Urban air pollution

1. Introduction

1.1 Background & problem

The quality of the air we breathe is important as air pollution can affect our health. Air pollution exists everywhere, even in rural areas as well. Over time, the patterns of air pollution are changing due to the changes in technology, climate, population and industry. Malaysia is known to be one of the largest environmentally friendly and rich developing countries in the globe, which is also known for its greenery. Malaysia has its natural resources that include palm oil gas and etc; that is widely recognized. However, with the change of time and socio-economic needs, the environment has been facing numerous problems such as urbanization, exploitation of natural resources, huge motor vehicles and etc. The impacts of these issues are very alarming and the environmental degrading has been observing. (Mohammad, 2011)

In Malaysia, Klang Valley is one of the leading economic zones. It consists of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and neighboring cities and towns in the State of Selangor, such as Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Klang, Sepang, Gombak and Hulu Langat, which has almost 3.98 million populations as of the year 2000. During the last decade of the twentieth century, the rapid transformation of the Klang Valley into a wide urban region and has contributed to many of the environmental issues, particularly air pollution. Air pollution can be caused by several sources, such as from the factories, power plants, dry