Seasonal sediment concentration along east coast of Malaysia peninsular: A case study

Abstract

The presence of suspended sediment along coastal water and river mouth could affect water column and benthic process. The concentration of suspended sediments along coastal water is contributed by bottom sediment resuspension. The concentration of sediment over river mouth is cause by the river discharge. The concentrations of the sediment are highly variable over temporal and spatial. Northeast monsoon season that occurs between November-February every year bring along heavy rains and wind to the east coast of Malaysia peninsular. During this season, high sediment resuspension and river discharge carried by the river to the sea. The presence of the sediment along the coastal water and river mouth area can be indicated with the increment in the visible and near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this study, remote sensing reflectance (R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">rs</sub> ) of MODIS 667 nm channels acquired from Aqua 4 km resolution is used as a tool to indicate the sediment over the study area. The study has been conducted along the east coast of Malaysia peninsula for the period of 2002-2011. The result shows that, the sediment concentration varies along the coastal line and the river mouth for throughout the entire year.