Historical Maps of Petaling Jaya

 Introduction

Continuing on the ongoing work of finding historical maps of Malaysia of the contemporary era, this post will take you on a journey showing maps of Petaling Jaya.

Petaling Jaya was born as a response to the growing urbanisation (and its pain) of Kuala Lumpur. Conceived in the 1950s, it evolved into a major city of Selangor (Kuala Lumpur was separated from Selangor in 1974)

Recommended read for Petaling Jaya History: http://archresearch.org/_data_store_1/jk_board/4/2011-5/5.contextualmodernization_newtownplanninginpetalingjayaofmalaysia_12.pdf

If the map is not accessible due to size, please consider downloading it and viewing the contents.

Highly recommended that you cite the original source should you use it beyond your personal use

Maps of Petaling Jaya from the 1960s

1962/63

For optimum viewing, please visit this drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LMDpIDvbE0YQP9txJTbaBq_5e6hLTfu4/view?usp=drive_link

Source: Trove (https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1175196421/view)

1965

For optimum viewing, please visit this drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhJfMGjdcItmJ1r7F0RzWJjsxSciblpD/view?usp=sharing

Source: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library (https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/2695/rec/1)

Maps of Petaling Jaya from the 1980s

An important aspect appeared in the Petaling Jaya map of this decade - an inset map of the newly formed Subang Jaya township

1980s (A) - Help us to establish the year of this map

For optimum viewing, please visit this drive link:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1snhZ8FqnLxZSUSGoMcPOey_jRYgqNyMw/view?usp=drive_link

Source: Australian National University (https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/ff25aba6-83f8-43b5-9032-ab0bfb5dc03f)

1980s (B) - Help us to establish the year of this map

Our guess is pre-1985

For optimum viewing, please visit this drive link:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W3bjWTu9qt2aeOCX6Jn6g4lL6HMcC8Ko/view?usp=sharing

Source: Personal Collection of Danesh Prakash Chacko

Historical Maps of KL from 1957

This blog post hosts and will host historical maps of Kuala Lumpur over the years

The maps embedded in the blog post are a sneak preview of the full-scale map.

1957 Map

For optimum viewing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zmiLzOFpzlumVQKWWv-9SVjRynp8xXAX/view?usp=drive_link

Source: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

Link: https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/2692/

1965 Map

For optimum viewing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l0KBdmNZXjvsN16uEKYXms9sc2-Onlwg/view?usp=sharing

Source: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

Link: https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/2694/rec/3

1967 Map (Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya)

For Optimum Viewing: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c9_n8ULyD61sFps27dfiP5KDBLflr4jH/view?usp=sharing

Source: The Australian National University (Open Research Repository)

Link: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/96942efe-0fc0-4033-aad9-ec3a4b4eda65

1973 Map

For optimum viewing:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eoGqjxXwKE0z15OJCKlJ0fTzTlLiqdBV/view?usp=drive_link

Source: The Australian National University (Open Research Repository)

Link: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/a7192931-7545-4343-af1b-c3ac8dfa8498

1982 Map

For optimum viewing: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/178h4XDnrJfC_actWMsKjegMAX7TzCz0y/view?usp=sharing

Source: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

Link: https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/2693/rec/6

1993 Map

For accessible viewing:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U0MLTR6hB7D1WpOklRJeG69o5OhYBknV/view?usp=drive_link

Alternate Site: https://klmap1993.my.canva.site/

Recommend to have associated PDF reader for detailed inspection

Source: Private Collection of Danesh Prakash Chacko

2003 Map

For optimum viewing: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b6vqYKYu5BIdAEtqd0zsfX4p4Iu6lE_K/view?usp=sharing

Source: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

Link: https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/18327/rec/1

Penang Over Time

1935 Ordinance Survey (OS) Map of Jerejak. Provided by Mike Gibby

If Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia, Penang would be food capital of the country. More so, the island state is well known for its historical heritage (now as World Heritage Site). In my previous blog post, we had a brief mention of George Town and its history.

I have developed another ArcGIS Online Web Template allows you to view multiple snapshots of history of Penang through the maps. I have sourced maps from the earliest days of Penang Settlement (started in 1786) by the British to the maps reflecting Japanese occupation of the Island.

I hope through this application you are able to discover:

1. Road Name Changes
2. Forgotten buildings
3. Hill resorts or long lost features of the state
4. Expansion of George Town, the capital of the state

If you have out of copyright map of Penang online, please let me know

Reflecting on Malaya's 60th Independence Year through Maps

Sungai Petani (1943) Courtesy of University of Texas libraries

On 31st August 2017, Malaya (now part of Malaysia) celebrated the 60th Independence Year. One of the best ways to see the changes of Malaya over the years is understanding the changes in town layouts.

Over the past few months, I have sourced multiple out of copyright maps, images and historical descriptions of selected cities across Malaya. I took this opportunity to look at selected towns (some of which are no longer prominent in  the Malaysian scene) to relieve pre-Independence days of these settlements.

Unearth lost buildings, former railways and relieve memories of the past.

When time and online storage permits, I will look into adding other cities where I could source maps and relevant histories. I hope this map story application allows you to explore Malayan history through cities and more importantly, maps.

Please drop your comments of this application - both positive and constructive ones. If you want to see your town or settlement to be part of the application, please drop your name, city name and potential source for a historical map/images.

Click on this link for a full view.

Malaysian Electoral Map Series

As Malaysia gears to GE14, we will be looking what are the key factors that are impacting voters' preference for the next elections. Watch this blog space grow with new maps over the coming months.

1) Plantation Scheme Issues

How does a plantation scheme across the country can have so much bearing on the next GE 14? Felda, world renowned program to raise the income of poor rural settlers, has been beset by lower commodity prices, financial mismanagement and questionable purchases.

If you look at the map above, Felda voters are largely located at the marginal seats of the ruling government. Assuming there is one-to-one fight between government and opposition, it only takes 22 seats to change the government of the day. With the introduction of GST in 2015, the effect kicked in on Felda Settlers. A good example was the Rompin By Elections of 2015. Comparing to 2013 and 2015 results of the same seat, ruling government winning margin substantially reduced.

With the fragmentation of the opposition (PR), the possibility of multi corner fight is high. Should that happen, Felda voters will be presented with multiple choices which allows the ruling government win the seat.

2) Challenging Existing Understanding the relation of Electoral Factors

Bosnia Herzegovina Landmine Contamination Map

The PDF of the full extent of the map

Recently, with a collaboration of local Bosnian cartographer, Nurija, we have designed a map about landmine contamination in Bosnia Herzegovina. As Bosnia marks 25 years of independence this year, this timely map conveys the landmine legacy due to the civil war of 1990s.

As there are many mines (unexploded) still found in Bosnia, it continues to be a threat to anyone in the farm or during a flood time. If you want a map of a pressing topic, please contact me at the comment section and we can discuss further.

AUTOCAD to GIS Headache

Source : Autodesk community forum

Recently, I was facing challenges in converting AUTOCAD Drawing files (.dwg) into useful shapefiles for both my work and (my own consultancy projects).

It is known that some organizations have GIS files for small scale sites while their engineering teams keep the large scale plans of the sites. Hence, there is an issue where the management is not able to see the big and the small picture of their assets.

Secondly, not everyone knows how to relate AUTOCAD plans to their daily life. They would like to see their site in a user friendly format (i.e. Google Maps, Google Earth).

Now we have looked at potentially scenarios, we need to ask ourselves what we should be prepared for when conversion of AUTOCAD to a GIS software (i.e. ArcMap). Below here are the things to be considered:

1. Is your file in dwg or dxf file format? 
2. Do you know the projection of the AUTOCAD drawing is done?
3. Are you potentially aware that conversion will only bring spatial drawings (not the attributes)?

1. DWG or DXF Format?

.dwg file is native format for AUTOCAD. A .dxf file is interchangeable format of AUTOCAD product.

In ArcMap, one can freely add dwg file and all the layers (including attribute annotation) will come out. You can save them as a shapefile. 

For QGIS, it will ONLY open a .dxf file. How can I convert .dwg to .dxf file? Refer to this article here for the procedure

2. Projection Issue

Everyone should realise one thing about conversion of AUTOCAD file to GIS file - there is no projection for the exported data. None at all!

How can I find the projection of AUTOCAD file. One is to open the dwg file on A360 Viewer. If you look at the survey plan, the mention of coordinate system or projections would be located at one of the corners of the plan.

If no (which I have encountered), please contact the source and obtain the projection name from the client or the surveyor.

Once we identified the name, we need to incorporate this projection to the GIS file. How?

QGIS

When you open the .dxf file or converted shapefile (adding vector), the system prompts you to add the coordinate system. Input the projection name and apply to all layers of AUTOCAD that is to be migrated into QGIS.

ArcGIS

In the case of ArcMap, the process is bit more complex. Bring the dxf file or converted shapefiles as unprojected files. Ignore all the error message. To ensure the shapefiles are to have the correct projection, we are going to do vector georeferencing. Vector georeferencing only works if the survey plan (AUTOCAD file viewed on A360) has coordinates marked on it or you find equivalent coordinates on another system.

To activate vector georeferencing, you must use Spatial Adjustment. When I was made aware of it by ESRI support, it worked wonders. Refer to the video below on how to use the tool.

3. Attributes?

While I do not have clear answers on this, it is important for you to be aware that conversion of AUTOCAD files to shapefiles WILL NOT BRING attributes (names, heights, feature types). If the file has limited attributes, one can manually add them as separate columns to the shapefiles (which I have done before).

However, if there are many attributes, I would like to hear your answers on bringing attributes effectively during the conversion.

Hope it helps!