Quantifying the effects of sediment transport on river channel geometry and flood level – a case study of the December 2014 flood

ABSTRACT

Rapid urbanization has an accelerated impact on catchment hydrology and geomorphology due to land use and land cover changes as a result of anthropogenic development activities in river catchment areas that cause increased surface runoff and higher sediment yield. The present study investigates the channel changes and sediment transport phenomena, including bed material movement from the upstream to the estuaries of the Pahang River Basin, Peninsula Malaysia. The river geometry survey associated with the spatial variation in sediment transport has confirmed that changes in river bed profile occur due to the erosion and sediment deposition along the Pahang River. The sediment size distribution for the Pahang River was very coarse sand and gravel after the December 2014 flood . The river geometry survey showed a gentle slope that can induce lower discharge typical of alluvial rivers relating to flood events. Quantitative assessment of sediment load is, therefore, of critical importance for future river basin management.

KEYWORDS:

• Sediment transport
• bed materials
• coarse sand and gravels
• erosion and sedimentation
• alluvial rivers

Acknowledgment

The authors thank the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia for providing data and reports and the staff of REDAC, Universiti Sains Malaysia, for their involvement in the research work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s ).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial assistance from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia under the Trans-Disciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TRGS) on Flood Disaster Management 2015 [grant number 203/PREDAC/6767003] entitled ‘Model-Based Morphological Prediction for Large Scale River Basin in Raising Flood Protection Levels for Sungai Pahang’ and the support by the Higher Institution Centre of Excellence Program (HICoE) at REDAC [grant number 311/PREDAC/4403901].