Peninsular Malaysia Research Articles

Preliminary survey of medicinal plants in Soga-Perdana Forest Eco-Park Johor, Malaysia

Malaysian forests are home to rich biological diversity, many of which have potential medicinal values. However, like in many other ecosystems worldwide, these forests are in the brink of biodiversity loss caused by natural and anthropogenic pressures. This study presents the preliminary survey of medicinal plants in Soga-Perdana Forest Eco-Park Johor, Peninsular Malaysia. A rapid biodiversity assessment (RBA) method along the 2000 m by 20 m transect was used to collect taxonomic and ecological data. From the survey, 55 species of plants with known traditional medicinal uses were recorded, with Coscinium fenestratum categorised by IUCN as a critically endangered species. Aside from species that are traditionally used by indigenous people, some were commercially important species in medicine and timber production, namely Eurycoma longifolia, Dryobalanops aromatica and Shorea leprosula. This study provides evidence that even a small patch of forest surrounded by urbanised area and other land uses contains high diversity of plants with potential medicinal values. This calls for long-term conservation and effective management of this ecosystem, not only for the perpetuity of these species, but also to harness its potential scientific value in the field of pharmaceuticals and other areas related to biological diversity.

Floristic composition and biomass estimate of Rubiaceae in Bangi Permanent Forest Reserve, Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia

A study on floristic composition, community structure and biomass of Rubiaceae was carried out in Bangi Permanent Forest Reserve, Selangor. In the 0.45 ha of ecological plots, a total of 17 species from three genera of Rubiaceae was recorded for trees with a diameter ≥ 1.0 cm DBH. Three genera viz. Canthium, Ixora and Urophyllum were represented by two species each, while remaining genera comprised of a single species each. Shrub group represented the largest total number of species with seven species followed by the understorey with four species. The range of tree DBH in the study plot was between 1.0 and 31.3 cm. The genus with highest density was Aidia, viz. 244 trees/ha, represented by Aidia densiflora. Total basal area for Rubiaceae was 1.69 m2/ha, with the genus Aidia, specifically the species Aidia densiflora, contributing the highest basal area of 0.57 m2/ha (33.91%). Total biomass estimate (above ground and below ground) for this family was 16.71 t/ha. At genus level, Timonius contributed the highest total biomass value, viz. 5.82 t/ha (34.85%), represented by the species Timonius wallichianus.

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) marked reliable value of Ulu Muda Forest Reserve

Water resources must be preserved because they are vital for agricultural, industrial, and domestic use, especially in tropical forest regions. Given the importance of the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve to the Kedah state in sustaining paddy cultivation for the country, this study aimed to provide reliable forest classification method and produce Normalized Difference Vegetation Index-Maximum Likelihood Classification of forest density map for Ulu Muda Forest Reserve. Here, the study reports measurements of the satellite remote sensing index for the forest based the image date. The forest recorded NDVI index of 0.72 to 0.98 for high density, NDVI index of 0.61 to 0.71 for moderate and NDVI index of 0.26 to 0.60 for low density area. The index showed higher value, which is comparable with reports of other tropical forest elsewhere. The results were influenced using satellite remote sensing pre-processing, processing, and classification. As a result, based on the satellite image indices approach, upper threshold of the higher density, the forest can exhibit higher capability for sustaining its ecological and hydrological functions. Given that most of the tropical forest biome has sustained this threshold, forest management should be sustained at this state, and more measures should be taken for example increase of protection forest classification in Rancangan Pengurusan Hutan (RPH) that is one of yearly planning report in states of Peninsular Malaysia. In the meantime, Geographical Information System (GIS) capacity should be mandate looking forwards for more utilisation in mapping for planning and projection of forest resource management activities.

The taxonomy of Heteropanope indica De Man, 1887 from the Indian Ocean, with a note on Pilumnopeus pearsei (Rathbun, 1932) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Pilumnidae)

Benthopanope indica (De Man, 1887) was originally described from the Mergui Archipelago and has subsequently been reported from many Indo-West Pacific localities. The identity of this species is herein clarified. The re-examination of the type female, fresh specimens collected from Chilika Lake, Odisha State, India, as well as material from other locations, revealed that B. indica is not a Benthopanope species but should be assigned to Pilumnopeus instead. Pilumnopeus indicus comb. nov. is now restricted to the Indian Ocean and is reported from the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia for the first time. Heteropanope pearsei Rathbun, 1932, described from East Asia, previously synonymised under P. indicus by Sakai (1965), is here shown to be valid species of Pilumnopeus, and all previous records of “B. indica” from Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea must be referred to this species. The two species can be differentiated by characters of the carapace, epistome, chelipeds and gonopods. Lectotypes are also designated for both species.

A new species of the Cyrtodactylus brevipalmatus group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Phuket Island, Thailand with a discussion of the group’s potential biogeography

Model based integrative analyses supports the recognition of a new species of the Cyrtodactylus brevipalmatus group from Phuket Island, Thailand. Cyrtodactylus thalang sp. nov. is most closely related to the sister species C. brevipalmatus from the Thai-Malay Peninsula and C. cf. brevipalmatus from Langkawi Island, Kedah State, Peninsular Malaysia. Based on the mitochondrial gene ND2, C. thalang sp. nov. bears an uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence of 14.7% and 15.1% from C. cf. brevipalmatus and C. brevipalmatus, respectively, significantly different (p<0.05) mean values of meristic and morphometric characters, and discrete categorical morphological differences. A multiple factor analysis morphospatially statistically placed C. thalang sp. nov. well outside all other species of the brevipalmatus group. The BAYAREALIKE model of a BioGeoBEARS analysis indicated the origin of the brevipalmatus group was in western Indochina with subsequent south to north speciation along the Tenasserim Mountains followed by a west to east invasion of northern Thailand, Laos, and northwestern Vietnam northeast of the Chao Phraya Basin and north of the Khorat Plateau.

Seasonal flood risk for paddy rice production in northwest Peninsular Malaysia

ABSTRACT Managing flood risk to crop productions can be made cost-effective by considering the seasonality of flood hazard. This study attempts to quantify expected seasonal flood risk to paddy production in northwest Peninsular Malaysia. The seasonal flood risk was quantified following the region’s standard planting seasons and accounts the seasonal annual maxima flood and potential losses to the crop production. The highest expected annual damage (EAD) is from the wet planting season between September and November during the vegetative and reproductive growth phases, amounting to more than MYR 700,000 EAD. These months coincide with the northeast monsoon season, typically occurring from November to March each year. Seasonal flood risk remains a threat to the nation, and the quantified expected losses provide strong justification of the need for a proactive and strategic action plan.

Employing gridded-based dataset for heatwave assessment and future projection in Peninsular Malaysia

Employing gridded-based dataset for heatwave assessment and future projection in Peninsular Malaysia

Estimation of soil erodibility in Peninsular Malaysia: A case study using multiple linear regression and artificial neural networks

Soil erodibility (K) is an essential component in estimating soil loss indicating the soil's susceptibility to detach and transport. Data Computing and processing methods, such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) and multiple linear regression (MLR), have proven to be helpful in the development of predictive models for natural hazards. The present case study aims to assess the efficiency of MLR and ANN models to forecast soil erodibility in Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 103 samples were collected from various sites and K values were calculated using the Tew equation developed for Malaysian soil. From several extracted parameters, the outcomes of correlation and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed the influencing factors to be used in the development of ANN and MLR models. Based on the correlation and PCA results, two sets of influencing factors were employed to develop predictive models. Two MLR (MLR-1 and MLR-2) models and four neural networks (NN-1, NN-2, NN-3, and NN-4) optimized using Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) and scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) were developed and evaluated. The model performance validation was conducted using the coefficient of determination (R2), mean squared error (MSE), root mean squared error (RMSE), and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE). The analysis showed that ANN models outperformed MLR models. The R2 values of 0.446 (MLR-1), 0.430 (MLR-2), 0.894 (NN-1), 0.855 (NN-2), 0.940 (NN-3), and 0.826 (NN-4); MSE values of 0.0000306 (MLR-1), 0.0000315 (MLR-2), 0.0000158 (NN-1), 0.0000261 (NN-2), 0.0000318 (NN-3), and 0.0000216 (NN-4) suggested the higher accuracy and lower modelling error of ANN models as compared with MLR. This study could provide an empirical basis and methodological support for K factor estimation in the region.

Developing an ensembled machine learning model for predicting water quality index in Johor River Basin

Currently, the Water Quality Index (WQI) model becomes a widely used tool to evaluate surface water quality for agriculture, domestic and industrial. WQI is one of the simplest mathematical tools that can assist water operator in decision making in assessing the quality of water and it is widely used in the last years. The water quality analysis and prediction is conducted for Johor River Basin incorporating the upstream to downstream water quality monitoring station data of the river. In this research, the numerical method is first used to calculate the WQI and identify the classes for validating the prediction results. Then, two ensemble and optimized machine learning models including gradient boosting regression (GB) and random forest regression (RF) are employed to predict the WQI. The study area selected is the Johor River basin located in Johor, Peninsular Malaysia. The initial phase of this study involves analyzing all available data on parameters concerning the river, aiming to gain a comprehensive understanding of the overall water quality within the river basin. Through temporal analysis, it was determined that Mg, E. coli, SS, and DS emerge as critical factors affecting water quality in this river basin. Then, in terms of WQI calculation, feature importance method is used to identify the most important parameters that can be used to predict the WQI. Finally, an ensemble-based machine learning model is designed to predict the WQI using three parameters. Two ensemble ML approaches are chosen to predict the WQI in the study area and achieved a R2 of 0.86 for RF-based regression and 0.85 for GB-based ML technique. Finally, this research proves that using only the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and percentage of dissolved oxygen (DO%), the WQI can be predicted accurately and almost 96 times out of 100 sample, the water class can be predicted using GB ensembled ML algorithm. Moving forward, stakeholders may opt to integrate this research into their analyses, potentially yielding economic reliability and time savings.

Factors Associated with Intention to Report Child Abuse among Early Childcare Providers in North-eastern Preschools, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION: Despite the rising number of child abuse in Malaysia, there are only few studies documenting early childcare providers' (ECPs') intention to report child abuse. ECPs play a vital impact because they closely interact with the children and nearly daily observe them. They should take the lead in ending the cycle of abuse in order to safeguard the children. The aim of our study was to determine the factors that influence ECPs' intentions to report child abuse. MATERIALS AND METHOD: 457 ECPs working in preschools registered under the Community Development Department in Kelantan, the North-eastern part of peninsular Malaysia participated in a cross-sectional study utilising the Early Childhood Educators Child Abuse Questionnaire (ECECAQ) in Malay, which has been validated. RESULTS: Increasing knowledge was significantly associated with the intention to report to the authorities as revealed by multiple logistic regression. CONCLUSION: Our findings justify the need for a comprehensive module and integrated standardized training on child abuse for ECPs in Malaysia to improve their knowledge, thus empowering them to report any child abuse case.

Wind Profiles in Peninsular Malaysia: A Comprehensive Upper Air Analysis

Understanding the atmospheric properties and patterns is crucial in empowering Malaysia's national aerospace blueprint, national space, and legislation. While various policies have been enacted and implemented, there is a lack of information on the wind profile, specifically the upper air across Peninsular Malaysia. Realising the need to establish a standard guideline for national reference, future research, space-aerospace application, and legislation, this study was performed to develop the first wind profile analysis of upper air in Peninsular Malaysia. Relevant data from the Malaysian Meteorology Department was collected for analysis and evaluation. Specifically, a meteorology balloon attached with a sounding radiosonde was used to record data at 0000UTC (0800 h LT) and 1200UTC (2000 h LT) on the 15th day of each month for 7 years (from 2015 to 2021) at the KLIA and Kuantan Meteorology Stations for the wind profiling analysis. The daily overall data collection was recorded accurately once the balloon's rising rate stabilises from vertical air current (katabatic or anabatic winds). Subsequently, the collected data were evaluated in terms of the minimum, maximum, and average wind speeds for each year and time. Finally, the average wind speed of each year and time were combined to generate the Peninsular Malaysia wind profile. Based on the results, the projected wind profile for both stations identified three peaks of discrete sine wave flow type with low-speed wind profile in Peninsular Malaysia. The three peaks amplified the highest air velocity, whereby the 1st and 2nd peaks were located at the troposphere layer from 9,000 m to 12,000 m altitude (average wind speed of 10.8 ms-1) and 12,000 m to 18,000 m altitude (average wind speed of 13.7 ms-1). The 3rd peak was located at the stratosphere layer from 18,000 m to 32,000 m altitude (average wind speed of 15.2 ms-1). Since East Malaysia is located on the same equatorial line, the wind profile is hypothetically the same and exhibits only slight differences. In short, the established wind profile of upper air in Peninsular Malaysia in this study would facilitate other future studies and assist long-term planning of Malaysia's airspace legislation.

Metals Accumulation of Tropical Shrub Melastoma malabathricum L. (Melastomataceae) Populations and Their Relation To Soil Edaphic Factor

Melastoma malabathricum L. (Melastomataceae) is a widely distributed tropical shrub that grows in Southeast Asia. Recent research found that M. malabathricum has a bioremediatory potential that can accumulate high concentrations of toxic metals such as Al, Pb, As, and Cr. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the metal hyperaccumulation in M. malabathricum from various populations and their relation to soil edaphic factors. We collected mature leaves and soils of M. malabathricum from 15 different populations in Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, and Pahang in Peninsular Malaysia. These 15 populations consist of lowland forests, dump sites, riparian, oil palm and rubber plantations, paddy fields, and mining sites. We found that M. malabathricum accumulated high concentrations of Al (3.45±1.58 to 8.697±1.61 mg g-1) followed by Fe (1.02±0.02 to 1.07±0.04 mg g-1), Pb (0.013±0.001 to 0.016±0.001 mg g-1), As (0.008±0.005 to 0.23±0.004 mg g-1), and Cr (0.005±0.0003 to 0.02±0.01 mg g-1). The highest concentration of soil Al was 85.95±5.00 mg g-1, Fe with 69.960±7.47mg g-1, Pb with 0.192±0.03 mg g-1, As with 0.156±0.06 mg g-1 and Cr with 0.133±0.03 mg g-1. We found no significant association between high foliar metal concentrations of the metals (Al, Pb, As & Cr) with the soil chemical properties but some soil metal elements were intercorrelated with foliar metal concentrations. Understanding the potential of M. malabathricum in accumulating high levels of metal elements, provides useful information for phytoremediation works.  Further research is required to investigate the mechanism uptake and tolerance of heavy metals in M. malabathricum.

Hematological Profile of Hb Adana Among High School Students in Northeast Peninsular Malaysia

Hematological Profile of Hb Adana Among High School Students in Northeast Peninsular Malaysia

New Pristaulacus Kieffer, 1900 (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea, Aulacidae) from India and Malaysia with a key to species and a revised checklist

Two new species of aulacid wasps, Pristaulacus iuliae Turrisi & Nobile sp. nov. from South India (Karnataka) and Pristaulacus ninae sp. nov. from Peninsular Malaysia (Pahang), are described, figured and compared with most related species. Based on the present addition, the Indomalayan area currently includes 27 species of Pristaulacus Kieffer out of 61 known from the whole Oriental Region, which is however a largely underestimated number. An identification key to species and an updated checklist of Pristaulacus occurring in the Indomalayan area are provided.

Socio-demographic factors and parental feeding practices predicted body mass index of Malaysian children with learning disabilities

Introduction: Overweight and obesity have emerged as significant global health concerns among children. Previous studies have provided evidence that children with intellectual and learning disabilities (LD) are at a higher risk of obesity compared to their peers without disabilities. Methods: This study aimed to predict body weight status of children with LD who attended Special Education Integration Program in Kelantan, located on East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Parents completed a self-administered questionnaire in Malay language, which included “Screening Tool of Feeding Problems” children’s version (STEP-CHILD) and Comprehensive Feeding Practice Questionnaire (CFPQ). The children’s body weight and height were measured to determine body mass index (BMI). Research hypothesis was tested through stepwise multiple linear regression analysis. Results: This study recruited 245 subjects with mean age of 10.5±1.7 years and mean BMI of 18.5±4.9 kg/m2. Prevalence of underweight, thinness and severe thinness was 12.2%, while overweight and obesity was 29.0%. Male children with LD (β=0.109, p<0.044), older age (β=0.226, p<0.001), higher child birth weight (β=0.119, p<0.029), lack of parental modelling (β=-0.170, p=0.004), lower parental pressure (β=-0.266, p<0.001), and higher restriction for weight control (β=0.361, p<0.001) were found to predict higher BMI values. Conclusion: Positive parental feeding practices during mealtime are crucial for addressing the poor nutritional status of children with LD.

HIV–A prognostic factor of tuberculous meningitis: A retrospective cohort study among adults in peninsular Malaysia

<b>Background:</b> Tuberculous meningitis is a major public health issue, despite showing low incidence, tuberculous meningitis causes substantial mortality. For better clinical management, identification of prognostic factors is crucial to reduce health risk of Malaysian society. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prognostic factors of adult tuberculous meningitis in peninsular Malaysia.<br /> <b>Materials & methods:</b> Initially, a retrospective cohort study and one-year of follow-up period was carried out. In addition, a total of 217 adult tuberculous meningitis patients treated or had follow-up in four tertiary hospitals in peninsular Malaysia were recruited. Cox proportional hazards regression was employed to perform multivariable analysis.<br /> <b>Results:</b> The overall survival probability of adult tuberculous meningitis was 36.8% with median survival time 244 days. Significant prognostic factors were Glasgow coma scale score (aHR=0.71, 95% CI=0.65, 0.76; p<0.001), HIV status (aHR=1.94, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.19, 3.15; p=0.008), headache (aHR=0.48, 95% CI=0.31, 0.76; p=0.002) and meningeal enhancement (aHR=0.47, 95% CI=0.30, 0.74; p=0.001), nausea (aHR=2.21, 95% CI=1.33, 3.66; p=0.002), and vomit (aHR=0.58, 95% CI=0.36, 0.93; p=0.023).<br /> <b>Conclusions:</b> Evidently, the survival of among adults with tuberculous meningitis was low. Since HIV positive has a significant influence in mortality; early screening, diagnosis, and prompt treatment in this subgroup of patients play a key role in survival.

Wind Mapping of Malaysia Using Ward’s Clustering Method

Malaysian wind maps used in wind analysis and engineering design are dated back to the last 50 years of wind data. Cotemporally, the mean wind speed was used as the basic wind design and due to changes in the weather condition worldwide, wind monitoring assumption and structure design are jeopardized. Therefore, this study aims to map the wind based on the trend of the highest wind speed recorded. The wind speed was analyzed based on a trend basis. The study included 42 Malaysian Metrological Department weather stations and the annual wind speed was acquired based on the monthly highest wind speed (1990–2019). The data were then processed using the 95% confidence interval method to determine the mean of the month, and the annual wind trendline was obtained. The trendline was then clustered using Ward’s method with the assistance of the high-level programming language, PYTHON v3.11.6. The clustering analysis produced two clusters for the Malaysian Peninsula and two for Sabah and Sarawak. The recommendation is to use the highest wind speed recorded on the map as the design wind speed. The recommendation is expected to help experts to compensate for the uncertainties in wind speed during the design stage and avoid incidents in the field.

First Report of Leaf Spot of Pineapple (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr Caused by Neoscytalidium dimidiatum in Malaysia.

In June 2017, severe leaf spots symptoms were observed by growers on pineapple leaves of Josapine variety in in Alor Pongsu (5°01'60.00" N, 100°34' 59.99" E), Perak,northwest of Peninsular Malaysia. The early infection stage shows that several brown spots could be observed, which then would merge to form large brown to creamy white lesions that cover all the leaf surface. This infection finally caused the plant to die after a while. Disease observations conducted from 2018 - 2023 showed that 10-15% incidences of the disease were observed in several pineapple farms located in Johor, Kedah, and Sarawak. The aim of this study to confirm the causal pathogen of the disease by performing isolation, pathogenicity testing, and identification of the primary causal pathogen from 20 samples of infected leaves collected from Alor Pongsu. The leaf tissues between infected and healthy were cut into small pieces (0.5 cm 0.5 cm), and surface sterilized with 1% sodium hypochlorite for 30 seconds, followed by 70% ethanol for 30 seconds, and rinsed thrice with sterilized water before placing on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). The PDA plates were incubated at room temperature (28 ± 2℃) in natural light. After five days of incubation, the potential causal pathogen was purified using a single conidial isolation technique for morphological and molecular characterizations. All 32 isolates displayed similar phenotypes. Based on morphological observation on PDA, the colonies were initially white of aerial mycelia but gradually darkened as the culture aged. Microscopic features of the 14-day-old fungal culture showed that the mycelia were branched with 0- 1 septa, pigmented, and brown. Arthroconidia were ellipsoid to ovoid or round shaped, hyaline, with rounded apex, truncate base, and occurring singly or in chains averaging 9 ± 3 × 5 ± 2 μm (n = 20). Based on the morphological characteristics, the fungal isolates were tentatively identified as Neoscytalidium species. A representative isolate of Neoscytalidium coded as UiTMPMD2 was further identified through PCR implication of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region using ITS1 and ITS4 primers and BLAST homology search as Neoscytalidium dimidiatum (Penz.) Crous & Slippers based on 100% similarity (575 bp out of 575 bp) to a reference sequence (accession no. KU204558.1). The sequence was deposited in Gen Bank (accession no. OR366479) with reference sequence code of INBio:30A. Pathogenicity tests were performed on 10 whole plants of Josapine pineapple (4 months old) using a leaf inoculating method (Wu et al. 2022) in a glasshouse (25-32°C) and repeated twice. Four mature leaves per each plant were wounded at two points and inoculated with mycelium PDA plugs from 7-days-old cultures of N. dimidiatum. Control plants were wounded in the same manner but inoculated with sterilized PDA plugs. Seven days post inoculation, leaf spot symptoms were observed on treated plants with the pathogen, while the control plants remained symptomless. Pathogen was successfully reisolated from brown leaf spot symptoms in which the cultural and morphological characteristics were identical to those of the originals. Neoscytalidium dimidiatum has a wide range of hosts and it has been reported in Malaysia to cause stem canker on pitahaya (Mohd et al. 2003; Khoo et al. 2023 ) and fruit rot of guava (Ismail et al. 2021). To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of N. dimidiatum causing leaf spots on pineapples in Malaysia. This report establishes a foundation for further study ofN. dimidiatum that can effectively address the disease in pineapple.

Multi-Locus Sequence Analysis Indicates Potential Cryptic Speciation in the Chigger Mite Neoschoengastia gallinarum (Hatori, 1920) Parasitising Birds in Asia.

Neoschoengastia gallinarum is widely distributed in Asia, preferentially parasitising birds, and heavy infestations have clinical impacts on domestic fowl. In common with other trombiculid mites, the genetic diversity and potential variation in host preferences or pathology induced by N. gallinarum are poorly understood. This study aimed to unravel the geographical variation and population structure of N. gallinarum collected from galliform birds in Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand by inference from concatenated mitochondrial-encoded cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), and nuclear-encoded internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and 18S ribosomal DNA gene sequences, including a comparison with previously published data from southeastern China. Our multi-locus sequence analysis revealed three monophyletic clades comprising (A) specimens from Peninsular Malaysia, (B) the samples from Thailand together with a minority of Chinese sequences, and (C) the majority of sequences from China. Similarly, most species delimitation approaches divided the specimens into three operational taxonomic units. Analysis of molecular variance revealed 96.41% genetic divergence between Malaysian and Thai populations, further supported by the absence of gene flow (Nm = 0.01). In conclusion, despite the two countries sharing a land border, populations of N. gallinarum from Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand appear to be genetically segregated and may represent distinct cryptic species.

That Is Not My House? Household Renters’ Flood Preparedness Intention in the East Coast Region of Malaysia

By integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study examines factors influencing flood preparedness intention among household renters in the East Coast Region of Malaysia. The study utilized purposive sampling, involving the collection of data from 150 household renters residing in the East Coast Region of Malaysia through an online survey. The collected data were then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Smart Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS). The results revealed that past experience (PE) was positively associated with both perceived severity (SEV) and susceptibility (SUC). However, both SEV and SUC were not correlated with attitude (ATT). Among the three determinants originating from TPB, only ATT was found to be correlated with flood preparedness intention (INT). It is worthy to notify that trust in public protection (TPP) played a moderating effect on the relationship between ATT and INT. The findings will offer valuable insights for policymakers, renters, landlords, and community organizations to develop targeted interventions and bolster flood preparedness among household renters in the East Coast region, ultimately fostering resilience and mitigating the impact of future flood events. Besides that, this study provides firsthand information on the predictors of flood preparedness behavior among household renters in the East Coast Region, Peninsular Malaysia.