Kuala Lumpur city of tomorrow: integration of geospatial urban climatic information in city planning

Urbanization brings many benefits. However, due to rapid and uncontrollable urbanization, the urban environment has been dramatically degraded. As a developing country, Malaysia is facing urbanization processes throughout the country and most of the population have migrated to dwell in the cities. Malaysia has envisions designing smart, liveable and comfortable cities, there is a great need to maintain the sustainability of the cities to ensure that the quality of life of urban dwellers is preserved, especially in terms of the environment. This paper reviews the concept of urban climatic mapping and its potential implementation in a Malaysian urban environment. The key elements and parameters of the urban climatic mapping are also discussed. Since being introduced 40 years ago, urban climatic maps have attracted worldwide interest. It is time for Malaysia to have its own urban climatic maps to assist the decision makers to make an informed decision on the development and its impacts to the urban climate conditions in particular.. It is the responsibility of mapmakers to share lessons and experiences with city planners and policy-makers to bring new planning environments that include climate as one of the important aspects to be considered.