Bottom up Approach: Urbanization in the Perception of the Local Communities of Balik Pulau, Penang Island, Malaysia

Currently, Malaysia like other Asian countries has experienced rapid expansion of urbanization. This expansion is at the expense of agriculture land at the fringe and rural areas, thus affecting the likelihood and culture of the rural communities. In order to achieve sustainable development, an understanding of public attitudes towards environmental/developmental issues is essential. Residents ''perceptions towards urban development is relatively under researched as there is a wide gaps between the need of the planners and the desire of local communities particularly in the developing countries. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate how residents of Balik Pulau perceive the pressure of urban development going on around them. A questionnaire was designed to request opinions from 320 respondents randomly chosen from residents living in Balik Pulau of Malaysia. The findings showed that local community feel that the expansion of urban development obliterate agricultural activities, food security, and natural environment existence. More than 50% of the respondents have showed negative attitude towards urbanization with some felt that urbanization caused environmental problem and led to social illness. The local community is willing to participate in achieving sustainable development but, they are lacking information to understand environmental/development issues. Consequently, for the onus is on the planners and policy makers to incorporate the desires of the local inhabitants while drafting urbanization planning in Balik Pulau area which would be helpful in formulating sustainable development projects. It will ultimately help in preservation, conservation and development of Balik Pulau area.