The Effect of Landscape Design and Maintenance on Perception of Personal Safety at The Neighbourhood Parks: A Case Study of Subang Jaya Municipal Council, Selangor, Malaysia

Individual perceptions of personal safety have a huge impact on the utilization of space and social activities in urban public spaces, including neighbourhood parks. Even though a decline in crime rate is observed, the index of fear of being a victim of crime can still rise. The perception and feeling of fear are emotional responses that are built through times during individual experiences in the park environment. This case study research has investigated the impact of maintenance on perception of personal safety through the exploration of traces of maintenance and physically contributing factors in three neighbourhood parks in the urban context that are under the supervision of Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ) in Selangor, Malaysia. During the initial study to understand current maintenance, a flaw in management processes was revealed: there is one maintenance procedure followed to fit all types of park and maintenance, besides the lack of documentation for many of the processes. Two research techniques were adopted to provide critical discussion on twelve physical traces of maintenance issues, and to explore the factors contributing to the feeling of personal safety, fear of being a victim of crime, and feeling of physical security further. One hundred and eighty respondents among local residents and people at three neighbourhood parks in Selangor completed a self-administered questionnaire and their responses were analysed using SPSS (version 25). In addition, twenty-six participants, gained through on-site recruitment, participated in focus group workshops led by the researcher. The huge amount of data yielded in the form of mapping, photography, and narratives were partly analysed via NVivo, Adobe Photoshop was used to overlay the mapping, and the narratives were coded manually and analysed. The questionnaire findings indicated three contributory factors of perception of personal safety, namely, ‘maintenance and appearances’, ‘planting design and organisation’, and ‘environmental satisfaction’ resulted in the dimensions constructed from the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The findings confirmed that maintenance and appearances are the strongest factors affecting the perception of personal safety, especially relating to still and stagnant water and fly-tipping and illegal dumping of waste. Intervening attributes were revealed as underlying factors contributing to people’s perception, particularly those who were aware of park environments, and preferences. The qualitative findings further explained two outcomes of maintenance regulated the perception of personal safety. The first outcome is visual apprehension, which was perceived as more likely if the aesthetic quality of the environment was considered, as well as visual accessibility. These two factors are interconnected with each other by means of perceived openness and low concealment that affect the feelings of safety and fear of being a victim of crime. In addition, signs of incivilities such as excessive waste and overflowing rubbish bins signal poor periodic maintenance in a park, which invite other consequences such as a fear of wild animals in the park environment. Visual apprehension was also associated with the fear of being a victim of crime in the area with a clear trace of incivilities, and presence of strangers, especially in poorly maintained areas with few people. In contrast, the second outcome regarding functionality revealed that there is weak association between preferences for high function areas such as outdoor gyms and active areas with extensive facilities, even though the feeling of safety is significantly lower because of the traces of poor maintenance. These findings supported existing theory and previous research and contribute to recommendations for improvement of maintenance procedures in the future. The research recommends overcoming the challenge of perceived personal safety in relation to public satisfaction by the government tackling specific perceptions and feelings towards traces of particular forms of maintenance and physical factors based on the spatial form of a neighbourhood park.