Making retention pond as an attractive element for site planning at lowland housing area

Abstract

The increasing number of the population has made the reclamation of the lowland for the site as the easiest way for a developer to fulfill the market demand. The covering area has minimized the role of lowland as water catchment area in the city. Therefore, the drainage system, as well as the availability of retention pond, must be provided in the design of site plan. The paper is aimed to investigate the use of retention pond as attracting attributes of housing product. To achieve this aim, the paper investigated how people perceive the significance of the availability of retention pond in their living environment through three variables; the function, the size and the street furniture provided. A number of 369 respondents had participated in the survey. The data from questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistic and factor analysis. The result shows that the availability of retention pond is not the main attractive attribute of housing product. The statistic results were complemented by the interview with the residents. The result from transcript analysis confirms the statistic results. The drainage system is considered as important one while the open area is needed for residents' social activity. The paper concludes that in designing site plan at retention pond area, the street furniture with safety standards must become first consideration before providing other landscape furniture. Hence, the retention area can be utilized as water catchment area as well as a place for supporting the residents' social activity.