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Malaysia likes other Asian countries has experienced rapid urbanization due to economic development, industrialization, massive migrations as well as natural population growth. This expansion particularly the unplanned has impacted negatively on farming activities and creates huge pressure arable agriculture areas. Thus, identification of potential sites for future urban development should become important issues in ensuring sustainable development. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to use GIS based multi criteria evaluation technique to identify potential areas for urban development at Balik Pulau, Penang. The study quantified spatial and temporal dynamics of land use/cover changes and identified potential areas for future development. The results indicated that large proportions of agriculture areas had been converted to built-up areas.. Urban areas increased from 1793.2 ha in 1992 to 3235.4 ha in 2002 and became 3987.8 ha in 2010. On the other hand agricultural land decreased from 6171.3ha (53.8%) in 1992 to 3883 ha (35. %) in 2010. The study, then, produced map showing potential sites for future urban development. The findings also indicated built-up areas would continue to encroach into flat available agricultural land which will be diminished if no restriction imposed. Thus, the information obtained from this study is useful for planners and decision makers in controlling agriculture areas and guiding new development properly.

The North American scholarship on gated housing communities posits the desire for security as the main driver for gating, but does this hold true for less wealthy countries? To address this question, this study examines evidence of why people live behind gates in Malaysia and Ghana and investigates the socio-economic implications of gating. It uses a critical institutional framework anchored on Foucault’s interpretation of ‘panopticon’ and Runciman’s theory of relative deprivation, while drawing empirical evidence from surveys and emic experiences. It finds that, while security is an important reason, it is the provision of quality housing services that is reported as the single most important reason for living behind gates. ‘Quality service’ is, however, shorthand for a preference for privileged status. Further, the paper reveals that it is more helpful to see the binary between quality and security as constituting a flexible continuum of motives. Inhabitants of gated housing communities may be primarily motivated by quality service or prestige. Yet, as they set themselves up against the rest of society by enclosing themselves in walls of affluence, they begin to feel a need for greater security. This feeling of insecurity is heightened as people outside the gates feel relatively deprived. Thus, the desire for security becomes illusory and attainment of privilege, pyrrhic, while the harsh socio-economic conditions for a large stratum of the urban population living outside the gates persist and are sometimes worsened. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Land-tenure systems in Africa are undergoing directed transformation widely believed to promote secure tenure, increase access to credit, and reduce poverty levels. Critics claim that the process is mainly designed to benefit transnational corporations that grab land from local people and convert it from farmland to investment land. Using North Sudan and Ghana as case-study areas and drawing on multiple sources of evidence, including official policy documents, land acts, and existing court cases, this paper examines the nature of land tenurial systems, explores their changing character, and identifies the tensions and contradictions within the systems and the processes of change. It finds little support for the official rhetoric that the transformation in land-tenure systems leads to secure tenure but mixed results for the claim that the process creates avenues for obtaining credit. Furthermore, at least in North Sudan and Ghana, the state grabs land and sells it to amass wealth and power under the guise of compulsorily acquiring land in the public interest and for title registration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]