Browsing by Author "Samah, Mohd Armi Abu"

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The Development of an Expert System for Decision Making in Forest Resources Management
(2010) Zukki, Nur Ilyana Mohd; Manaf, Latifah Abdul; Samah, Mohd Armi Abu
"Tropical forests are a repository of biodiversity which provides habitats for more than 50% of the earth's plant and animal species, an important sink for carbon stores which provides many goods and ecosystem services and a critical contributor to livelihoods, mainly of the indigenous groups which are totally dependent on forests. Yet, forests are under pressure. Tropical forests are among the earth s most threatened ecosystems, particularly threatened by human activities and climate change. Consequently, tropical forests are loosing capacity to provide basic goods and services that are essentials to human livelihood. Hence, every decision involving forest utilization should consider various criteria that are important for sustainable forest management. However, making decision about forest resources management often involves balancing conflicting, inadequate and incompatible values of many users and usage of a resource. One of the most fundamental and difficult task is the effective integration of environmental, economic and social values to achieve and maintain ecologically sustainable development. Therefore, an integrated technology such as an Analytical Hierarchy Process and expert systems is essential to be performed in making decision process for forest resources management because an AHP method is capable to capture both tangible and intangible criteria. This study places emphasis on the development of expert system for forest resources management to assist decision makers to select the best forest resources use based on Malaysian Criteria and Indicators."
Hydrological Trend Analysis Due to Land Use Changes at Langat River Basin
(2010) Juahir, Hafizan; Zain, Sharifuddin M.; Aris, Ahmad Zaharin; Yusof, Mohd Kamil; Samah, Mohd Armi Abu; Mokhtar, Mazlin Bin
"This present study was carried out to detect the spatial and temporal change (1974-2000) in hydrological trend and its relationship to land use changes in the Langat River Basin. To obtain a clear picture of the hydrological parameters during the study period, rainfall data were analyzed. With the help of GIS and non-parametric Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical test the significance of trend in hydrological and land use time series was measured. Trend analyses indicated that a relationship between hydrological parameters namely discharge and direct runoff and land use types namely agriculture, forest, urban, waterbody and others was evident. This analysis indicates that rainfall intensity does not play an important role as a pollutant contributor via the rainfall runoff process nor does it directly influence the peak discharges. Land use shows tremendous changes in trend surrounding Dengkil station compared a little changes surrounding Lui station. Mann-Kendall test of trend shows an increasing trend (p-value<0.01) of annual maximum-minimum ratio for Dengkil station, while no significant trend is observed for Lui station. There is evidence that regional variability in discharge behaviour is strongly related to land use or land cover changes along the river basin."
Strict Liability Versus Policy and Regulation for Environmental Protection and Agricultural Waste Management in Malaysia
(2010) Ishak, Mohd Bakri; Samah, Mohd Armi Abu
"Basically, strict liability is part of the mechanism for expressing judgment or sentence by using direct evidence. This principle is very useful in order to obtain remedies from any damage either directly or indirectly. The principle in Rylands v Fletcher is responsible on imposing strict liability where if something brought onto land or collected there escapes liability under this rule can include not only the owner of land but also those who control or occupation on it. However, as a matter of fact, policy and regulation are also important in taking any action against any party who are responsible for environmental pollution or damage, which may include mismanagement of waste or industrial waste or agricultural waste. There are certain policies and regulations on environmental protection such as the National Environmental Policy, certain Acts and several regulations under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (Act 127), which are very useful for agricultural waste management inter alia: Waters Act 1920 (Act 418), Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Crude Palm Oil) Regulations 1977, Environmental Quality (Prescribed Premises) (Raw Natural Rubber) Regulations 1978, Environmental Quality (Sewage and Industrial Effluents) Regulations 1979, and Environmental Quality (Compounding of Offences) Rules 1978. As a matter of fact, we should realize that time is of an essence for any parties which are involved in court cases and especially in avoiding the element of externality, which is commonly suffered by the government. In making this paper, therefore, some element of comparison with certain developed jurisdiction such as in the United Kingdom and Japan could not be avoided in order to obtain better outcome and to be more practical for the purpose of environmental protection and agricultural waste management."