The influence of rain intensity on raindrop diameter and the kinetics of tropical rainfall: case study of Skudai,Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The modelling of soil loss and investigation of urban hydrology and wet weather pollution in Malaysia requires the definition of rainfall parameters for the region. In this study, an inexpensive method was applied to establish the influence of raindrop diameter on kinetics and rain intensity in Skudai, Peninsular Malaysia, as a prelude to wider regional research. Raindrop sizes vary from less than 1.2 mm to as big as 7.0 mm, with median raindrop diameters of 2.51 mm and a mean diameter of 2.56 mm. The median raindrop diameter–intensity relationship correlates strongly using power and exponential equations, with coefficients of determination of 0.75 and 0.73, respectively. The kinetic energy–intensity relationship fits an exponential function and also a linear equation with R² values of 0.49 and 0.34, respectively. An average rain kinetic energy of 30 J m^-2 mm^-1 was recorded. This research leads to an objective reclassification of rainfall intensities in the region.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor not assigned     

Physically based modelling of sheet erosion (detachment and deposition processes) in complex hillslopes

A one‐dimensional uncoupled model governed by this research is a physics‐based modelling of the rainfall‐runoff induced erosion process. The presented model is composed of three parts of a three‐dimensional (3D) hillslope geometry, a nonlinear storage (kinematic wave) model for hillslope hydrological response, and an unsteady physically based surface erosion model. The 3D hillslope geometry model allows describing of the hillslope morphology by defining their plan shape and profile curvature. By changing these two topographic parameters, nine basic hillslope types are derived. The modelling of hillslope hydrological response is based on a flow continuity equation as the relation of discharge and flow depth is passed on kinematic wave approximation. The erosion model is based on a mass conservation equation for unsteady flow. The model assumes that suspended sediment does not affect flow dynamics. The model also accounts for the effect of flow depth plus loose soil depth on soil detachment. The presented model was run for two different precipitations, slope content, and length, and results were plotted for sediment detachment/deposition rate. Based on the obtained results, in hillslopes with convex and straight profile curvatures, sediment detachment only occurred in the whole length of the hillslope. However, in concave ones, sediment detachment and deposition only occurred together in hillslope. The hillslopes with straight profiles and convergent plans have the highest rate of detachment. Also, results show that most detachment rates occur in convex profile curvatures, which are about 15 times more than in straight profiles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scenarios of global municipal water-use demand projections over the 21st century

Abstract

A comparison study is presented of three methods for evaluating trends in drought frequency: the standardized precipitation index (SPI), the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI), and a new method for estimation of dry spells (DS), which is based on average daily temperature and precipitation, and takes into account the length of a spell. The methods were applied to climate data from 450 stations in the Elbe River basin for the period 1951–2003, as well as data from several stations with longer observed time series. Statistical methods were used to calculate trend lines and evaluate the significance of detected trends. The dry spells estimated with the new method show significant trends in the whole lowland part of the Elbe basin during the last 53 years, and at the 10% level almost everywhere in the German part of the basin excluding mountains and the area around the river mouth. The SPI and PDSI methods also revealed significant trends, but for smaller areas in the lowland. The new DS method provides a useful supplement to other drought indices for the detection of trends in drought frequency. Furthermore, the DS method was able to detect statistically significant trends in areas where the other two methods failed to find significant trends, e.g. in the loess region in the southwest of the German part of the basin, where small insignificant changes in climate can lead to significant changes in water fluxes. This is important, because the loess region is the area within the basin having the highest crop yields. Therefore, additional research has to be done to investigate possible impacts of detected trends on water resources availability, and possible future trends in drought frequency under climate change.     

High‐frequency streamflow acquisition and bed level/flow angle estimates in a mountainous river using shallow‐water acoustic tomography

The acquisition of reliable discharge estimates is crucial in hydrological studies. This study demonstrates a promising acoustic method for measuring streamflow at high sampling rate for a long period using the fluvial acoustic tomography system (FATS). The FATS recently emerged as an innovative technique for continuous measurements of streamflow. In contrast to the traditional point/transect measurements of discharge, the FATS enables the depth‐averaged and range‐averaged flow velocity along the ray path to be measured in a fraction of a second. The field test was conducted in a shallow gravel‐bed river (0.9 m deep under low‐flow conditions, 115 m wide) for 1 month. The parameters (stream direction and bottom elevation) required for calculating the streamflow were deduced by a nonlinear regression to the discharge data from the well‐established rating curve. The cross‐sectional average velocities were automatically calculated from the acoustic data, which were collected on both riverbanks every 30 s. The FATS was connected to the internet so that the real‐time flow data could be obtained. The FATS captured discharge variations at a cut‐off frequency of approximately 70 day^?1. The stream exhibited temporal discharge changes at multiple time scales ranging from a few tens of minutes to days. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Composition of selected heavy metals in road dust from Kuala Lumpur city centre

This study was carried out in order to determine the concentration of heavy metals, e.g., lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) and chromium (Cr) in road dust in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre. Samples were collected from four sampling locations, each of which had four sampling points and three replications. Heavy metals from different fractions of particles separated by different diameter sizes: d < 63 μm (Fraction A), 63 < d < 125 μm (Fraction B) and 125 < d < 250 μm (Fraction C) were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The results from this study showed that concentration of heavy metals was dominated by the smallest particle size: <63 μm and that Fe was the most abundant heavy metal overall, followed by Cu > Mn > Zn > Pb > Ni > Cr > Cd. The fact that Cd had the highest enrichment factor value (EF) for all particle sizes indicates that anthropogenic activities contributed to the presence of this metal. There was also a higher EF value for heavy metals in small particle (Fraction A), compared to Fraction B and C, which suggests that fine particles were being produced through anthropogenic activities. Cluster analysis and principal component analysis demonstrated the likelihood of the heavy metals detected in the road dust, originating from road traffic and industrial activities.     

Particle tracking analysis of river–aquifer interaction via bank infiltration techniques

Induced bank infiltration (BI) is commonly implemented in other countries, but remains new and unexplored in Malaysia. Increasing river pollution could affect drinking water resources. Given the threat of pollution to raw water sources, applying induced BI to sustain water management is essential. This paper presents a case study of the BI method, which evaluates the effects of groundwater pumping and BI operation on the installation of wells as well as determines the effect of pumping rate on flow paths, travel time, the size of the pumping and capture zone delineation, and groundwater mixing in a pumping well in Jenderam Hilir, Malaysia. The proposed method performs infiltration safely and achieves the ideal pumping rate. Numerical modeling packages, MODFLOW and MODPATH (particle tracking) were used. Results indicate that the migration of river water into the aquifer is generally slow and depends on the pumping rate and distance from well to the river. Most water arrives at the well by the end of a pumping period of 1–5 days at 3,072 m³/day for test wells DW1 and DW2, and during simultaneous pumping for DW2 and PW1 for a well located 36 and 18 m, respectively, from the river. During the 9.7-day pumping period, 33 % of the water pumped from the DW1 well was river water, and 38 % from DW2 throughout 4.6 days was river water. The models provide necessary information for water operators in the design and construction of pumping and sampling schedules of BI practices.     

Elemental hydrochemistry assessment on its variation and quality status in Langat River, Western Peninsular Malaysia

This paper discusses the hydrochemistry variation and its quality status in Langat River, based on the chemistry of major ions, metal concentrations and suitability for drinking purposes. Water samples were collected from 30 different stations to assess their hydrochemical characteristics. The physico-chemical parameters selected were temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), salinity, dissolved oxygen , pH, redox potential, HCO₃, Cl, SO₄, NO₃, Ca, Na, K, Mg, ²⁷Al, ¹³⁸Ba, ⁹Be, ¹¹¹Cd, ⁵⁹Co, ⁶³Cu, ⁵²Cr, ⁵⁷Fe, ⁵⁵Mn, ⁶⁰Ni, ²⁰⁸Pb, ⁸⁰Se and ⁶⁶Zn to investigate the variation of the constituents in the river water. Most of the parameters comply with the Drinking Water Quality Standard of the World Health Organization and the Malaysian National Standard for Drinking Water Quality by the Malaysia Ministry of Health except for EC, TDS, Cl, HCO₃, SO₄, Na, Mg, Al, Fe and Se. The results show that the Langat River is unsuitable for drinking purposes directly without treatment.     

Distribution, classification, petrological and related gochemical (SRA) characteristics of a tropical lowland peat dome in the Kota Samarahan-Asajaya area, West Sarawak, Malaysia

Petrographic studies indicate that lateral variations in the decomposition levels of peat are associated with the predominantly occurring peat macerals. Source Rock Analyzer (SRA) results indicate lateral variation in peat organic matter types from type II to III and back again to type II, occurring laterally within the top 0-m to 0.5-m layer at the basin margin to the midsection and further towards the near-center areas of the peat dome. This variation is most likely caused by a combination of factors: (a) Horizontal zonation and lateral variation of the dominant species of plant assemblages (b) Fibric (marginal) peats and hemic to sapric peats associated with type II organic matter (kerogen). Sample organic matter (coal-equivalent kerogen) typing indicates that the relative abundance of phytoclasts and palynomorphs generally supports the organic matter classification obtained by the SRA method. Lateral variations in the peat organic matter types may support the lateral vegetation variation concept. The classification of peat organic matter types (interpreted from visual analyses of palynological slides) occurring from the basin periphery to the mid-section and further towards the basin center yields organic matter of type II to type III and mixed types II to III (coal kerogen-equivalent), respectively.     

The middle Eocene high-K magmatism in Eastern Iran Magmatic Belt: constraints from U-Pb zircon geochronology and Sr-Nd isotopic ratios

ABSTRACT

Intrusive rocks are well-exposed in the south Birjand around the Koudakan is herein compared to previously studied outcrops along the middle Eocene to late Oligocene Eastern Iran Magmatic Belt. This pluton is composed mainly of monzonite, quartz-monzonite, and granite with high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic affinities. The U-Pb zircon geochronology from monzonite and quartz-monzonite reveals the crystallization ages of 40.96 ± 0.48 to 38.78 ± 0.78 Ma (Bartonian). The monzonite, quartz-monzonite, and granite rocks show similar REEs and trace element patterns, as well as limited variations in εNd_(i) and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_(i) ratio, suggesting that they are a comagmatic intrusive suite. The chondrite and primitive mantle normalized rare earth and trace element patterns show enrichment in the light rare earth elements, K, Rb, Cs, Pb, Th, and U and depletion in heavy rare earth elements, Nb, Zr, and Ti. The εNd_(i) and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_(i) values range from +1.32 to +1.68 and 0.7044 to 0.7047, respectively, identical to island-arc basalt composition. The whole-rock Nd model age (T_DM) for the intrusive rocks range between 0.69 and 0.73 Ga. These geochemical and isotopic signatures indicate a subduction-related sub-continental lithospheric mantle source for these rocks. Our new geochemical, isotopic, and geochronological studies integrated with previously published data indicate that the middle Eocene to late Oligocene magmatism in eastern Iran was formed in a post-collisional tectonic environment. We suggest the northeastward subduction of the Neo-Tethys ocean beneath the Lut block and the eastward subduction of the Sistan ocean beneath the Afghan block caused mantle wedge to be metasomatized by slab components. At a later stage, a collision between the Lut and Afghan blocks was accompanied by the lithospheric delamination, and the subsequent asthenospheric upwelling led to the melting of the metasomatized sub-continental lithospheric mantle and the generation of middle Eocene to late Oligocene magmatism in the Eastern Iran Magmatic Belt.     

Adsorptive removal of Cu(II) and Pb(II) onto mixed-waste activated carbon: kinetic,thermodynamic, and competitive studies and application to real wastewater samples

This work aimed to investigate the adsorption characteristics, both kinetically and thermodynamically, of Cu(II) and Pb(II) removal from aqueous solutions onto mixed-waste activated carbon, as well as to study the competitive behavior found in mixed heavy metal solution systems. This study shows that activated carbon prepared from mixed waste is an effective adsorbent for the removal of Cu(II) and Pb(II) from aqueous solutions, with the aim of detoxifying industrial effluents before their safe disposal onto water surfaces. The adsorption process was characterized in terms of kinetic and thermodynamic studies. In addition, the influence of presence of Cu(II) and Pb(II) in a competitive system was investigated. The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacities were gained at a pH of 6 with a contact time of 180 min, a metal solution concentration of 300 ppm, and an adsorbent dose of 0.3 g/L. The adsorption process was found to follow a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG ^o, ΔH ^o, and ΔS ^o showed that the sorption process was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. A competitive study demonstrated the applicability of mixed-waste activated carbon to adsorb Cu(II) and Pb(II) from a solution of mixed metals. In addition, the adsorption capacity was found to be as effective as other adsorbents reported in the literature. The developed adsorptive removal procedure was applied for treatment of real wastewater samples and showed high removal efficiency.