Outdoor recreation areas in Ipoh: current availability and future demand

Abstract

Concommitant with affluence of society, is an increase in demand for regional, district and local recreation areas. In Ipoh, such district (eg. Taman D.R. Seenivasagam) and local (eg. parks, play grounds and open spaces) recreation areas are being used by ever increasing densities of people, and it is estimated that maximum carrying capacity per unit area of land has been exceeded. In this paper, an attempt is made to take stock of the presently available district and local recreation areas in Ipoh. Then, a projection demand to the year 2000 is followed, based on three projected population scenarios of 480, 670 and 600 thousand people. This indicates an increase in demand for these recreation areas in Ipoh Municipal Area to be 177, 329 and 273 hectares, respectively. The assumptions made in this projection include an estimated population of 334,000 for 1980, and a standard requirement of 0.8 hectares of recreation land per 1000 population.