Spatio Temporal Analysis of Water Quality at Tasek Bera

Abstract

Bera Lake is Malaysia’s largest natural fresh water reservoir. It has critical environmental and ecological significance for both humans and wildlife. Nonetheless, the water quality of this lake has deteriorated during the previous few decades as a result of land development projects in the river basin area. This study aims to analyse the spatio temporal pattern of water quality in Tasek Bera and to identify and evaluate the degradation grade for water quality, as well as to identify the environmental crucial factor for Tasek Bera and its surrounding area. This study also implements remote sensing technology to determine the water quality parameters in Tasek Bera. The data for this study was obtained from Landsat 8 OLI and Landsat 5 MSS from 3 different years which are year 2000, 2010 and 2020. The landset image were processed and integrated into the Geographical Information System (GIS) software to undergo classification, principal component analysis and weighted overlay process. Based on the weighted overlay mapping and Malaysia’s water quality index, the result showed that in year 2000, the water quality in Tasek Bera is mostly being in the second class (fair water quality) but in 2010, it shows a prominent increasing performance when the lake is mostly being in the first class (excellent water quality). However, in the year 2020, we had observe a significant decreasing of water quality especially on the upper section and the middle section of Tasek Bera. Through this study, researchers will be able to further analyse Tasek Bera’s current environmental state, and eventually bring evidence in the environmental deterioration that Tasek Bera has endured. This is also to make people realise the ecological importance of wetlands in Malaysia.