Developing a new model of river flow simulation at Kerteh river catchment area using remote sensing and gis technology (AVSWAT)

Abstract

The Kerteh River catchment area located at the South of Kuala Terengganu with total area of 275 km 2 • Like all river beds, Kerteh River also undergone continuously changing due to the influence of natural phenomena and anthropogenic features nearby which imposed the river and its flow. The SWAT model is a potential useful tool for operation and water/land management studies. It is used to predict the impact of land management practices on water flow. SPOT-5 satellite image was used for land cover mapping processes and seven types of land cover were determined for the catchment area. The SWAT model was simulated using 11 years of weather input data which from year 2000 to 2010. Total of 42 Sub-basins were created from the SWAT model and only Sub-basin 41 and Sub-basin 42 are considered in this study. The simulation result from SWAT for river flow was being compared to the in-situ river flow data after that. From the correlation of coefficient analysis, there were strong relationship between In-situ data and simulation data from A VS WAT for both Sub-basin 41 and Sub-basin 42. The value of R for both Sub-basin 41 and Sub-basin 42 are 0.9047 and 0.8867 respectively. Correlation greater than 0.8 means the river flow rates and volume of river flow out show significant correlation between them. Thus, river flow simulation model of Kerteh River catchment area has been successfully created and the SWAT model can be reliably used to model stream flow.