Wan Mohd Muhiyuddin Wan Ibrahim

Background: Floods and landslides frequently affect the same catchment systems, yet they are usually assessed in isolation, which limits the ability of local authorities to identify areas exposed to their combined spatial influence. An integrated multi-hazard assessment is therefore needed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of spatial hazard susceptibility. This study develops an integrated flood–landslide multi-hazard susceptibility map for the Langat Catchment, Selangor, Malaysia, focusing on three districts: Hulu Langat, Sepang, and Kuala Langat. A geographical information system (GIS)-based frequency ratio (FR) method was applied to generate the individual flood and landslide susceptibility maps, using conditioning factors that comprised elevation, slope, curvature, aspect, rainfall, distance to river, distance to road, soil, geology, fault line, land use, and the topographic wetness index (TWI). Unlike separate single-hazard assessments, the proposed approach integrates the two susceptibility surfaces within a common 10 m spatial framework using hazard-frequency moderation factors adapted to the Malaysian disaster context. Results: Flood susceptibility is concentrated in the lower catchment areas of Sepang and Kuala Langat, where 28.8% of the area is classified as high and 9.7% as very high susceptibility. Landslide susceptibility is concentrated in the hilly upstream terrain of Hulu Langat, where 15.5% of the area falls within the very high susceptibility class. In the integrated multi-hazard map, 31.8% of the area is classified as moderate, 11.5% as high, and 30.9% as very high susceptibility. Validation using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) yielded an AUC of 0.803 and overall classification accuracy of 63.3%, indicating good predictive performance. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that the integrated framework captures the contrasting spatial dominance of flooding in the lower catchment and of landslide susceptibility in the upper catchment. The resulting multi-hazard map provides a transparent spatial decision-support tool for land-use planning, mitigation prioritization, infrastructure protection, and emergency preparedness in tropical catchments exposed to multiple geohazards.

Lenggong Valley is an important heritage landscape in Malaysia commonly recognized for its outstanding archaeological, cultural, and environmental significance. However, increasing land use pressure around heritage areas may affect landscape authenticity, environmental quality, and long-term conservation planning. This study aims to analyze historical land use change and predict future land use patterns within the Lenggong catchment, a sub-catchment of the Sungai Perak catchment. Land use data for 2000, 2010, and 2020 were obtained from PlanMalaysia and reclassified into five major classes: water bodies, agriculture, forest, built-up areas, and vacant land. The ANN model was calibrated using the 2000 and 2010 land use maps, while the simulated 2020 map was validated against the observed 2020 map using Kappa statistics. Following validation, the 2010–2020 transition pattern and cellular-automata neighborhood effects were used to predict land use for 2040 through two consecutive 10-year simulation iterations. The results showed that forest and agriculture remained the dominant land use classes in the catchment. However, forest decreased from 58.9% in 2000 to 54.4% in 2020, while agriculture increased from 33.3% to 35.5%. Built-up areas also increased from 1.8% to 3.5% and were predicted to reach 3.8%. The model also denoted acceptable performance, with an overall Kappa value of 0.71 and validation accuracy of 83.1%. Within the 1 km heritage buffer, built-up areas increased from 3.6% in 2000 to 10.5% in 2020, with a projected increase to 13.2%. Overall, the findings highlight increasing development pressure around the Lenggong heritage landscape and provide useful spatial evidence for heritage-sensitive planning and long-term conservation management.

Universities and governments are steadily recognising international students as strategic assets due to their contributions to cultural exchange, global visibility, and economic growth. However, international higher education institutions continue to face challenges in delivering contextually relevant curricula, particularly in disciplines related to urban development, such as urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, geography, and urban management. In these fields, international graduates must navigate complex professional environments shaped by local regulations and socio-cultural norms in their home countries. Accordingly, this study examined the post-graduation employment experiences of international graduates in disciplines related to urban planning and development. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with eleven master graduates (2010–2024) employed in their home countries, data were subjected to analysis using inductive thematic analysis in NVivo 15. Through iterative comparison, the following five major themes were identified: (1) nature of the studied discipline, (2) curriculum design, (3) job classification, (4) employment location, and (5) job culture ecosystem differences. Findings revealed a tension between globally oriented training and locally grounded job expectations. Graduates often face difficulties applying international academic models to local practices, undervaluation of qualifications, and challenges in cultural and professional reintegration. Nonetheless, many leverage their international exposure to introduce innovative solutions, sustainability principles and cross-cultural perspectives in local urban projects. The study highlights the need for context-sensitive curricula and institutional support to bridge global knowledge and domestic employment systems. Such efforts are forecasted to enhance graduate employability whilst reinforcing Malaysia’s position as a competitive higher-education hub in the Asia–Pacific region.

The use of satellite precipitation products can overcome the limitations of rain gauges in flood hazard mapping for mitigation purposes. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the capabilities of three global precipitation measurement (GPM) integrated multisatellite retrievals for GPM (IMERG) products in tropical flood hazard mapping in the Kelantan River Basin (KRB), Malaysia, using the GIS-based analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. In addition to the precipitation factor, another eleven factors that contribute to flooding in the KRB were included in the AHP method. The findings demonstrated that the spatial pattern and percentage area affected by floods simulated under the IMERG-Early (IMERG-E), IMERG-Late (IMERG-L), and IMERG-Final (IMERG-F) products did not differ significantly. The receiver operating characteristics curve analysis showed that all three IMERG products performed well in generating flood hazard maps, with area under the curve values greater than 0.8. Almost all the recorded historical floods were placed in the moderate-to-very-high flood hazard areas, with only 1–2% found in the low flood hazard areas. The middle and lower parts of the KRB were identified as regions of “very high” and “high” hazard levels that require particular attention from local stakeholders.