellers to achieve resilience through urban farming. The researcher aims to identify the potential of utilizing rooftops for the residents to self-produce food (individually) and implement urban farming (cumulatively), in the high-rise residential building areas. Furthermore, the research objectives for this study are i) to investigate the potential space of rooftop areas as urban farming in high rise residential buildings and ii) to identify the determinant factors for the residents to be involved in rooftop urban farming in high rise residential building. The case study areas are more specifically located in Seksyen 5, George Town, Penang. The selection of building was focused on the residents‟ condominiums which is Kristal Height Condominium and Greenlane Height Block A. The method was to investigate the potential to implement urban farming on the rooftop areas. This study adopted a quantitative method using the questionnaires to conduct a survey. 300 sets of questionnaires were distributed to the residents in these high-rise residential condominiums. However, only 274 sets were returned to be analyses. The collected data were then compiled using the Software Package for Social Science (SPSS). The analysis carries out through SPSS are the reliability test, descriptive analysis, and Spearman Rho correlation analysis. Findings showed that the availability of space is a significant factor in the implementation of rooftop urban farming. While for the findings on the determinant factors for the residents to get involved in rooftop urban farming in high-rise residential building, the most significant are the support factors followed by the human factors; natural factors; factors in the availability of time; interest factor; the knowledge or understanding factors and the involvement factor. Finally, the implementation of rooftop urban farming in these areas has the potential to be developed based on the findings from this research.