Remote Sensing towards Water Quality Study in Malacca River Case Study : A Review Perspective

Abstract

Water is among the natural resources that needed by living organisms such as human. Rapid development through human activities leading to the water pollution existed in river, for example Malacca River. Therefore, a literature review has been conducted to identify the effectiveness of using remote sensing towards water quality in Malacca River. Various research studies conducted by scientists and researchers stated that data from the satellite like Landsat, IKONOS, SPOT, IRS, CZCS, and SeaWiFS may be applied in assessing water quality parameters including suspended matter, turbidity, phytoplankton, and dissolved organic matter. The measurement for water quality parameters can be carried out through in-situ measurement, as experimental examination may be done through on-site studies and inside laboratories. Water quality assessment is extremely needed to strengthen the result produced through analysis of remote sensing data to determine the impacts and factors that contributed to the river pollution. As a result, remote sensing data from Landsat, IKONOS, Quickbird and SPOT may be applied to determine water quality parameters such as suspended matter, phytoplankton, turbidity, dissolved organic matter, and other parameters in the Malacca River. As conclusion, remote sensing has become a tool in monitoring and solving water quality issues, serving as a basis for management activities and planning activities in terms of river water quality.

Keywords: Rapid development, effectiveness, assessment, monitoring, management, planning

Citation of Article:
Hua, A. K., & Kusin, F. M. (2015). Remote Sensing towards Water Quality Study in Malacca River. Case Study: A Review Perspective. International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology, 1(2), 9-15.

Introduction

Natural water resources are God’s creation, and are an indispensable element to most of creatures. For example, the importance of water to human beings is to regulate body temperature, helps to carry nutrients and oxygen to cells, moisten oxygen for breathing, help to convert food to energy, protect and act as cushions towards vital organs, remove waste, act as cushion for the joints between bones, and help the body to absorb nutrients. Therefore, water resources have the ability to maintain the quality of human life through the balance of metabolism in the body for growth from the childhood to adulthood and until the old ages. However, intake of water resources depends on the quality of water supplied. Water should be totally clean, clear, and free from any harmful bacteria threat. According to the percentage of world fresh water statistics, only 2.5 percent of freshwater (where 1.2 percent can be found through the water surface and remaining percentage can be obtained through groundwater or in the form of ice) may be supplied directly to living beings [27]. In other words, the supply of freshwater resources remains minimal in terms of helping living beings to continue to survive on the earth’s surface.

The earth has been developed quickly in terms of human pursuit of development and modernization without any limitation and barriers, helping in reducing any difficulties and providing a variety of facilities to humans. This includes the development of the airplane, which has improved the accessibility from destination to destination and shortened travel time. This also includes the existence of smartphones helping to strengthen the relationship between peoples separated by the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, modernization not only brings benefits but also contributes a number of detriments to society. These issues exist due to the greedy attitude and selfishness of human that forget their responsibility towards the natural environment which cause pollution to occur, such as river water pollution. Referring to the Environmental National Geographic, developing countries have contributed about 70 percent of water pollution by industrial waste into the water of rivers, causing the percentage of water supply to decline. In other words, the 99 million pounds of fertilizer and chemicals used every year produce a very high percentage of water pollution, and this situation is harmful to living beings on the earth [8]. A research study that carried out by Cornell University (2007) has stated that about 40 percent of deaths in worldwide are caused by water, air, and soil pollution, as these problems can happen due to environmental degradation, increasing world population, and rapid development in urban areas [4]. Therefore, determination towards water quality in the river and determine the factor that contribute to river pollution is requires categorization in order to reduce the percentage of pollution from continuously increasing.

In Malaysia, there are several issues and problems that need to be noted especially development in river basins, such as environmental impacts (high siltation in river and lakes, point and non-point source pollution, and so on) and social impacts (industrialization increase, population growth increase, improper land use increase, and so on). These activities allow soil erosion to the water, increase matter mixture, turbidity, organic matter and river sedimentation problem. As general, the water characteristics can be categorized into physical, chemical, and biological factors. However, there are specific parameters used to determine the water quality studies, namely Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Ammoniac Nitrogen (NH3-N), Suspended Solid (SS), and pH. The six parameters are formulated as a general measurement and are often used in assessing water quality, also known as the Water Quality Index (WQI). According to data from the Department of Environment Malaysia (2012), out of 473 rivers monitored, 278 (59%) were found to be clean, 161 (34%) were slightly polluted, and 34 (7%) were polluted [6]. Stations located upstream are generally slightly polluted due to physical parameters, while downstream were slightly polluted or polluted due to chemical and biological parameters. The polluted rivers are mostly located in development and industrial areas such as Sungai Pinang, Sungai Juru, Sungai Merlimau, Sungai Danga, Sungai Segget, Kawasan Pasir Gudang, and Sungai Tebrau [7]. Therefore, technology such as remote sensing is a very powerful and useful tool in assessing and monitoring water quality.


Methods and Materials

Malacca, also known as the historical city, received recognition from UNESCO on 07 July 2008 [24] [2] as a world heritage site, which has become the starting point of the tourism industry based on the historical city (e.g. Fort A Famosa, St. John’s Fort, Christ Church, etc.) and social-cultural heritage (e.g. Baba and Nyonya cultural features, Portuguese cultural, Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum, etc.) [25] [15]. According to the geographical coordinates of Malacca state, it is located at latitude of 2°11’39.53”N and longitude of 102°14’56.58”E [17], which covers an area of 1658 that divided into three districts, namely Melaka Tengah, Alor Gajah, and Jasin [17]. Melaka Tengah has become the main city and capital of Malacca State. There are several transport facilities accessible to Malacca State by road, rail, and airplanes [16]. On the other hand, the statistics for the number of population in the state of Malacca was 830 900. Most of the local residents are Malay with total of 523 800, followed by Chinese with 210 100, Indian with 49 400, and others with 48 500 [17]. Therefore, this situation shows that rapid development has taken place in the state of Malacca, which has not only attracted the attention of all levels of society in providing jobs, but also provided an opportunity to engage in business in the tourism industry in Malacca State.

The rapid development in the state of Malacca has contributed various advantages and disadvantages towards the local citizens. For examples, the advantages that can be seen are through providing job opportunities, business opportunities, investment opportunities, and so on. However, the development could also bring disadvantages to Malacca State, where it will cause river water pollution to occur [18], as this situation will lead to the spreading of infectious diseases, killing aquatic animals, damage the landscape and produce bad odor sensed, and disrupt the relationship between human with the environment such as through recreational activities. Until now, the river pollution is still currently occurring and this situation does not show any change to positive impacts [12]. This may be proven through the research studies conducted by Hua (2014), as the majority of respondents agreed that the pollution in the Malacca River still occurs due to the construction of industries, the construction of buildings, the settlements and so on, as carried out adjacent to the Malacca River [11]. Hence, this literature review study has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of remote sensing as a modern technology tool that can help in planning water resources in Malacca River.

Sampling Area

The sampling area that chosen for this study is Malacca State (figure 3), where a small scope is concentrate along the river in Malacca (figure 4). The vastness for Malacca State is 1650 km2, where it can be divided into three districts, namely Alor Gajah (660 km2), Jasin (676.07 km2), and Melaka Tengah (313.93 km2) (Melaka State Government Official Portal). Referring to the total population by districts, Melaka Tengah has the highest population with the value of 510 257 peoples, followed by Alor Gajah district with a value of 189 796 peoples, and the last district is Jasin with the value of 142 447 peoples [16]. Meanwhile, the position of Malacca River shows the flow of water is flowing from upstream (part of Alor Gajah) to downstream (part of Melaka Tengah) before the water is discharged into the Straits of Malacca. There are various tributaries that flow from various directions before entering the main river. The existence of these tributaries will result in a river basin and watershed, which is important to act as a supply of clean water to the human and ecosystem. The existence of Malacca River is due to the water that flows from small streams into the main river, which has a length of 42 km2 [21]. Hence, the Malacca River is relevant and appropriate to serve as a sample area in this literature study.

Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is a tool that has the ability to observe information about the earth’s surface and water surfaces by using satellite technology and interpreting them into images using electromagnetic spectrum through electromagnetic radiation (figure 5). In Malaysia, the satellite technology is controlled by the government department known as Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency (MRSA), which controls several satellites such as Landsat-1 MSS, Landsat-5 TM, Ikonos-2, GeoEye-1, and SPOT-1 to SPOT-6. Each satellite has a specific function, where Landsat obtaining information on agricultural and forestry resources, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water resources, geography, cartography, environmental pollution, oceanography and marine resources, and meteorological phenomena. SPOT satellites are designed to improve the knowledge and management of the Earth by exploring Earth’s resources, detecting and forecasting phenomena involving climatology and oceanography, and monitoring human activities and natural phenomena. Ikonos satellites have the ability to extract vector features and geographic features in 3D such as buildings, roads, manmade structures and other terrain feature, and also include mapping for oil and gas exploration, mining, engineering and construction, environmental, urban planning, agriculture, and forestry. GeoEye helps the user in mapping, change detection and image analysis [22]. Therefore, remote sensing technology is believed to be able to solve the problems mainly involved with environmental monitoring such as river water pollution and determine the development in urban planning in Malacca State.

Results and Discussions

Application of Remote Sensing towards Water Quality Study

Water can be determined in two methods, namely internal characteristics and external characteristics. Internal characteristics refer to water quality involving chemical, physical, and biological characteristics. Meanwhile, external characteristics can be defined as the water surface that interacts with the outer elements to result in any changes in water quality. The chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water bodies are important in a water quality study because it can help in determine and identifying the source of any possible pollution or contamination which might cause degradation of water quality. The water quality indicators can be divided into four main types, per Usali and Ismail (2010) [26]:

Hence, a water quality study can be determined through the Water Quality Index (WQI), where this experimental are need to carry out through in-situ measurement (experimental can be done on-site studies and inside laboratory). This has become an important method for monitoring water quality parameter with the purposes to improve the river water quality in becoming a clean condition like reducing the higher percentage to lower percentage of pollution class; and help to restore, conserve, maintain and sustain water quality in a clean status. However, external characteristics also need to play a role together with internal characteristics so that the objective can be achieved, for example remote sensing. Remote sensing has become a usefulness tool in monitoring water quality [19] [23] [5]. Research done by Ritchie et al. (1976) stated that remote sensing has the ability to monitor water quality study [20]. They developed a general formulation equation towards suspended sediment as follows:

The spectral reflectance will provide information about band or wavelengths for water quality parameter. Since that, the formula starts to be applied by researcher to estimate the water quality, and the equation is being used until today.

Water Quality Parameter versus Remote Sensing

Remote sensing can used to determine water quality parameter through suspended matter, phytoplankton, turbidity, and dissolved organic matter. Suspended matter consists of organic and inorganic matter, which involve with heavy metal and micro-pollutants. Both pollutants are affecting the surface water. When examined through remote sensing, the suspended pollutants will result the radiance in visible and near infrared ranged of electromagnetic spectrum [19]. So, when carrying out a laboratory experiment, the results show that the water is affected by sediments type, texture, color, sensor view and sun angles, as well as water depth [19]. Among of remote sensing data that suitable to be applied is Landsat, SPOT, Indian Remote Sensing (IRS), Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) and Sea-viewing Wide Field of View Sensor (SeaWiFS) [26]. Continued by the phytoplankton, this may be defined as the concentration of chlorophyll contain in algal plankton cell that exist in the water. According to Schalles et al. (1998), since chlorophyll is a photosynthetic agent that can contribute to the change of water color, so remote sensing can be used for mapping the chlorophyll A, which becomes a key for assessing the water quality [23]. Conducting a research study especially at the lakes, rivers or reservoirs will have a higher percentage of chlorophyll A; however, the presence of pollutants will impact the color and affect the routine extraction of chlorophyll A from the original which can be detected in remote sensing. Hence, only certain data like Landsat, SPOT, SeaWiFS and CZCS may be used to map the chlorophyll of oceans, estuaries, and freshwater [26].

Thirdly, turbidity can be expressed as the cloudiness or haziness of fluid due to the individual particles that invisible to naked eye, which caused light to be scattered and absorbed rather than transmitted in straight lines in remotely sensed data. In other words, turbidity can be considered as against the clarity. Turbidity mainly caused by the present of suspended matter, which is used to calculate fluvial suspended sediment concentration [28]. The Lathrop and Lillesand (1986) research study states that normally turbidity pollution will result in red reflectance [13]. This condition is more precisely in using data from the IKONOS which have high resolution for mapping the turbidity [9] or using Landsat 7 ETM+ Band 3 (red portion of electromagnetic spectrum) and Band 4 (near-infrared portion of electromagnetic spectrum) data to predict turbidity concentration [14]. Lastly, this may be related to dissolved organic matter, which is normally affecting the water color by soluble organic substances (that can pass 0.45μm filter) which are also referred to as Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM). In other words, CDOM is the fraction of dissolved organic substances and it is exist in water-soluble, biogenic, heterogeneous organic substances that are yellow to brown in color [1]. Basically, dissolved organic matter affects the volume of reflectance and volume spectrum, especially at the shorter wavelengths [3], and CDOM absorbs light in both ultraviolet and visible range (below 500μm) [26]. A research study done by Strombeck (2001) stated that the quantity of red light can be absorbed by CDOM at higher concentration [29]. At the same time, CDOM have an ability to absorb the UV spectrum portion which become a protection to the phytoplankton from the destruction of UVB radiation [10]. However, this will result in affecting the amount and quality of photosynthesis to phytoplankton, due to the excessive absorption of UVB by CDOM at higher level.

An Overview of Remote sensing towards Water Quality Study in Malacca River

As a general view, the majority of local residents are settled down nearer to the Malacca River. This situation shows that the land use by local residents can be divided into three main parts, namely upstream, middle stream, and downstream. Basically, the land use for upstream area is involved with farming activities, livestock activities, and settlements activities. The middle stream area is involved with industrial activities, manufacturing activities, and settlement activities. Lastly, the downstream area is comprised of commercial activities, domestic activities, and settlement activities. These activities can be generally observed through the map in figure 6.

Since there are various activities carried out in Malacca State, the remote sensing data that can be apply are Landsat, IKONOS, Quickbird, and SPOT, which depend on the data that can be supplied by the Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency (MRSA). So, this data from different satellites can be used to determine water quality parameters such as suspended matter, phytoplankton, turbidity, dissolved organic matter, and other parameters. These factors depend on the ability and suitability between remote sensing data and water quality parameter.


Conclusion

Water is a vital natural resource to carry out various activities such as agricultural and livestock activities, industrial and manufacturing activities, and commercial and domestic activities. However, rapid development has led to increasingly severe use, causing the quality of water to decrease and increasing percentage of river pollution. Hence, a monitoring program is indispensable to reduce river pollution before conduct any management and planning activities for the future. Therefore, the monitoring program will require remote sensing as a tool of modern technology that has ability to assess the impact and factors which contributed to the river pollution. Remote sensing data results will be more precise when carrying out a water quality assessment in the laboratory. So, remote sensing and water quality studies depend on each other in solving the problem of river pollution. Previous studies using remote sensing techniques towards water quality parameter are more helpful for to scientists, researchers, academicians, lecturers, and students, especially in mapping or modeling using data from satellite such as Landsat, IKONOS, SPOT, CZCS, and etc. Last but not least, remote sensing will become a tool in solving the water quality issues for the past, present, and future.


References

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A Review of Applied GIS Based in Sustainable Water Resources Management in Malacca River Case Study: An Observation Perspective

Abstract

Water resources have become an issue in supplying freshwater for human to carry out daily activities. The reasons for this problem water pollution occurring in rivers. Among the methods to overcome this problem is the adoption of the concept of sustainability in water resources management in Malacca River. Practicing this concept will require a technology to help in planning as a whole, namely Geographical Information System or GIS. GIS is a tool widely used in determining the quality and quantity of water resources, especially at the river basin scale, to manage water resources. The site selection for observation in this review paper is Malacca River, which have a wide river basin and suitable for study. As a result, GIS has the ability to combine various data and provide an answer for decision making in sustainable water resources management in Malacca River, such as physical perspective data (elevation and slope boundary, landuse data, meteorological data, hydrological data, etc.) and human perspective data (demographic and population data, stakeholders and businesses data, etc.). GIS helps users to develop a new model (for example water quality model) which become a main point in saving and protecting the environment and the human society.

Keywords: Water pollution, sustainability, management, GIS, protecting

Citation of Article:
Hua, A. K., & Kusin, F. M. (2015). A Review of Applied GIS Based in Sustainable Water Resources Management in Malacca River Case Study: An Observation Perspective. International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 1(3), 157-162.

Introduction

Sustainability concept is a term widely used in the daily life. There are various definitions used for sustainability, which may be defined as a system with the capacity that should maintain output equally with the historical average [8] and maximize economic development benefits with maintaining service and natural resource quality [10]; and the external events like climatic change and natural disasters become a factor to cause change and modification of natural inputs and outputs [3]. However, the general definition always referred to and used for sustainable development is that any demand for current generations in development should not be compromising the ability for needs and aspirations of future generations [13]; and that this development will improve human life quality without interfering with an ecosystem [6]. However, these definitions are still consider as unclear, simplistic, and inconsistent to applied in all fields, so there are some experts that continue to criticize the definition.

According to ASCE [6], the sustainable concept can be applied to water resources, which can be defined as the sustainable water resources system that designed and managed to fulfill the objective in contribution towards the society, not only for today but also for the future, meanwhile maintaining the ecological, environmental, and hydrological integrity. In other words, sustainable water resources not only involve with ethical and moral value, but also implicate with the renewability, resilience, and recoverability. According to Hussain [5], the development of economic growth should react together with preservation of natural wealth like flora and fauna, as well as environmental cleanliness, so that future generations can have option and right to the environment; meanwhile renewability indicate a source can be replaced, resilience signifies ability to withstand stress for a long-term or any damage that unable to be restored, and recoverability is defined as a concept that concentrates on the rate or frequency of impact to have a possibility for recovery [2]. So, in order to facilitate the assessment towards sustainability, Xu et al. [11] had designed an index known as the sustainability index (SI), and this formula can be written as below.

Per the Xu et al. [11] research study, an SI value bigger than 0.2 means there are no stress on water supply (where demand ≤ 80% of potential water supply), and when SI value is smaller than 0.2 means the water supply conditions is affected (where demand > 80% of potential water supply). For example, when SI = 0, the result show that water demand is higher than available water supply, and this is unsustainable for water resources. So, this conditions show that it is important to use the sustainability concept together with water resources management in society.

In effort to manage water resources, it is important to recognize the main point of the source to conduct management activities, for example, a river. A river will flow in different directions, moving from the river upstream (high area) to the river downstream (lower area). Usually, these small rivers will join with another small river at one point to form a main river, which contribute large benefits in the water supply system. This could happen when there are various small rivers joining together with main river will forming a huge river basin or watershed; and this will result to the concept of integrated water management (IWM). Naturally, there are hundreds of river basins that exist in a particular area, and this should result to the exceeding of benefits like water supply. So, the IWM will be applied to sustain the water supply and maintain the ability to forecast for the future generation. This IWM model will involve several functions, such as the need for water, the policy to meet the needs, and the management to implement the policy (figure 1). Generally, this model is believed to be the most helpful in solutions towards water resources problems by combining all essential component models into an optimization scheme. The model will combine all of interactive forces or influences forces. Therefore, the model assists the decision-making process and keeps policy within the intersection of social goals of management policy and legal constraints.

Water elements comprises of physical, chemical and biological aspects of water quality and quantity that become the first dimension to be involved in carrying out almost every activity. The water elements will have internal interaction and also be effect from natural disruption (example climate change, uncertainty climate, extreme climate, etc.) as well as external disruption (such as increasing demographic, economic development, transportation development, etc.) to them, as this will cause negative reaction on water system and result in the development of the IWM model. As shown in figure 1, water uses for particular activities will impact the interaction within the water system. These activities include agriculture, water supply, energy generation, industry, fish production, recreation, transportation, and are together considered as the second dimension. At the same time, the usage towards the water is compulsory to have a balance with the demand for different uses, and this can be achieved by having a well-defined management policy, which is considered the third dimension. The suggestion for management policy to be established should concern certain criteria such as economic efficiency, environmental impact, ecological and health consideration, socio-cultural and so on, must be practical, implementable, and acceptable to society at large. The results after implementation policy must achieve the interactive social goals as equity, efficiency, environment quality, and others.

The Dublin Principles, a set of principles for good water resources management originally formulated from the United Nations Water Conference in Mar del Plata in 1977 and the International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin, and the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, can be referred to as follows:

1. Ecological Principle –water should be protected as primary resource within river basins, with particular attention to the ecosystem.

2. Institutional Principle – water management should involve the government, civil society, and private sector, and the principle will be automatically respected. In addition, women’s roles are also important to get involved in water management.

3. Instrument Principle – water should be recognized as an economic good, and the user, polluter, and other business instruments should pay for every greater use of a water resource.

At this moment, sustainable concept and management principles towards water resources are believed to have a higher percentage in terms of keeping the quality in quantity for future generation. Therefore, this review study has been carried out to determine how a GIS (Geographical Information System) based on a computer technology system to help in sustaining and managing the water resources in the Malacca River.


Methods and Materials

GIS is a tool widely used in determining the quality and quantity of water resources, especially at a river basin scale, to manage water resources. Before an analysis in GIS, it is important to know what are the data needs to analyze in providing information. There are two categories to be considered, namely physical perspective data (such as elevation and slope boundary, landuse data, meteorological data, hydrological data, etc.) and human perspective data (such as demographic and population data, stakeholders and businesses data, etc.). Both data are essential in determining the effectiveness of river water resources management. However, it is required to understand the concept of water management model in a river (especially in different landuse like residential area, industrial area, irrigation area, etc.) to help in gathering the data. The water management model can be explained per the following figure:

When raining, the rain water will drop and land on the Earth surface and be absorbed by the canopy before the excessive water enters the soil. There will be some water undergoing the evapotranspiration process and some water will flow as surface water entering the river. The excessive water that absorbed into soil will become groundwater, and this groundwater is clean and can supply drinking water. Before the existence of groundwater, there will be some excessive water forming as saturated zone water flow and unsaturated zone water flow. The saturated water and unsaturated water, together with groundwater will flow into one particular area, which is the river. However, the water flow in the river has the ability to exchange flowing direction with groundwater that results in a steady flow as proven through the calculation of Darcy’s Law [12]. Since water resources from the groundwater or the river will be used to carry out any human activities (example residential or industrial), it is compulsory to have treatment towards the wastewater before it discharges into the river.

Site Selection

This review paper study is involved with a large watershed of river, such as Malacca River (figure 3). From the general view in the figure 3, there are many small channels or small rivers that are connected to the main river to form a large water catchment, and there are many activities are carry out in this watershed, such as agricultural activities, factories activities, residential areas, and so on. These activities are believed to become main factor that contribute water pollution in the Malacca River [9]. Therefore, an approach is required for using GIS applications for managing the water resources in the Malacca River.

Results and Discussions

As a result, application of GIS in sustainable water resources management in Malacca River may be explained according to figure 4 below.

A. Preparation in GIS
Generally, GIS is a tool which helps the user in making decisions (planning, managing, etc.), data presentation (academician, lecturer, researcher, student, etc.), better recordkeeping (water flows, population census, land ownership, etc.), and so on [4]. Each new result or information will be provided in the form of geographical map. Therefore, as a user of GIS, there are several process to be determined from input (transfer file, digitize, key-in information, etc.), analyze (extract, overlay, proximity, statistic, etc.), and output (maps, charts, 3D maps, etc.).

Basically, a topography map (which exists in hardcopy form) will be scanned into softcopy and transferred into GIS for digitizing into a cartoon map (which exist as vector file in GIS). After the process of digitizing is conducted (including the mapping of buildings, rivers, roads, stations, etc.), the raw data, such as landuse data, stream data, water pollution data, population data, and so on, can be keyed into GIS as new information before undergoes any particular analysis to provide the results.

A. (a) Physical Perspective Data

I. Landuse Data

There are various natural environment processes that occur daily such as precipitation, evaporation, temperature, and so on which take the form of a system known as natural system. The process of precipitation will cause water surface or groundwater to flow in various directions before entering the river. This water flow will transport foreign substances together into the lower area or in the river. Since human activities including agriculture activities, industrial activities, residential activities, and urban development activities, among others, are carried out near to the river or in the boundary of river basin, these activities will result water pollution in the river such as turbidity, BOD, COD, total coliform, heavy metal, etc. Due to these conditions, the landuse data such as human activities data, nature system data, and water flow data can be overlapped together to determine suitability for any development to carry out in within the river basin or even near the river.

II. Stream or River Data

Since all water surface flow and groundwater flow will end up in the river, it is likely to cause water pollution in the river. Therefore, it is very important to have data like river depth, river width, river bed slope, river length, and the flow of the river, which can be used to determine factors in reducing the occurrence of water pollution. For example, the higher the slope, the faster the flow of water in the river. Thus, when water flow is rapid, there will be more foreign object such as sediment transported together (because of water transport energy increase due to the gradient increase). Plus, with a river’s physical increase in depth, width, and length, this condition will result in increased water pollution especially the physical parameters pollution in river. This is because the river depth and width will determine the ability to accommodate more sediment in the river, and the river length will determine the distance for sediment to be transported along in the river. So, the river’s physical characteristic data become a very useful data that can be overlap with the water pollution data to management on water resources in the river. For example, planting more trees and reducing land development can help in slowing the water flow into the river or in the river.

A. (b) Human Perspective Data

Water resources are asset for every human activity such as drinking, bathing, washing, catching fish as food sources, and so on. However, when water pollution in river exists, this situation not only stopping the activity, but also bring harms through various infectious diseases. Therefore, the government, the private (include stakeholders and business parties), and the local citizens should be involved in providing their perceptions and opinions toward water resources in the river. Hence, the data for water pollution in the river can be collected through questionnaires. Basically, the questionnaire is set into several parts, where the question will ask for demographic profile, perception toward water pollution, and opinion on management water resources in river. This information can be keyed into GIS to analyze together with the physical perspective data by overlap the data to provide new result, for example, the more settlement concentrated at a particular area will increase possibility water pollution through dumping of waste cooking oil or waste washing water into the river.

B. Processing and Benefits of GIS

After collecting all raw data from both a physical and human perspective, GIS has the ability to combine all the data and undergoes analysis together to provide new information for decision making in sustainable water resources management in Malacca River. Analyzing GIS through overlay methods between landuse data, stream data, and human data produces results in geographical map. For example, for any land development for particular activities near to the river (e.g. in distances lower than 5 km) at a high gradient with less vegetation coverage, this analysis will result a very high probability to contribute to water pollution in the Malacca River. In addition, the concentrated settlement of a particular area will increase the percentage of water pollution. Therefore, local communities involved in participating with their time and energy in answering the questionnaire will help a lot, especially in providing accurate information. This is because the local community’s life experience and exposure, plus an optimum level of education, help a great deal in giving their perception and opinion towards the water pollution in Malacca River. Again, GIS has the ability to analyze this raw data through statistical analysis and provide an answer into graph or table in the form of geographical map.

The analysis indicates new results and these result become a benefit to GIS user in various field. Yet in the field of water resources, the purpose of GIS is to plan and manage water resources, especially in reducing river water pollution and improve water supply. GIS will manage to stop the pollution, and this will save aquatic animals from extinction and protect the environment from destruction. On the other hand, the reduction of river water pollution will also reduce the spread of infectious diseases and reduce the harm toward human. So, GIS has helped in solving the problems as a whole that occur in a particular area especially in managing river water resources.


Conclusion

GIS contains friendly and flexible tools in helping the user in manage the environment, especially those involved with river water resources. Again, GIS is a power tool for developing solutions for water resources such as assessing water quality and managing water resources on local or regional scale. As discussed above, GIS technology has been applied to integrate with various data and analyze into one which is manageable system. For example, a hydrologists expert will use a GIS contained in Arc Hydro which is able to facilitate the creation, manipulation, and display the hydro features and objects within the ArcGIS tools. Meanwhile, water quality data are appropriate for input in GIS to manage both groundwater (which involve the recharge areas) and surface water (which involve the watershed or aquifers), such as for example the load. GIS has the ability to calculate the loads on a surface water body that cause water pollution to occur in a river. A load can be referred to as product of flow and concentration, which are also defined by how much mass of chemical indicators enters into a system for a specific of time. So, the load that exists in the water system can be determined as either coming from point sources such as industrial discharge or non-point sources such as agricultural runoff. Once the result of load in water body is known, the water quality model can be developed by determining the changes in the water body. So, the GIS tool has shown the ability to develop both load calculations and water quality models.


References

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[2] Clark, M.J. and Gardiner, J., Strategies for handling uncertainty in integrated river basin
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[3] Fresco, L.O. and Kroonenberg, S.B., Time and spatial scales in ecological sustainability, Landuse Policy, Vol. 9, pp.155-168, 1992.

[4] Hua, A.K., Geographic Information System (GIS): Introduction to the computer Perspective, Geografia: Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 24-31, January 2015.

[5] Hussain, A., Working towards sustainable development, Conference report, Southern Asian Institute, New York, 1992.

[6] IUCN (World Conservation Union), UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and
WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 1991.

[7] Jain, S.K. and Singh, V.P., Water resources systems planning and management. Elsevier, 2003.

[8] Lynam, J.K. and Herdt, R.W., ‘Sense and sustainability: Sustainability as an objective in international agricultural research’, Agricultural Economics, Vol. 3, pp. 381-398, 1989.

[9] Nasbah, N.N., Sungai Melaka tercemar, Utusan Online, Retrieved From
http://ww1.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2010&dt=0123&sec=Selatan&pg=ws_01.tm, January 01, 2010.

[10] Pearce, D. and Turner, R.K., Economics of Nature Resources and the Environment, Vol. 8, pp. 80-96, 1990.

[11] Xu, Z.X., Takeuchi, K., Ishidaira, H., and Zhang, X.W., Sustainability analysis for Yellow river water resources using the system dynamics approach. Water Resources Management, Vol. 16, pp. 239-261, 2002.

[12] Yang, D., Oki, T., Herath, S. and Musiake, K., A geomorphology – based hydrological model and its applications. Mathematical models of small watershed hydrology and application, p259-300, 2002.

[13] WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development), Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987.

A brief review of ethical perspectives towards water pollution in the Malacca River

Abstract

Malacca is a historical place and appropriate to travel. Suddenly, water pollution became an issue to affect the state’s economy. This situation happened due to the human development and has various negative implications for the environment. Manufacturing activities, human sewage and livestock waste may cause river water to become polluted. Even human have the right to use the water, but they don’t have the right to damage the water resource. Accordingly, this article seeks to explore Malacca River pollution from an ethical perspective views. These ethical values involve prescriptivism and moral realism, God and religion ethics, human consequentialism ethics or deontology ethics, and the example of good human beings. Applying ethical perspective toward human activities may sustain the health of water in the Malacca River.

Keywords: water, water pollution, ethic perspective, Malacca River

Citation of Article:
Hua, A. K., & Marsuki, M. Z. (2015). A brief review of ethical perspectives towards water pollution in the Malacca River. International Journal of Academic Research in Environment and Geography, 2(1), 1-5.

Introduction

Water is a natural resource that covers 71% of the Earth and is vital for every form of life. Water found in oceans is 96.5% of the water on earth, while groundwater makes up 1.7% and glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland make up an additional 1.7%. Freshwater only makes up 2.5%, and 98.8% of said freshwater water is in ice and groundwater (Gleick, 1993). Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere. An even smaller amount of the Earth’s freshwater (0.003%) is contained within organisms and manufactured products (Gleick, 1993, p.13).

In the coming century, climate change and a growing imbalance among freshwater supply, consumption, and population will dramatically alter the water cycle. Many regions of the world are already limited in amount and quality of available water. Growing demands on freshwater resources have created an urgent need to research improved water management (Jackson et al., 2001). Maintaining water is important to prevent clean water supplies ‘disappearing’. Sustainable development is needed as ‘sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ (Brundtland Report-WCED, 1987). New approaches to long-term watershed planning and management that incorporate principles of sustainability and equity are required and are now being explored by national and international water experts and organizations (Gleick, 1998). Seven ‘sustainability criteria’ have been discussed. These principles are guaranteed access to a basic amount of water necessary to maintain human health and to sustain ecosystems, basic protections for the renewability of water resources, and institutional recommendations for planning, management, and also conflict resolution.

Generally, ethics involve prescriptive values, moral realism, consequentialism or deontology ethics, virtue ethics, and agape (love).These ethical values are appropriate for adoption by Malacca citizens for maintaining the quality of their environment. As we know, water pollution in the river can occur due to human attitude, such as dumping rubbish or waste product into the river without concern for the negative impact on the environment. At this point, law and regulations regarding destruction of the environment must be involved to prevent irresponsible citizens from continuing to dump rubbish into the river. However, sometimes laws cannot prevent people from discarding rubbish in the river. This shows that ethical values must be involved to prevent Malacca residents from throwing garbage into the river. Eventually, awareness and consciousness of bad attitudes towards the environment not only bring destruction to the ecosystem and environment itself but may also harm human society in the future.

Various plans for watershed sustainability have been discussed and debated to maintain the water from one generation to another generation. However, the main causes of water pollution are human activities. Therefore, peoples’ bad attitude towards the environment, especially water, must be improved to prevent further harm to the environment. One suitable way to stop human-generated pollution is awakening ethical values. A good example is the European Water Framework Directive (EU 2000). ‘Water is not commercial product like any other but, rather, a heritage that must be protected, defended, and treated as such’ (EU 2000,3). This statement places an absolute a moral value on water and implies a high ethical imperative for meeting such demands. To protect water, one example which may be used is ‘water ethics’ (Armstron, March 2006).

Throughout history, the Malacca River has been important to transportation due to the Malacca Strait. People use the water from Malacca River for drinking, bathing, washing, agricultural activities, and a transport system. Continuous water consumption along the Malacca River hassled to development such as construction and manufacturing. Manufacturing activities may cause harm to the Malacca River when waste water is pumped into the river. This has caused the water of the Malacca River to become polluted (Norzela, 2010). Polluted water in Malacca River not only affects the citizens’ lives but also kills the aquatic life such as fish, prawns, bushes and trees. Citizens need guard their behavior from continuing to harm or destroy the environment. In this situation, ethical values will play an important role to control citizen behavior.


Discussions

Ethics are a system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which defines what is good for individuals and society. Ethics covers some dilemmas like how to live a good life, rights and responsibilities, the language of right and wrong and moral decisions – determining what is good and bad. The water of the river can be protected from continuous harm by applying the ethical values to human attitudes and lifestyles. Water ethics play important roles in maintains the water cycle without disruptions by outsiders. This cycle includes, for example, cooling the earth by raining and evaporation. Water may help to save life and prevent the land surface from becoming hot. Water also functions as an agent, especially in transport and deposition of material, responsible for erosion, and acts as a habitat for life in the river, lakes or even wetlands. So, ‘saving, storing, and sustaining’ water is very important to keep the earth from destruction. ‘A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise’ (Leopold, 1949).

Every human has the right to use the water for their own purposes. Gleick (1999) has his own stance for ‘right’ to use water, stating that water is a basic human right implied by the right to life, food and health. However, Malacca citizens use water without ‘thinking twice’, as they use double the water than they should; this wastes a lot of water. Moreover, human activities such as manufacturing, farming with organic matter from sewage and livestock wastes, and using nutrients from fertilizers (Manuwadi, 1988) cause the water to polluted. This will lead the water in the river to become polluted while wasting a lot of water.

The suggestion of using ethical value in this paper is to overcome the problems extant in Malacca State. One of the examples is prescriptivism value. Prescriptivism values can be described as a person giving an advice or instruction to another person in a right and correct way to preserve the river (Hare, 1989). For example, “If I say not to waste and pollute the water, it’s better for you not to”. One person can advise another person to stop polluting the river and the water quality can be preserved for the next generation. In this situation, the people that live in a community will automatically take responsibility to protect the river. The people will advise one another, from one group to a community, and from one society to a state. The prescriptivism value and responsibility is believed to have a connection to prevent harm to the river.

The second value, moral realism, is more concentrate. Richard Boyd viewed moral realism as based on the idea that there are real objective moral facts or truths in the universe, while moral statements provide factual information about those truths. From the information, the people need to realize that “throwing litter into the river is wrong” because the rubbish that is thrown into the river can pollute the water; and it is a bad attitude to practice. The people that live near a large quantity of water should appreciate what they have and try not to waste or pollute the water, because this situation will bring a disaster call a “water crisis”. The people should be aware that the water is a non-renewable resource and that they should love the water in the river.

The first and second values are discussed based on the human internal attitude itself, which means that the environment can change either into good or bad impact depending on human treatment. However, internal attitudes can be positively affected by other factors such as God and religion ethics, human consequentialism ethic or deontology ethic, and the example of good human beings. These issues have been examined by philosophers. Every person has their own religion and belief in God. Various religious teach people to respect and protect the environment from destruction. In Islam, Allah (swt) is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The whole universe, along with all of its factors, has been created with perfect wisdom (hikmah) (Akhtar, June 1996). Nothing is permanent; everything exists for a fixed period. The Holy Quran says: “We created not the heavens and the earth and all between them but for just ends, and for A term appointed: but those who reject Faith turn away from that whereof they are warned.” (Ali, The Holy Quran: 46:3)

The paragraph shows that the sustenance of His creation, Allah has placed a large quantity of environmental resources to meet demand in the universe. This shows the environment is in balance is a natural ecosystem. However, Abu Bakar (ra) advised Yazid, ibnAbiSufyan to observe environmental values, even in enemy territory. He wrote: “Do not cut a tree, do not abuse a river, do not harm crops and animals, and always be kind and humane to Allah’s creation, even to yours enemies” (Sayuti, Jalal al-Din, AbdalRahman, 1337H). The people must realize their role, as they can exploit the water for their own purposes but in turn maintain sustainability for the future.

Consequentialism ethics states that “all the things a person might do at any given moment, the morally right action is the one with the overall consequences.” (Sinnott-Amstrong, Winter2012). Consequentialism can be described in two ways, which is that whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of the act, and that the more good consequences an act produces, the better or more right the act is. Consequentialism ethics can help people to face and overcome the problem of moral dilemma (in which the people choose an action to maximize good consequences) and act as general guidance for living in societies (where people live to maximize good consequences). For example, one does not throw rubbish and unwanted product into the rivers because it may cause pollution. Pollution is bad. Therefore, one should not throw rubbish. So, when humans make a mistake in protecting the water, this will destroy the entire system water cycle on Earth and affect future generations.

Deontology ethics differ from consequentialism. Deontology states that an action is right if it follows the rules regarding that duty, regardless of the consequences (Alexander and Moore, Winter 2012). The view was supported Immanuel Kant, as Kant argued that by acting in the morally right way, people act from duty, and that it is not the consequences of actions that make them right or wrong but the motives of the person who carries out the action (Kant, 1780). Deontology ethics teach people that some acts are right or wrong in themselves, whatever the consequences, and people should act accordingly as shown in the example “do not litter in the river and do not waste the water.”

Virtue ethics not only deal with the rightness or wrongness of individual actions but provides guidance as to sort of characteristics and behaviors a good person will seek to achieve (Hursthouse& Summer, 2012). In other words, virtue ethics is concerned with the whole of a person’s life, rather than particular actions. Virtue ethics teaches people to be a person who acts virtuously; an action is right if and only if a person does what a virtuous person would do in the same circumstances. Moreover, virtue ethics provide a moral characteristic that a person needs to live well. For example, a man or a woman should know and understand that rubbish and unwanted product should be thrown into a dustbin and not into the river. People also can help clean the river by collecting rubbish and throwing it into a prepared dustbin. These practices will show a person how to be a good human being and an example for society.

Situation ethics is a book written by Joseph Fletcher, which can be described as based on one principle: Ethics are a matter of always acting in agape (love). Agape is defined as benevolence or good will, or as giving love constantly and unconditionally, regardless of the actions of the loved one (Fletcher, 1966, p.176). He suggested that situation ethics is based on six fundamentals as follows:

1. Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love: nothing else.
2. The ultimate norm of Christian decisions is love: nothing else.
3. Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed.
4. Love wills the neighbor’s good whether we like him or not.
5. Only the end justifies the means: nothing else.
6. Decisions ought to be made situation ally, not precisely.

Fletcher stressed love and believed that love is born inside of the human being. So, when people are created with love, they should also love the environment, especially the water that flow in the river. For example, the people can protect the river by stopping factorization that produces nutrients from fertilizers, which may continue to harm the river.


Conclusion

Humans play an important rule to protect the water in the river. Humans can stop various activities that harm the river by awakening of ethical values. Ethical values are carried inside people. When human pursue materialistic aims, eventually they forget virtues and loving values. The situation creates a greedy and selfish attitude. This will cause destruction to the environment, especially water, just to fulfill market demands. To save the river, reduce purchasing material that can cause pollution and promote ethical value to raise consciousness of the ‘pain’ that the river receives. Last but not least: “Throwing litter into the river is wrong. If I say not to waste and pollute the water, it’s better way for you not to do. It may cause pollution. Pollution is bad. Therefore, you do not throw rubbish.” The ethical sentence will help human to love, save, and protect the water in the Malacca River.


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