Water Quality and Sediment Characteristics of the Upper Baram River, Sarawak
| dc.contributor.author | Liew Jing Jing | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-10-13T06:49:01Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2017 | |
| dc.description | Rivers are essential for water supply and function as habitats for aquatic flora and fauna. Therefore, baseline information of water quality and sediment characteristics of the upper Baram River is important for sustainable management of the environment due to anthropogenic activities in the river basin. A total of 31 stations were established for the study. Study covers approximately 170 km of the upper Baram River, from 0.5 km downstream of Lio Mato to 0.2 km downstream of the estuary of Kemenyeh River. The sampling was conducted once in Jan, July and Sep 2015 from upstream, midstream and downstream sections of the upper Baram River. Another two trips were conducted in Jan and Mar 2016 at the downstream section in order to study the effect of rainy season. Overall, this study found that the means of specific conductance, transparency, Chl-a, and NO2-N of the main river stations were significantly lower concentrations then the tributaries. Meanwhile, the means of DO, turbidity, and TSS at the main river showed significantly higher concentrations as compared to its tributaries. Furthermore, this study also found that the mean of sand in sediment at the main river was significantly higher as compared to its tributaries. Meanwhile, means of clay and organic matter in sediment at the main river were significantly lower concentrations as compared to its tributaries. The significantly higher organic matter that present in the sediment at stations 6, 23, 25, 26, and 28 at the tributaries were believed to be due to the discharge of human wastewater and animal wastes from both longhouses and logging activities and logging camp. With logging activities, stations 6 (Selungo River), and 7 (Temendan River), 20 (Patah River), 22 (Btg Hit River), and 24 (Btg Tanan River), showed significantly higher TP, NO2-N and Org-N concentrations. In addition, station 27 at Long Kesseh was observed to have low pH, high turbidity, and high TSS. Furthermore, station 25, Jertang River was observed to have significantly lower pH and iv higher OM, TOC, TKN, and TP concentrations in the sediment than the other stations. With both logging and longhouses activities nearby, stations 14 and 15 showed high turbidity, high TSS and high COD in the river. Furthermore, station 28, Nakan River was observed to have significantly higher OM, TOC, TKN, and TP concentrations in the sediment. Based on WQI, only stations 26 and 28 improved after rainy events, while, stations 22 and 25 became worse after the rainy event. PCA of the water grouping revealed that logging activities are closely related with high turbidity and TSS. This study found that a total of 26,547,196 kg/day of TSS, 570,960 kg/day of BOD5, 40,141 kg/day TP, and 272,524 kg/day of Org-N flowed from station 27 to the downstream area of the Baram River. Sebatu River (station 8), and Sela’an River (station 9) showed significantly higher loadings of TSS and BOD to Baram River than the others. This study shows that Baram River was polluted by logging activities and waste from longhouses. Therefore, proper management of land use that reduces pollution needs to be introduced. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://scholarhub.unimas.my/handle/123456789/2980 | |
| dc.language.iso | English | |
| dc.publisher | UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | Faculty of Resource Science and Technology | |
| dc.subject | Baram River, water quality, sediment characteristics, logging, longhouses | |
| dc.title | Water Quality and Sediment Characteristics of the Upper Baram River, Sarawak | |
| dc.type | Masters |