A study on sediment load at Kerteh river catchment area using AVSWAT

Abstract

The study on sediment load was conducted at Kerteh River catchment area. The study site was chosen due to the rapid development of Kerteh along with the increase in the population. In general, the study consists of two main parts which was the ground sampling and using GIS technology (A VSW AT) to create watershed model to predict the sediment load in the study area. During ground sampling, water samples collected from station I and station 2 for suspended sediment concentration (SSC) analysis which was conducted in the laboratory using SSC method. Besides that, the land use activities in the study area was also recorded to be later used in the A VSW AT simulation. For A VS WAT simulation, input of Digital Elevation Model, land cover data, stream network data, soil data, weather data and precipitation data were loaded into the A VSW AT database. The simulation results of sediment load compared with SSC results obtained from ground sampling to enable A VSW AT to simulate an accurate and reliable data of sediment load in the study area. The analysis used to determine the relationship between SSC and simulation of suspended sediment load by A VSW AT in station I and station 2 was correlation coefficient. The correlation coefficient analysis shows a strong relationship between SSC data from ground sampling and simulation data of sediment load by A VSW AT for both stations. This is because the R2 value for station I was 0.906 and for station 2 was 0.922. The AVSWAT was also predicted the sediment load -for: next 20 years in the Kerteh River catchment area which was from 2013 until 2032 and the sediment load value ranges from 673000 metric tonne per year and 1893000 metric tonne per yer