SMT201 AY2019-20T1 EX2 Darren Tan Yong Heng

Take-home Exercise 2

In this exercise, you are tasked to identify a location suitable for building a national Communicable Disease Quarantine Centre. The selected site must be located at Gombak planning subzone, with a contiguous area of at least 10,000m2 and it must meet the following decision factors:

• Economic factor: The selected site should avoid steep slope. This is because construction at steep slope tends to involve a lot of cut-and-fill and will lend to relatively higher development costs.

• Accessibility factor: The selected site should be close to existing local roads, namely: service roads and tracks. This is to ensure easy transportation of building materials during the construction stage.

• Health risk factor: The selected site should be away from population i.e. housing areas and offices in order to avoid disease spreading to the nearby population.

• Natural conservation factor: The selected site should be away from forested land, park, and water.

Maps depicting the target features within Gombak - Roads, Buildings, Natural Areas and Slope

The following map images depict factors taken into consideration for building a national Communicable Disease Quarantine Centre within Gombak. The four key factors are as follows - Accessibility Factor (Roads), Economic Factor (Slope), Health Risk Factor (Buildings) and Natural Conservation Factor

Accessibility Factor (Roads)

The task requires us to choose existing local routes namely: service roads and tracks. Hence, the image above depicts service and track roads within Gombak and ideally the new quarantine center should be built near to these roads identified to ensure easy transportation of building materials during the construction stage.

Health Risk Factor (Buildings)

Due to the sheer amount of buildings that are unlabelled, I choose to represent all the buildings using a single color code. However, it is still important to consider the position of the buildings within the map as the quarantine center needs to situated away from the population to avoid disease spreading to the nearby population.

Natural Conservation Factor

There are 3 main types of natural features within Gombak, namely forest, park, and water. The natural areas are located close to the edge of Gombak, with parks located close to the southern border of Gombak. Forest is located in the eastern part of Gombak and water is located near the northern tip of Gombak. As part of the task, it is essential to find a building spot located far away from natural areas.

Economic Factor (Slope)

The darker areas indicate that the slope within the area is steeper and likewise the lighter areas indicate areas with gentler slopes. Hence, it is important to avoid the darker areas as it corresponds to higher development cost.

Gombak proximity to features (Buildings, Natural Areas, Roads and Slope)

Proximity to Buildings

The proximity of buildings ranges from 0 to 825.7 meters. The darker shades of blue represent areas which are far away from buildings, conversely areas which are in lighter shades of blue or white are very close to buildings. As the new quarantine center needs to be built far away from residential buildings /offices/areas with a dense population, hence the areas in a darker shade of blue are the ideal locations to build the quarantine center.

Proximity to Natural Areas

The proximity of nature ranges from 0 to 862.8 meters. Areas in a darker shade of green represent a further distance away from natural areas and areas in a lighter shade of green or white represent a closer distance to natural areas. As described in the task, the quarantine center needs to be located far away from forested land, parks, and water. Hence it is more ideal to build the quarantine center in areas that are shaded in dark green.

Proximity to Road

The proximity of road ranges from 0 to 721.7 meters. Areas shaded in white are closer to local roads and are the ideal location to build the quarantine center as it helps ensure easy transportation of materials during construction. On the other hand, the areas shaded red of increasing intensity should be avoided, due to the far distance away from local roads.

Proximity to Slope

Slope ranges from 0 to 36.3 meters. Steep slopes are avoided as it leads to an increase in development cost due to cut-and-fill. Therefore, areas in the lighter shade of green and white are preferred as it is less elevated.