Variation of Suspended Sediment Concentration during Storm Events in Upstream Bernam Rivers, Selangor Malaysia

Recently, the water quality in Bernam River has deteriorated due to sedimentation processes and unbalanced development around the river basin. This study was conducted to measure and compare the suspended sediment concentration between the low flow and high flow. In this study, sampling was conducted on 9 October 2019 until 26 February 2020 in three sampling stations during the normal season and rainy season. The results of the study demonstrated high suspended sediment concentration on 29 January 2020 in the three stations with values of 972.6 mg/L, 2152.4 mg/L and 1408.2 mg/L. However, the change in the suspended sediment concentration during the rainy season at station 1 is the highest, which was 2114.2 mg/L. The results of regression analysis in this study shows that the relationship between discharge and suspended sediment concentration is significant, with R2=0.5. The relationship between the discharge and water depth (stage) at the selected research sites shows a very significant relationship, with R2=0.9, R2=0.8 and R2=0.8. This proves a strong relationship between suspended sediment production and changes in land use that occur around this basin. The results of the study found that the high suspended sediment concentration is due to the changes in land use and weather factors such as rain and groundwater runoff which eventually gets into the river thus further increase the suspended sediment.