Malaysian Dams Portal

For separate link and better preview,
http://bit.ly/13xDEEY

Disclaimer: I, Danesh Prakash Chacko, as the producer of the map fully credit the various sources of data that identified both the locations and attributes of the dams. This included government sites, engineering companies, UTM copyrighted thesis, blogs and news sites. I hereby disclaim the ownership of the data found in the map portal.
Anyway the map portal should be used for study, research and personal use. No way it should be referred as a commercial source or tool for advanced analysis as the accuracy of the data could be questionable.

Introduction
From controversial 12 Dam project in Sarawak to water crisis in Selangor, water and dam issues has surfaced as hot political debates across the political spectrum. With the emergence of the idea of all development is good, dams plays both positive and negative role in sustainable development. The plan to make Sarawak into renewable energy hub have met stiff resistance among the indigenous communities as mass population displacement would occur. Meantime, in Selangor, political parties are squabbling on whether Selangor has enough water for its own needs or not and grand plan to bring water from nearby dam in Pahang (Kelau Dam) plus Langat 2 issue. Whilst the post would not highlight the issue thoroughly, I have decided the first step of awareness of water issues is to create information portal about dams.

The Malaysian Dams Portal highlights roughly around 90 dams in Malaysia, both constructed and proposed ones. The 'Portal' show where there are distributed, the purpose, the capacity, completion year and installed electricity capacity. Let me clarify on the accuracy of the spatial and attribute data of the dam. The dam locations were identified through Google Maps, FAO articles and other university or government publications. The dam locations were mapped out on a scale of 1:200 000 where the coordinates represent the location of the dam walls (if not, the centre of the reservoir at rare instances). Since the dam wall is big and some inaccuracies exist in coordinates, the map position of the dam could be off from 30 to 100 metres from any point of the dam wall. For the case of 12 proposed Sarawak dams and new Sabah dams, the accuracy of the location is very coarse. They were mapped out at the scale of 1:500 000 to 1:1 000 000. Pointing back to the disclaimer, it should be used as a guide, not a business or serious analytical tool.

You might observe where some sections on the 'notes' stating 'Request for Other Information'. This is because some of the dam attributes could not be identified at all. I am appealing to the readers and users of the blog and portal to contribute authoritative sources to fill the gaps. Having said that, please drop your queries on my blog to address the missing or questionable information.

As much as possible, usage of Wikipedia is limited to 10% of the data collected. The next section list out all the sources I have compiled for the dam location and attributes.

Limitations
Please drop in your queries on mistakes, what extra information should be added, better web map portals or others on the blog. This web map service is powered by online GIS Mango Map. I am considering to do this similar portal on ArcGIS Online to have more interactivity (though initial attempts have failed). If it works, I will post as a separate links.

Sources:
I would like to acknowledge fully the information sources:
Major:
-JPS Malaysia (Department of Irrigation and Department)
-Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara
-Sarawak Integrated Water Resources, http://www.siwrs.com.my/modules/iwrm/page.php?id=8&menu_id=0&sub_id=3
-FAO, faolex.fao.org/docs/texts/mal99051.doc
- Mohd Azizi bin Ya-Habib Thesis (2011), 'A study on inspection and monitoring structure dam in Malaysia, Case study dam owned JPS Malaysia' - Property of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
Minor:
-http://teochiewkia2010.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/penang-water-usage.html
-http://lsan.kedah.gov.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=107&Itemid=82
-http://www.mada.gov.my/empangan
-http://www.acssb.com.my/acssb/pdf/Publication-1.pdf
-http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Mi5w01UByyoC&pg=PA517&lpg=PA517&dq=klang+gates&source=bl&ots=SFhwNpkXX2&sig=Bb3oHPHfMasr2r6br8wMPD5NeOU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=25ERUYrrKu6fiAfukIGwAQ&ved=0CGwQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=klang%20gates&f=false
-http://peterchin.my/?p=2111
-Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd
-http://sahabatroselle.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/amaran-banjir-sungai-selangor-kuala.html
-http://www.sspsb.com.my/ws/brochure/SSP_WS_ID8_BATU%20HAMPAR.pdf
-http://wikimapia.org/3881754/Kawasan-tadahan-Hulu-Juaseh
-http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2008&dt=0801&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Timur&pg=wt_01.htm
-http://www.epu.gov.my/html/themes/epu/images/common/pdf/papers/txtspeech.pdf
-http://sos-selangor.org/?p=71
-http://www.sinarharian.com.my/edisi/terengganu/banjir-benteng-empangan-paya-peda-terpaksa-dipecah-1.115426
-http://www.ketara.gov.my/empangan-paya-peda
-http://www.kujie2.com/isu-semasa/projek-empangan-hidroelektrik-hulu-terengganu-puah-dam.html
-http://terengganulening.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/empangan-baru-di-terengganu.html
-http://www.bharian.com.my/articles/TerengganucadangbinaempanganminihidrobekalelektrikuntukTNB/Article/
-http://daruliman.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/kerja-kerja-awal-empangan-hidroelektrik-kedua-sedang-berjalan/
-http://bm.harakahdaily.net/index.php/headline/16619-empangan-ulu-telom-tenggelamkan-7600-hektar
-http://www.smec.com/Default.aspx?aProjId=488
-http://www.smecmal.com.my/projects_detail.php?subaction=showfull&id=1196946935&archive=&start_from=&ucat=4&
-http://www.kettha.gov.my/content/penswastaan-bekalan-air-empangan-bengoh-urusan-negeri-kata-chin
-http://www.gerik.gov.my/web/guest/pelancong/empangan_pong
-http://gis.doe.gov.my/eia2/Upload_folder/Ex_Sum/MOA-PayaPedaES-Jan2010.pdf
-http://www.tbnsa.gov.my/image/image_gallery?uuid=8b1d3dbb-cb16-4690-950d-d1bc29437e89&groupId=167079&t=1315794731081
-http://mrkumai.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/tips-melawat-cameron-highlands-empangan.html
-http://cdm.unfccc.int/filestorage/_/i/UV7NBCQ4IW2H0G1KSE5P9D3X8F6RLY.pdf/7664-PDD-10%20Oct%2012.pdf?t=aXR8bWlnejgzfDC06yqp5OjtjzoQ3BbIpIv8
-http://www.doe.gov.my/portal/wp-content/uploads/EJ423-Jeniang-Ringkasan-Eksekutif.pdf
-http://www.unescap.org/esd/environment/infra/suncheon/documents/Case_studies/LABUAN-Water-Infrastructure.pdf
http://www.townplanning.sabah.gov.my/iczm/reports/Coastal%20Profile%20Sabah/Figures/Figure%2066%20Locations%20of%20Power%20Stations%20in%20Sabah.gif
-http://wargamarhaen.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/empangan-tambatuon-bn-pinggir-suara.html
-http://www.scribd.com/doc/45160104/Upper-Padas-Hydroelectric-Project-1
-http://sabahkini.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1360:tenom-pangi-hydro-power-enigma&catid=35:berita-sabah&Itemid=27
-http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4196:background-information-on-kaiduan-dam-in-sabah-
-http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2011/03/15/villagers-protest-against-proposed-kaiduan-dam/
-http://starstorage.blob.core.windows.net/archives/2008/7/23/nation/n_01sarawakdams.jpg
-http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/212042
-http://www.stop-corruption-dams.org/resources/Sold_down_the_river_BMF_dams_report.pdf
-http://www.efka.utm.my/thesis/IMAGES/3PSM/1992/JHH1/norazmee5.pdf (Property of UTM)

Simple Interactive Flight Traffic Map Tool

http://www.arcgis.com/apps/Compare/storytelling_tabbed/index.html?appid=8c1cf75448654110bf3f9cfda2cddda7

Above is a sample of my online mapping capabilities. I did not design the website, I used the ArcGIS personal online site and chose a template. For the time being, all the three maps are identical as I have not created two more other maps. The data ranges for the airport traffic is unreasonable but this ArcGIS unchangeable settings I guess. The two other proposed maps would be airspaces and runways in Malaysia and how Malaysia links to the world through air.

Penang Walking Track Map

A sample of Penang Walking Track Map

The map above was my self-produced map of a walking track in Penang. It took two days to start to finish this whole map works. Making maps are ain't easy as you see. It received 13 likes on facebook, which is hard for my photos or works of arts to receive this many likes. Penang is blessed with accessible forested areas. The facts this island may cover 285 sq km, it is very mountainous and a lot of its forests remain intact. With increased development, the threat to this natural wonder of Penang is much higher. For Penangites, hiking can be done at different parts of the island. Due to close proximity of the urban areas and forest regions, Penangites have a rare advantage for metropolitan peoples to be very close to forests. However, there are so many hiking tracks in Penang but hardly proper maps I could think off the guide the hikers. Nearly a decade ago, Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) produce a hiking guide in black-and-white for central and northern Penang. The maps seems to come from hand-sketched but dotted with sufficient detail.

 Having worked for Australian travel guide company, Explore Australia, I was exposed to the variety of their  products for the travel market. One of my projects I was involved was to produce hiking guides for New South Wales. I think the key successes of this book were dedicated, passionate authors and good quality maps. The authors, who love hiking, logged their tracks and this data was subsequently used for the maps. In a company where mapping is important, we are able to access our database of various map datasets. Mash these information, you have good quality maps with information closely related to the text. I think this is where we should draw inspiration from if we ever embark hiking guides for Malaysia

 Having said that, the map above on blog display was created one week before I started doing hiking maps for my company. That is why there is a difference what my map looks like and what my company's maps in its hiking guide. Now, we know the background on the situation. We know what Penang has to offer, what existing Malaysian product demonstrates and what my company's approach to hiking maps. This article will give a gist on the workflow for this map production and the challenges

Preparatory materials

In making a map, roughly 80% of your time would be consumed to find data. Digital spatial data are the lineworks, polygons and dots that you find the map. They have a spatial component (coordinates, height) and attribute component (feature type, classification). For the map above to be made, most important data we need is hiking track data. Other datasets would be required are contour data, rivers, geographical features, roads and points of interest. Well, I do not list out like this way when I did this map. All happened in my brain and modified over time. Datasets consume a lot of money but this project I sourced all of them from free sources. My dad has logged this hiking track many months ago with his GPS. Through my university senior (who shares similar passion in mapping), I have came to know free source of contour datasets. The rivers were not added on the map due to the difficulty of digitization and lack of free viable dataset source. Rest of the information was sourced from government maps, Google and Open Street Map (OSM). These are the preparatory materials for this map.

Procedures to make maps

First of all, in every map you make, you need the datasets which I have described in detail in the previous section. Once the datasets assembled, we need to find out how to transform these datasets into viable and user-friendly map.

1) I have track gpx (a GPS file) file from my Dad. However, I realized my existing geospatial skills became a little obstacle in this process of making map. The gpx file could not be uploaded into my GIS software, ArcGIS version 10. In this process of making maps, we always hit obstacles but the success lies in our problem-solving skills.

2) With my existing knowledge, on Google Earth, I digitized over the gpx file and saved as a kml/kmz file (Google Earth file). For the sake of creating a sample map, this time-consuming process is worth the shot. However, if I am making full-blown hiking guide, better alternatives should be explored.

3) I realized that the kmz file could not be directly uploaded onto the ArcGIS sofware. After bit of search, I came to a website which converts kml to shapefiles (where ArcGIS software can accept and display geographic data). After trials with it, I was successful in converting the kmz files into shapefiles.

4) Meantime, in ArcGIS software, I created a personal geodatabase where I assemble the various datasets. These track shapefiles were exported into the geodatabse. In my limited knowledge, I see a geodatabase an effective storage of datasets for a project. This is opposed to have dataset files kept everywhere.

5) For the case of my existing knowledge, I do not know which map projection is suitable for this track map. I have not been exposed to map projection parameters for Malaysia and specifically, Malaysia. The default coordinates of all the datasets were placed in WGS84 (the coordinate system that underpins the American GPS). The map projection is the process of transforming 3D coordinates (e.g. WGS84) or surfaces into 2D surfaces or coordinates (e.g. Mercator Map projection).

6) In ArcGIS, the datasets layers were organized according to visibility priority. The Track maps, roads and points of interest should be at the top of all layers. Contour data should be placed below. I created new shapefiles such as roads, points of interests, geographical features and place names. I converted a raster (Cell-based datasets) contour file into a vector file (resulted in contour lines).

7) From here, I scaled the map to a large-scale map (which I was pushing the limit of some of datasets' accuracy), added suitable colours for the datasets and final-touch-ups were performed. For further cartographic touch-ups, the ArcGIS map was exported into a Illustrator file.

8) In Illustrator, there was significant fixing with the map layers in the map that was just exported. This is where I placed text for key features. ArcGIS version 10, despite the strides, is still limited in text placement. Text-placement is one of the most difficult part of map production. Additional items on the map (Shown above in the image) were subsequently added.

9) For display purposes, the Illustrator file was exported into JPEG file. It was first posted on facebook and received reasonable liking and subsequently, the same JPEG is exported to the blog.

This is the 9 steps in making the map and it took nearly full two days to complete it. From here, I will address the challenges and limitations of this map.

(Article under construction)

Not Selling your Soul to GPS

Today's world everyone wants, gets and use in-car navigation device (a.k.a. GPS). Well, the origin of technology back to 60s through military needs in US and Soviet Union. It just happens the American GPS (where the name comes from) is the most stable, functioning and long-lasting from 1970s onwards. The Soviet/ Russian GLONASS completed its full set of satellites in mid 90s but due to financial crises, the number of satellites functioning fell make GLONASS unreliable. Now, it is back to action. But the damage was done, the American GPS became the noun for all in-car navigation device. Either way, from what I have deduced, the in-car navigation device is marriage of the two geospatial technologies- GIS (Geographic Information System) and the Satellite Positioning Technology (a.k.a. the GPS).

  We often hear that people got stranded using the in-car navigation devices. The stories ranges from people ending up at national parks (Apple Maps fiasco) to people ending up in another country .On this matter, I believe the issue stems from the GIS where the road database and turn-to-turn direction is stored. The amount of information stored in the navigation devices are immensely huge and expensive in dataset purchases. So, when the database has erroneous information, no matter how good the Satellite Positioning Technology works, you will end being lost. Capitalizing the failures of GPS, Universal Publishers (Australia no.1 street directory publisher) created a rectangular ad entitled 'Is your GPS driving you to the wall?' In today's brief article, I will examine why street directories are important and what Malaysia could learn from Australian street directories.

  Before the era of GPS, the street directories, or hard-copy map pamphlets were your navigation devices. The street directories, the good ones ,were very thick and bulky. However, it contained all the information for your metropolitan areas. If your street directory company in your country is good, the company would produce street directories for remote or rural towns. Basically, the street directories have two advantages against the 'GPS'.

1) It would not breakdown due to heat, loss of battery power

If you are travelling remote areas of country (i.e. Australia), the journey will take for hours. It is expected that your nearest power source or internet provider will be too far. With the age of smart phones, the phone GPS taps the internet service to show the maps from the database and move them as you go. Having said that, if you go to Outback Australia or hidden forest roads in Malaysia, your phone will not be able to connect to internet. Then, your online maps would be showing the last maps you turned it on. The rest would be blurred or not available. Then, you argue that you have non-online GPS on the Phone like Garmin or Magellan. Well, it would work as it depends on the satellite positioning and visibility. The only problem do not turn it on for too long or the battery would die. When battery dies, the 'GPS' is dud machine. Some instances, the environment would not suit for a GPS due to temperature extremities, humidity or other factors. In short, street directories are capable to function on this situations. I heard in Australia, there may be a law that makes taxis to have mandatory street directories as your plan 'B'

2) You can see the bigger picture of the world we live in

Street directories being like book allows you to see the bigger world around the place you want to visit. Since your GPS currently is small device, you only see lines and other data in confined world. Not knowing how things are related to other parts of the world. Plus, street directories are controlled art forms where users can keep on looking, staring and appreciating the cartography behind it. You look at the GPS for a while, but not much to appreciate the design of maps.

Lessons from Australian street directories

Australian street directories have been successful in their publications since 1930s (or maybe before). In Australia, there are two monopolies of street directories (Ausway and UBD-Gregory's). Gregory was started by Journalist in 1930s to map out Sydney and soon amalgated with UBD (now the Gregory brand is dead after 75 years I think). Ausway (started as Melways) is one of the most successful directories in the country. The term Melways became a noun for Melbournians as most Melbournians one way or another have a Melway (despite in the world of GPS). Started off in 1966, Ausway eventually produced directories for Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Handling 4 cities would be heck of work where thousands of square kilometres with thousands of roads are being mapped. UBD (Universal Publishers) is the street directory company that rules street directory and atlases across Australia. They produce street directories for every capital city in Australia, state atlas and their regional spin-offs (e.g. regional SE Queensland).

Assessing their products, I have deduced the number one factor of their popularity of this directories: Content. In order to meet the needs of a driver, you need to ensure the maps are up-to-date and loaded with so much data without compromising the beauty. Below here are the key content features of Australian street directories:

1) Address points- UBD/Ausway street directories puts an address range in every possible street in their directories. The potential of doing that is immense- they make sure the directories are useful for the public to use in the age of GPS

2) Public Transportation network- The directories strive to show the tram stop locations, train stops, route numbers, transportation network topology for every city and regional cities covered.

3) Location of traffic information- They show the traffic light, road restrictions (i.e. tonnage limit, private access), speed humps and emergency telephones

4) Points of interests- Strive to show every information centers, parking areas, toilets, telephones, building, landmarks, bridge names

5) Maps of universities and other key landmarks sites- Australian street directories devote a section of maps of university compounds areas (the location of faculties, building names), airport terminal information and maps of sporting areas or other major events area

6) Maps of regional cities- For example, Melways do not cover only Melbourne, they show maps of Geelong, Mornington Peninsula and Phillip Island. Likewise, other street directories do not focus only metropolitan areas, goes beyond that to show the layout of rural towns. UBD has wide range of products which shows many rural towns in Australia accompanied with key information. 

Well, the list can go on for long (e.g. comprehensive index and telephone numbers). However, I am stressing the major highlights of a street directories. If you look an Australian metropolitan street directory, it is whopping 500 pages for every metropolitan area.

(Article under construction)

Analyzing A Malaysian Atlas

Atlas Moden Malaysia Dan Dunia (New Edition)

Introduction

On the process of pushing the implementation of Online Atlas of Malaysia, we need to examine some paper atlases exist in Malaysia. Unlike Australia, Malaysian geography students are not required to buy an atlas as a supplementary. From the image above, this atlas is produced by Oxford Fajar (a branch of Oxford University Press). This atlas was first created in 1992, subsequently second edition in 1996 and in 2007, a new cover was added to the atlas (to mark the 50 years of Oxford Fajar in Malaysia). Having said that, the mapping works was done by Cartographic Department of Oxford University, UK. Secondly, with the new cover of atlas, it doesn't mean any updates to atlas content. The fact is students who purchase the atlas would be seeing statistics of late 80s and early 90s.

Content Analysis

The beauty of the atlas for students and map lovers is the atlas is paper spatial portal of Malaysia. As far as I am concern, there hardly any Atlas of Malaysia for general public purpose. This atlas (image above) is no longer being produced and replaced by Atlas Geografi (Tingkatan 1 to 5)- for secondary students. The new atlas should not be even called an atlas because it has so much text as opposed to text. The main reason I could guess for the atlas replacement is to reflect the new Geography syllabus in Malaysia since 2003. The Atlas Moden Malaysia & Dunia reflects the curriculum of 90s and early 2003.

 The way atlas structure is like this:
1) Concept of maps
2) Graphics of environment
3) Maps of Malaysia and its associated thematic content
4) South East Asia studies
5) Asia studies
6) Continent-to-Continent Studies
7) Global Issues and Time Zones

Put in simple, the atlas is meant for the old Geography syllabus which was more interesting than 2003 version of Geography syllabus. However, in the context of the article, I will be focusing on Malaysiana section. As far for the content, it is much of reflection of situation in 90s Malaysia. Surprisingly, these maps were never updated since mid 90s I presume to cater rapid-changing situation on ground

The topics covered:
1) Physical Environment
2) Climate
3) Agriculture , Fishing & Vegetation
4) Geology & Mining
5) Transportation network
6) State by State economic development maps
7) Topographic maps of Malaysia

For me, there are no issues in regards with layout of the content and the geographical message crossed over. As matter of fact, we could draw lessons from the atlas in topics to be covered for national atlas. At conclusion of my final year project presentation, I have stated that a national atlas is the geographical/spatial window to a nation. The topics above fit the purpose of a national atlas. Only thing will differ a national atlas and a student atlas in content terms is a national atlas would have larger depth on geographic content of the nation.

Cartographic Design

Having said the greatness in the content, I have reservation in terms of cartographic preparation. Cartography is the science and art of making maps and it is truly the gateway of science to arts and vice versa. An Atlas prior to the era of Internet mapping could be consider as a pinnacle of cartographic products. Firstly before the Internet, an atlas is a pair of binoculars for the readers to understand the world. In 1950s, Times Reference Atlas Mid-Century Edition came in 5 to 6 volumes and specifically shown maps that are less-Euro centric. Hidden areas of former Soviet Union came to light in the post-War period (reflecting the completion of the Soviet grand mapping of Soviet Union).
In short, if an atlas wants to serve the purpose of window to the world, expectation of cartographic design is much higher.

Below here are examples of problematic Cartographic Design in this Atlas

Example 1

Economic Map of Pahang

 

 

In maps, there must be clear hierarchical ranking in the geographical data displayed. Maps in atlases are controlled painting, not simply playing with figure-ground relationship or ignoring the ranking. The above map ( press for larger) focuses on the economic situation in Pahang, the largest state in Peninsular Malaysia. Line symbols for state borders are neatly done. However, when it comes to the district borders of the state, there seems to be a confusion whether Pahang is splintered into many states. To make the situation worse, the name of districts in Pahang has the same font size to other State names.
In terms of colour, the colour distinction around the Kuantan side is not sufficiently distinctive. Light purplish-brown area shows the urban areas while dark purple lines transversing the region are the gas pipelines. For pipeline, a different symbol like a line with circles dotting along it would be a preffered option.
In this case, the map has issues with hierarchy and symbology scheme

Example 2

Agricultural and Fishing Map of Malaysia
 

The map above illustrates geographical data overload. It is fine to show in a single map to show agricultural product and fishing distribution. After all, they are all considered as a primary industry.  Firstly, there is too many town names displayed in the map especially on the coast. Secondly, the colour scheme for the rubber estates (in purple) is too strong (as in dark) which makes reading of text bit difficult. Another example would be the blue dots which shows one of the way fishermen capture fish in the deep sea. Since it is dark blue, it hides the colour of the text of city names. It makes reading not pleasant.

In this case, data overload combined with poor colour scheme demonstrate the map is poorly designed.

Conclusion

In short, the atlas serves it purpose but the map design needs a lot of work to be done. Positives of the atlas would be:
1) Content matches with geography syllabus
2) Reflects the situation in 1990s very well
3) Good accompanying topographical maps (which I did not discuss much in the atlas)

Downsides with the atlas would be:
1) Outdated maps and geographical data, being used unofficially by students till 2007+. Having a new cover in 2007 did not translate in changes in the content
2) Poor cartographic design in the thematic maps (on Malaysian section)

We came to an end of the article, we can learn that good content with good design are the foundations of good atlas making. It is rather unfortunate of atlases like above are no longer in circulation in Malaysia. One of the street directories companies in Malaysia did produce Atlas Geografi but it does not match the standard of Atlas Moden Malaysia & Dunia. My desire is that Malaysia should aspire to have good national atlases online or in hardcopy or both.

Opening Welcome

After some time of pondering, I have concluded I should a blog on maps related to Malaysia. It is part of grander scheme to eventually install Atlas of Malaysia by me or someone else. This blog will focus primarily on maps I have produced relating to any topics in Malaysia. I have previously contributed a lot to Open Street Map, free web mapping application especially in the Penang area.

 I have graduated in Bachelor of Geomatics- Mapping & Surveying in Australia. The blog is intend to built my profile up as a budding, passionate cartography. It is cartography, not food, that created deep sentimental attachment with Malaysia as my home.

 Please do not confuse this blog as gateway to online Atlas of Malaysia. The blog is to create an interest among Malaysians and outsiders to push for the implementation of the atlas.

 Will keep the readers posted whenever I am free.