Publication Details

Alluvial Soil Characteristics and Properties for Riverbank Filtration at Sungai Kerian, Lubuk Buntar, Kedah, Malaysia

Riverbank filtration (RBF) is commonly implemented in many developed countries for more 100 years, but remains new and unexplored in Malaysia. A soil strata ability to drain water at high volume is the essential properties in RBF. Soil characteristics and properties play important roles in determining the suitability of the site for RBF application. This study has been carried out to identify the characteristics and properties of the alluvial soil at the riverbank of Kerian River for different layers at pumping well (PW) and monitoring well (BH1). Particle size distribution and hydraulic conductivity of the soils were obtained from sieve analysis, constant head permeability test and pumping test. From sieve analysis, the top layers to depth 16m of PW and BH1 have high percentage of silt and clay. The soil from depth 16m to 33 for PW and 16m to 30m for BH1 have high percentage of coarse sand and followed by medium sand and fine gravel. Hydraulic conductivity for depth 11 to 30 m were approximately 0.002 m/d to 150.81 m/d and 0.01 m/d to 4.96 m/d based on Hazen and Kozeny-Carman method respectively. Permeability of the soil sample of PW at depth 11 to 16 m, 17 to 23 m, 23 to 29 m and 29 to 33 m were 4.1902 x10-5 m/s, 1.2221x10-4 m/s, 1.2197x10-4 m/s and 1.2555x10-4 m/s respectively. For Constant Discharge Test, the hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity were 7.86 m/d and 133.57m2/d respectively. Overall rate for the production well is 0.737 MLD. Based on the results, this site was found suitable for the RBF water extraction.