Maintenance and Personal Safety in Neighborhood Parks: A literature and case study of MPSJ

This paper discusses the maintenance and procedure in Subang Jaya City Council (MPSJ), and on the effect on the perception of safety. Eight (n = 8) experts interviews and observations in three neighborhood parks were conducted. The findings emphasize that maintenance has significantly influenced perceived safety, and different environments have different impacts depending on context, topography, planting, and level of privacy. The location of neighborhood park (NP) 1 in a middle of housing areas and a university caters three end-users: residents, academic staffs, and students. The distinctive character of natural planting in NP3 created a different environment unlike NP2, where the planting is rather formal. Thus has considerably significant and laid different level of perceived safety. Keywords: Maintenance practice; perceived safety; expert interviews; urban parks and green spaces. eISSN 2398-4279 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ajqol.v3i13.167