CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction
Malaysia is a country strategically located in tropical region accepting quite amount of
rainfall throughout the year. The highest amount of rainfall will be received during the
year end period due to Northeast Monsoon season. As a developing country, rapid
development and urbanization in Malaysia become common trend. In contrasting, it is
ironic that Malaysia is a country facing floods problems frequently, either monsoon
floods or flash floods, which bring a massive loss and damage to country in the
perspective of social, economy and environment. In past decades, floods have claimed
countless human life as well as the life of flora and fauna besides destroying numerous of
infrastructures and buildings which directly bring a significant economic damage. The
most current and worst flood in history hit almost the whole Malaysia include Kelantan,
Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Perlis, Sabah and Sarawak
states on 15th December 2014 till 3rd January 2015, affecting 200,000 people and killing
21 people. On the other hand, due to poor town planning and urban drainage system, it is
a common scenario that the developed cities, especially to those located around Klang
Valley such as Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, etc. hit by flash floods every time after heavy
rainfall.

The major cause of the above phenomenon may be due to the application of outdated
technique in predicting the flood as well as flood risk management. Both monsoon floods
and flash flood have become the nightmare for Malaysian where a proper and updated
solution should be implemented in handling floods issues.

1.2 Problem Statement

In present day, it is common that the design and analysis of flood risk management plans
are made according to a single return period flood event (e.g. 1 in 100 or 1 in 200 years)
and a single survey of the channel and floodplain geometry. Nevertheless, assuming a
fixed channel cross-section is flawed because natural morphological changes of the river
must be taken into consideration too during the planning stage. If there is a large flood
event, it is expected that there will be a significant change in sediment supply as well as
bed elevation. Therefore, it is inappropriate to assume the flood risks are exactly similar
for two flood events occurring in two different times. Failure to take the spatio-temporal
dynamics of morphological memory into consideration may bring a huge impact.

Flood Memory can be defined as multi-event modeling of risk and recovery. In this
research, multiple flow events will be simulated by using the existing internationally-used
modeling software with sediment modules. With the help of the open source modeling
software, the bed level and water surface elevations will be continually updated at every
time step in a manner reflective of the changes to conveyance capacity and updated flood
risk.

The occurrence of flood that is directly affected by the sediment processes is called
sediment-related flood. Sediment-related flood risks and damages are significant, for
instance in Cumbrian floods during 2009, lots of problems appeared due to the sediment
matter where the sediment and vegetation had reduced conveyance capacity of

engineered channels, bank scour damaged properties, bed scour led to the collapse of
bridge and loss of life and extensive overbank deposition of coarse sediments damaged
farmland (Thorne, 2012). Sediment can be defined as the particles, either organic or
inorganic, due to physical, chemical or biological processes (Flaxman, 1972). The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists sediment as the most common pollutant in
rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs. Erosion that results from human activities may
occur in a faster rate (Government of Canada, 2011). Thus, it is important that to know
the sediment transport in such river basin for flood risk management plan.

In Malaysia, the river sediment fluxes are highly unsteady due to the erosion problem.
Therefore, with the aid of multi-event simulation and sediment analysis, it is believed that
the analysis of flood risk management plan will be significantly improved.

1.3 Objectives
1. To study the rainfall trend in Langat River Basin.
2. To develop flood memory model that integrates hydrologic model and sediment
transport model.
3. To study the geomorphological changes of Langat River.
4. To study the sediment related flood and flood risk.

1.4 Scope of study

Langat River Basin is the focus area for this study. The coverage area is about 1815 km 2,
at the southern and southeastern part of Selangor and a small portion of northern part of
Negeri Sembilan. In this study, the main aims are to develop the flood memory model for
Langat River, study the physical change of river bed every time after rainfall events and
study the sediment related flood besides identify the flood risk of Langat River.

1.5 Significance of study

This study covers three objectives which are developing the flood memory model for
Langat River, studying the geomorphological changes of the river after events and
studying the sediment related flood. It is believed that it may contribute to the field of
flood risk management approaches either in the form of structural or non-structural. It
will be very useful for hydrologists, engineers, researchers as well as students when
dealing to with the problem related to flood, especially sediment related flood.