Mohd Fozi Ali

Discharge Assessment by Using Integrated Hydrologic Model for Environmental Technology Development

River water quality degradation is one of the most significant environmental challenges. Over the years, many models have been used to investigate the current state of Malaysian rivers and its effects to the environment. River discharge is an important factor in water quality investigation. An integrative computational model, GIS coupled with SWAT model was being used to predict river discharge of this research. The simulation results in the period 1999 to 2010 represented fluctuation of discharge relatively well with both R2 and NSI values were above 0.6. The results proved that the development of integrative GIS technology coupled with SWAT model is a good tool for environmental technology development in terms of investigating the current state of Langat river water quality as well as the capability of simulating the river discharge in the river basin. This shows that GIS-SWAT interface can be a reliable tool for water quality modeling in Malaysia in the future and further development on the software technology is a benefit for the water resources and environmental studies.

An Assessment of Water Demand in Malaysia Using Water Evaluation and Planning System

Water supply and demand is one of the hot topics discussed in the community today. Higher growth rate of the population has drawn heavily on the natural resource base in Malaysia. Trend of supply and demand in the Langat catchment, water availability assessment and water storage capacity to supply and demand were investigated using a new accounting concept and analytical approach, Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) system. The assessment model is computed based on three scenarios—Scenario 1: Higher Population Growth, Scenario 2: Water Year Method and Scenario 3: Extended Dry Climate Sequence. The study found that Langat catchment is relatively sensitive to the growth of demands, suggesting that slight changes in population growth will alter the present water availability. Furthermore, the populations increase to 7 % with the increment of climate variation of the current condition, thus exposing the study area with water scarcity problem.

The Development and Application of Malaysian Soil Taxonomy in SWAT Watershed Model

The concept of watershed modeling is embedded in the interrelationships of geo-spatial data and hydro-meteorological data and represented through mathematical abstractions. The behavior of each process is controlled by its own characteristics as well as by its interaction with other processes active in the catchment. The hydrological models vary from empirical models to stochastic models of various kinds and finally to the more recent distributed models. In recent years, distributed watershed models have been increasingly used to implement alternative management strategies in the areas of water resource allocation, flood control, impact assessments for land use and climate change, and pollution control. Many of these models share a common base in their endeavor to incorporate the heterogeneity of the watershed and the spatial distribution of topography, vegetation, land use, soil characteristics, and rainfall. This study attempts to provide a framework of hydrological assessment using a Malaysian soil data as a soil characteristics input in Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in its place of using the USDA Soil Taxonomy database. This chapter reports a SWAT simulation output using a Malaysian soil data from the SWAT input file. It was found that the SWAT model can be successfully applied for hydrological evaluation of the Langat River basin, Malaysia. To the Langat River basin, SCS runoff curve number (CN), base flow alpha factor (ALPHA_BF), and groundwater delay (GW_Delay) were found to be the most sensitive input parameters. The works attempting a hydrological simulation using a local soil data directly from Malaysian soil database are still in the programming stages. A same methodology is suggested to be practiced in other open source hydrological models.

Langat River Basin Hydrologic Model Using Integrated GIS and ArcSWAT Interface

Increase of socio-economic activities in the urban area has led to many water scarcity problems. Thus, the need to investigate the current state of Langat river is increasing. An integrative computational model, ArcSWAT with GIS interface was being used to predict daily stream flow of the study area. Historical data from years 1999 to 2010 was used for modeling purposes. The results reviewed that the calibrated model is able to simulate the flow for the river basin successfully with the R2 = 0.64 and Nash-Sutcliffe Index, NSI= 0.64. The results proved that GIS technology and ArcSWAT model is capable for simulating the stream flow in the Langat river basin and can be applied for other river basins. This shows that SWAT can be a tool for a hydrologic modeling in Malaysia in the future.

A low cost nephelometric turbidity sensor for continual domestic water quality monitoring system

This paper focuses on the design and development of a low cost nephelometric turbidity sensor for the continuity of domestic monitoring of water quality. The electronic turbidity sensor operates based on the scattered light intensity with regards to light scattering in solids and liquids. The electronic turbidity sensor used Light Emitting Diode (LED) as light transmitter, Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) as receiver, PIC 16F777 as a main processor and RS232 module for the integrated sensor communication between the computer. Laboratory experiments have been done by comparing the self-developed sensor with commercial turbidity meter (Hach 2100P) output of NTU. The advantages of the electronic turbidity sensor are lightweight, user friendly, low-power consumption, easy to monitor and low cost. Conclusively, the electronic turbidity sensor can be used as part of a low-cost sensor to provide continuous turbidity information of water quality directly to consumer. Laboratory tests are conducted and proven that the proposed devices produced a comparable NTU reading as commercial turbidity sensor. Moreover, with a low development cost of RM196.95, has been savings money compared to commercial turbidity sensor. Therefore, the development of this device can save cost and benefited to consumer by providing the water quality reading instantaneously.

Removal of Lead by Nanoscale Zerovalent Iron in Surfacewater

This study investigates removal of Lead (Pb2+) by nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI) in surface water under various environmental conditions. Particles size of synthesized nZVI was in the range of 35.57–49.62 nm (<100 nm) and congregated to each other. Remarkable removal of Pb2+ (k = 0.30 min−1) was observed in nZVI suspension (0.32 g/L) in 10 min, while no significant of Pb2+ removal was observed in suspension alone at neutral pH. The removal of Pb2+ was significantly dependent on the suspension pH and concentrations of Pb2+ and nZVI. Percent removal of Pb2+ significantly decreased as the concentrations of Pb2+ increased. Removal efficiency of Pb2+ decreased (49–25 %) as the pH increased from neutral to basic conditions (pH 7–9). As concentration of nZVI increased (0.06–0.10 g/L), the removal efficiency increased approximately 1.67 times (42–70 %). Experimental results from this study provide basic knowledge on the role of nZVI as a reductant to remove Pb2+ in surface water at different environment conditions.

Antibiotic Resistance Bacteria in Coastal Shrimp Pond Water and Effluent

The rapid growth of shrimp farm activities began since last 40 years. It is due to high demands and can generate economy to the country. In Malaysia, thousands tonnes of shrimp were produced every year for local demand and export as well. However high demand in this industry, causes problem of water pollution in shrimp ponds which subsequently contaminated discharge from the pond due to presence of bacteria. In this study, it was found that shrimp farm water and effluent containing pathogenic bacteria which is resistant to certain antibiotic. These antibiotic resistance bacteria could be harmful to human. Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Shigella flexneri and E. coli were detected in the water and effluent from the shrimp farm. Total of Vibrio in 3 and 6 months pond were higher than allowable limit, which is 1625 and 2650 cfu/ml, respectively. E. coli in this study was recorded at low concentration, however dramatically increased in 4 months pond (438 cfu/ml) before plunging to 13 cfu/ml in 6 months pond. It can be concluded that the higher number of pathogenic bacteria (>1000 cfu/ml of Vibrio) were detected in shrimp pond water and effluent can cause illness to human health.

Ultrasonic Irradiation on Microorganism Disruption in Water Disinfection Process – A Mini Overview

Ultrasonic irradiation is considered as one of the methods in advanced oxidation processes for water and wastewater treatment. In general, ultrasonic is a disinfection process that is capable to destruct and disintegrate physical and chemical contaminants, as well as pathogenic microorganisms under sonochemistry method. With sufficient frequency, power, duration of treatment and initial concentration of microbe, ultrasonic application is able to perform and cause the death of microorganisms. In addition, ultrasonic as an advanced technology is sustainable to the public health and environmental quality.

Physical Contaminants Removal from Continuous Process of Water Filtration by a New Low-Cost Palm Shell Charcoal

Drinking water contamination is one of the most major environmental concerns that requires worldwide attention. It is now universally agreed that by supplying the community with safe water, the plague of waterborne diseases can be prevented. The increasing global concern about the environment is the utilization of agricultural waste transformation into wealth material for value-added products which should be given priority. Therefore, this study is using granular bed filtration as a vigorous, simple and economical method to prevent the physical contamination, by discovering an alternative filter media from local sources; namely the palm shell charcoal (PSC). Dual-media filtration PSC/sand ES 1.0/0.5 mm is operates at an optimum condition of removing 80.77% of turbidity, 76.23% of suspended solid and 59.45% of colour in 5 m/h flow rate.There was a statistically significant difference between types of media filter to the removal of physical variable at 0.05 levels as determined by one-way anova for the percentage removal of turbidity (p < 0.001), suspended solid (p < 0.001) and colour (p < 0.001).The PSC was identified as a potential filter media that will help in reducing the cost of water and wastewater treatment and enhancing environmental sustainability. The results from this study suggests that the PSC should be significantly used as a new biodegradable medium filter and for the removal of physical contaminants such turbidity, suspended solid and colour.

Water Quality Measures Using QUAL2E: A Study on RoL Project at Upper Klang River

The degradation of the water quality and ecosystem are vulnerable to urbanization processes and activities. Increase numbers of population and industrial activities continue to increase a consumption of water and followed by the increasing of waste discharges to the natural waterways. These issues are very critical mostly in the developing countries and not excluded to the upper part of the Klang River basin. The current Water Quality Index (WQI) at both inlet and outlet of the study area is falling under Class III. The mitigation processes are needed to improve the index value before further degradation of the river downstream Furthermore the stream flows that passage the city centre of Kuala Lumpur needed to be maintained in order to boost economic sector growth like tourism and other business activities. The Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Government of Malaysia is currently initiating the River of Life (RoL) rehabilitation program to mitigate the water quality and quantity of Klang River. This paper presents the current water quality study of the upper part of Klang River, which consists of six water quality parameter. This study involved an in situ works and followed by a laboratory investigation. Data analysis was carried out using QUAL2E software and proposes mitigation measures which to satisfy the objective of the RoL program. The study area was exposed to a high concentration of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Ammoniacal Nitrogen (AN) which contributed to the pollution of the river. At high numbers of total coliform also redound to the unsafe and unhealthy for portable water. In QUAL2E, a total maximum daily load (TMDL) analysis was calculated from a stream outfall and Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) outlet and finally the prediction load was carried out in order to be conformed for Class II. The study shows that the QUAL2E software was performed well in simulating the water quality parameter and able to incorporate in the rehabilitation program at the study area in order to conserve the natural qualities of the environment.