Strategizing the methodology in assessing Malaysia's heritage urban river corridor landscapes

Abstract

The river corridors of Malaysia's heritage river cities have long been contributing to the livelihood of diverse communities within these places. Recently, the speedy city development progress in Malaysia to accommodate the up to date cultural-based heritage economy, coupled with severe climate change and lack of community consultation in designing and developing the river corridors has made a difference to the landscape settings of these places. These have raised concerns among the local community, particularly the local workers who are depending on the resources along the river corridors. This paper explains the strategy in triangulating multiple research methods to identify and assess the important landscape character settings of Malaysia's urban river corridors, which are significant in the routine of the working communities at these places. The experiential landscape survey (ELS) - the phenomenological approaches in landscape assessment created by Thwaites and Simkins was tested. Three inter-connected processes that consist of Process 1 - defining preliminary river corridor boundaries, Process 2 - looking for relevant occupations and individuals (as participants), and Process 3 - identifying and assessing the significant landscape setting successfully strategized in this study. The outcome helps to assess the landscape character in relation to working communities' experience for heritage urban river corridors in Malaysia. It also expands the conventional landscape character assessment through multiple methods, including site observation, ELS, and interviews.