M. N M Desa

Sustainability of hydropower as source of renewable and clean energy

Hydroelectric energy has been in recent times placed as an important future source of renewable and clean energy. The advantage of hydropower as a renewable energy is that it produces negligible amounts of greenhouse gases, it stores large amounts of electricity at low cost and it can be adjusted to meet consumer demand. This noble vision however is becoming more challenging due to rapid urbanization development and increasing human activities surrounding the catchment area. Numerous studies have shown that there are several contributing factors that lead towards the loss of live storage in reservoir, namely geology, ground slopes, climate, drainage density and human activities. Sediment deposition in the reservoir particularly for hydroelectric purposes has several major concerns due to the reduced water storage volume which includes increase in the risk of flooding downstream which directly effects the safety of human population and properties, contributes to economic losses not only in revenue for power generation but also large capital and maintenance cost for reservoir restorations works. In the event of functional loss of capabilities of a hydropower reservoir as a result of sedimentation or siltation could lead to both economical and environmental impact. The objective of this paper is aimed present the importance of hydropower as a source of renewable and clean energy in the national energy mix and the increasing challenges of sustainability.

Urban Water Cycle Processes, Management, and Societal Interactions: Crossing From Crisis To Sustainability

The present paper highlights a combined research project between three universities i.e. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) in dealing with the water quality aspect of water security in Malaysia. Five subprojects were created to enhance the sustainability issue of water demand and supply. It is expected that the project as a whole will innovate new approaches and issues in urban water management in Malaysia.

Stage discharge curve for Guillemard Bridge streamflow sation based on rating curve method using historical flood event data

The purpose of the stage-discharge curves varies from water quality study, flood modelling study, can be used to project climate change scenarios and so on. As the bed of the river often changes due to the annual monsoon seasons that sometimes cause by massive floods, the capacity of the river will changed causing shifting controlled to happen. This study proposes to use the historical flood event data from 1960 to 2009 in calculating the stage-discharge curve of Guillemard Bridge located in Sg. Kelantan. Regression analysis was done to check the quality of the data and examine the correlation between the two variables, Q and H. The mean values of the two variables then were adopted to find the value of difference between zero gauge height and the level of zero flow, a, K and n to fit into rating curve equation and finally plotting the stage-discharge rating curve. Regression analysis of the historical flood data indicate that 91 percent of the original uncertainty has been explained by the analysis with the standard error of 0.085.