Page 146 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016

46 © Shafie, Omar, Karuppannan, and Ismail 2016 | Urban-Scale Material Flow Analysis
as well as to introduce a more sustainable city
policy, the study of urban metabolism of Greater
Kuala Lumpur is deemed essential.
Figure 1: Urban Metabolism Concept in an
Urban System(Minx et al., 2011)
2. Materials and Methods
2.1 Methodology
Material Flow Analysis (MFA) is a rapid repre-
sentation of the interrelation between the eco-
nomy, a subsystem of the environment with the
environment and the living things that rely on a
continuous process of materials and energy
(Hinterberger et al., 2003; Kestemont & Ker-
khove, 2010; Kennedy et al., 2011).
MFA can be the initial step towards a broader
study of social, economic and environmental
aspects of local supply chains (Courtonne et al., ials, their respective units and source of data
2015), as the material flow that can be exam-
ined includes energy inputs, water inputs, food
and drink inputs, gas outputs, wastewater
outputs and solid waste outputs.
In order to understand more about material
consumption and sustainability levels, trends
need to be observed for a period of several
years. Proper comparisons can be made by
undertaking studies using the same method-
ology in other developing cities (Zhang, 2009;
Hoekman, 2015).
Science Target Inc. www.sciencetarget.com
2.2 Study Location and Variables
Three thriving cities in the Greater Kuala
Lumpur masterplan were selected: Ampang
Jaya, Selayang and the heart of Kuala Lumpur
itself within the authority of their respective
local governments (Figure 2). The Greater Kuala
Lumpur comprises the area under the admini-
stration of ten local governments. The indepen-
dent variables in this study were residential
activities in the area of Kuala Lumpur, Ampang
Jaya and Selayang. The dependent variables
against the independent variables are energy
(electricity) inputs, water inputs, food (rice,
eggs and sugar) inputs, gas (carbon dioxide)
outputs, wastewater outputs and solid waste
outputs.
Figure 2: Map of Study Areas (Official Website
of Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley, 2014)
2.3 Data Collection and Analysis
Data of materials input and output were
obtained from utilities providers as well as from
the local government of the cities. The national
figures were divided with population of
Malaysia and number of days in a year to obtain
consumption and production per capita per day.
The national data were downscaled to city
levels in instances where the available data was
not available. Table 1 summarized the mater-
from desktop literature.