Asian Social Science; Vol. 11, No. 12; 2015 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 62 Community Involvement in Urban Environmental Management System Hamidi Ismail 1 , Tuan Pah Rokiah Syed Hussain 1 , Mat Khalid Md Noh 1 & Muhammad Subhan 2 1 Development Management Program, School of Government, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia 2 School of International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia Correspondence: Muhammad Subhan, School of International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia. Tel: 60-16-409-4416. E-mail: msubhan@uum.edu.my Received: October 11, 2014 Accepted: December 30, 2014 Online Published: April 30, 2015 doi:10.5539/ass.v11n12p62 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n12p62 Abstract The government of Malaysia has implemented various measures in the environmental management system, such as organizing an urban environmental management program. However, the environmental degradation problem in urban areas in the country is still alarming especially associated with the community engagement in protecting the urban environment. This study attempted to identify the level of community involvement in urban environmental management program in Malaysia based on 320 respondents. The results showed that the planning and enforcement activities by the community in the urban environmental management program were very low. In fact, the study also found that all the respondents in this survey did not execute their monitoring activities due to they assumed that the task should be undertaken by the government. The study concluded that contributing factors to the impairment of urban ecosystems in the study area is due to the vulnerability level of community involvement. Therefore, a better urban environmental management system is important to ensure higher community involvement in the urban environmental management program in strong collaboration with other concerned parties, especially the relevant government departments and the local authority. Keywords: Community involvement, environmental studies, urban planning, community enforcement, community monitoring, urban pollution, Malaysia 1. Introduction Community involvement in urban environmental management system covers various activities such as planning, enforcement and monitoring in collaboration with government, private and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Community involvement in environmental management within the area of Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj), Selangor, Malaysia involving air quality care programs and urban river water is very important to determine whether the management system carried out by the current government really works. The government has implemented various measures in the environmental management system in an urban area such as organizing environmental program, but environmental degradation problems still occur and this is associated with the vulnerability of society to engage in the protection of the environment of the municipality. The obvious question is to what extent the level of community involvement in urban environmental management program should be. Environmental impairment and in particular in the urban ecosystem is evident currently in the MPKj area as shown by research of the River Zone Conurbation of Cheras-Kajang-Bangi in the period 1974-2001 (Aiyub & Hasim, 2005). The study found that the Langat ecosystem started having problem of drastic changes since the 1980s that led to the contamination of drinking water quality and impact on ecosystem health. A study conducted by the Department of Environment also found a total of 150 industrial units operating around the Langat Basin and a total of 56 industries have violated standards of environmental pollution that can adversely affect the main source of water supply for the population in Klang Valley (Department of Environment [DOE], 2000). In fact, for Langat River it is at the average level with recorded contamination of Water Quality Index (WQI) up to 74 (DOE, 2007). Similarly, the DOE report also indicated that Langat River has remained at a moderate level contamination with WQI reading of 74 (DOE, 2008). This certainly shows that the contamination occurred in the MPKj reflects the current environmental management system including community involvement is still questionable.