TREND ANALYSIS OF RIVER FLOW IN LANGAT RIVER BASIN USING SWAT MODEL

Abstract

The increase in population and the human activities in this basin area has led to many water shortage problems. This research was carried out to investigate the impacts of land-use changes and urbanization on water discharge in Langat River Basin using ArcGIS. It was applied using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). This research aimed to identify how critical land-use changes and the increment of the population in Langat River Basin could impact the water discharge. The rainfall, humidity, solar, wind speed data from 2010 – 2016 were used for modelling purposes. The results obtained from calibrated results were satisfactory, with the value of the coefficient of determination of 0.63 and the value of Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.69. The precipitation and river flow pattern observed shows decreasing in the river flow from May to September 2016 and increased in November to December 2016. It can be observed that the river flow decreased due to some factors, and this may be a concerning issue as Langat River Basin is used to supply water to people in Klang Valley. This paper has proven that the GIS technology and Arc SWAT model can simulate the streamflow in Langat River Basin and can be further demonstrated to other basins. The model also can be used for further analysis and for in the future.