Characteristics of saltwater intrusion during high and low waters along Sungai Kilim, Langkawi Kedah

¹ Department of Water and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
² Center for Coastal and Ocean Engineering (COEI), Research Institute for Sustainable Environment (RISE), 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
³ Department of Geoinformation, Faculty of Geoinformation Real Estate, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: mhidayat@utm.my

Abstract

Salinity distribution is one of the physical indices that is important to determine water resources management and quality in estuaries. There are many other driven parameters in determining salt intrusion such as tides, river discharge, and river geometry. This paper studies the salinity distribution using the tide driven parameters during high and low waters. The objectives of this study are to obtain the salinity and pH values at different tidal impact of low and high waters in determining one of the physical indices along Kilim River, Langkawi. There were ten different stations with 500 m of interval along the study area starting from the Kilim River Jetty towards the river mouth. The salinity was obtained from six different depths with the reading of pH values and temperature as supporting details of the observation made along the Kilim River, Langkawi. The depth at each station varied from 0.5 to 3.0 m with 0.5 m of interval. Based on the results obtained from this study, the salinity during high water was highly stratified compared to those of low water. The salinity characteristic is important to further research on the impact of sea level rise at the estuaries. The salinity distribution pattern may contribute to the different species of vegetation along the Kilim River, Langkawi. Therefore, this study will help in contributing the mangrove migration for future research.