Despite the enactment of the National Heritage Act and establishment of the National Heritage Department in Malaysia, many heritage buildings still remain in poor conditions with signs of serious building defects threatening their survival because Legislations related to heritage buildings in the country do not sufficiently address the issue of maintenance and its management in the conservation of heritage buildings thereby resulting to poor maintenance management practices which eventually lead to deterioration of the buildings. More so, despite the rhetoric of the significance of maintenance management in the conservation of heritage buildings in Malaysia, there is still inadequate guidance about how maintenance should be envisaged, managed and integrated with other key management activities in the context of heritage building conservation. This paper is part of an ongoing research aimed at developing a maintenance management framework for conservation of heritage buildings in Malaysia. The proposed conceptual framework will provide a holistic guidance and understanding of the maintenance management practices to be adopted in the conservation of heritage buildings in Malaysia. This would enable custodians of heritage buildings in Malaysia to evaluate their maintenance management practices in relation to best practices and be able to re-position their maintenance management approaches to best practice standard.

Land degradation caused by soil erosion is considered among the most severe problems of the 21stcentury. It poses serious threats to soil fertility, food availability, human health, and the world ecosystem. The purpose of the study is to make a quantitative mapping of soil loss in the Chitral district, Pakistan. For the estimation of soil loss in the study area, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model was used in combination with Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS). Topographical features of the study area show that the area is more vulnerable to soil loss, having the highest average annual soil loss of 78 ton/ha/year. Maps generated in the study show that the area has the highest sediment yield of 258 tons/ha/year and higher average annual soil loss of 450 tons/ha/year. The very high severity class represents 8%, 16% under high, 21% under moderate, 12% under low, and 13% under very low soil loss in the Chitral district. The above study is helpful to researchers and planners for better planning to control the loss of soil in the high severity zones. Plantation of trees and structures should be built like check dams, which effectively control the soil erosion process.

No abstract

Heritage buildings are regarded as highly valuable assets to the tourism industry because of their strong influence in motivating foreign tourists to visit the country. The tourism industry generate significant revenue (GNI of RM56.5 billion in 2010) to the Malaysian economy thereby making the tourism industry the second most important sectors of the economy. Foreign tourists are attracted to these buildings due to their cultural uniqueness, high historical and architectural values, and the strong desire to see something different. Hence, it became paramount to conserve these buildings in order to prolong their life span and functions. As buildings aged, they will be exposed to serious building defects and deterioration. To date, Malaysian government has been spending quite a huge amount of money in conserving heritage buildings in the country but the buildings keep deteriorating just few years after major conservation works on the buildings. To this regard, this paper is aimed at examining the maintenance management practice for heritage buildings in Malaysia. The study will focus mainly on maintenance units of gazette heritage buildings in Malaysia. In-depth literature review, questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews followed by physical condition survey at selected sites will be used to achieve the set objectives. Among the expected outcomes are the listings of heritage building maintenance management best practice criteria. The outcomes would enable custodians of heritage sites to effectively evaluate, plan and implement their maintenance management programme, thereby able to expect savings in costs and time in future conservation works.

No abstract