Learning with nature is a form of psychological therapy for all, including children with disability. Beyond the psychological aspect, access to outdoor green space can also improve social, environmental, developmental, emotional and behavioural, and even medical outcomes. In Malaysia, studies of learning with nature remain scarce due to the Malaysian education system’s focus on indoor learning rather than outdoor learning. This research aimed at determining perceptions towards the application of learning with nature among preschool educators. Qualitative methods were used for data collection, consisting of structured interview and field observation. Four preschools were selected as sample. Results show that learning with nature contributes to the positive development of the children. The approaches used to instil nature awareness include conducive landscape, environmental activities, outdoor class activities, outdoor free play, formal education and recreational programme outside a preschool. These involved both outdoor and indoor spaces and facilities.

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Kuala Lumpur owes its beginnings to the two rivers that transect its historic core but it lost its waterfront as a public place due to rapid urbanisation. The rivers were used as flood mitigation measures with limited visual and physical access to the public. This paper traces the effects of policies on the waterfront development of the city by focusing on the factors that contributed to its disappearance. It employs a qualitative approach by analysing the riverfront physical conditions based on old maps and photographs as well as government documents and in-depth interviews with local authority officials, architects and developers.

The morphological development of the towns and cities in Malaysia was influenced by the river, where it functioned as the main transportation system. Many of these rivers flow right through the town centres and are influential in giving character to the townscapes of the cities through the quality of views. Nevertheless, many of these rivers are in a poor state of health in terms of the water quality and have not been fully exploited in terms of their recreational potential as well as their heritage value. Of the thirteen state capital cities studied, there are three cities that have already embarked on a regeneration program to revitalize their riverfronts. However, some of the recent developments on the riverfront are considered unsustainable and insensitive to the river as a valuable asset of the city, such as the covering of the river with an open plaza and changing the natural embankment of the river to concrete banks, hence turning its image into that of a large open culvert running across the city. Many of the buildings along the river are still backing the waterfront where access both visually and physically is rather limited. This paper is going to discuss the issue of rivers as one of the significant elements that contribute to the sense of place of the city and the plight of the rivers as the city progresses into the future. The discussion is based on an urban design study of all the state capital cities in Malaysia as well as a doctoral research that looks at the issue of waterfront regeneration in the Federal Capital City of Kuala Lumpur. The paper concludes by highlighting the impact of these rivers to the sense of place of Malaysian cities and their roles in creating sustainable cities in the future.

Urban waterfronts are unique cultural resources which have great potential to improve economic development, public enjoyment and civic identity. This issue is more predominant in the historic areas where the once active waterfront ceases to function in its traditional capacity. George Town and Melaka were both jointly awarded the UNESCO world heritage site in 2008 because of the similarity in issues and the functions they served in the past. The waterfronts of the cities were included in the heritage sites' boundaries and the approaches taken to the waterfront development have an important influence on their sustainability. This paper examines the approach to waterfront regeneration in the major cities of Malaysia including the two aforementioned historic cities. A mixed method approach has been adopted for the research using field observations, morphological study, in depth interview, questionnaire survey and content analysis of policies in government documents to collect data for the analysis. The research attempts to compare the differences in approaches between the two heritage cities and their implications in relation to their sustainability. The research discovers that the level of contextual integration is an important consideration for sustainable waterfront regeneration for the historic cities.