The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment

Economic and industrial growth in this country has led to environmental problems which in turn affect the quality of human life and nature. Particularly, the management plans for river rehabilitation are less effective in addressing issues related to rivers in Malaysia. To date, most of the efforts...

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Main Author:	Arman, Nor Zaiha
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2017
Subjects:	TA Engineering (General) Civil engineering (General)
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79451/1/NorZaihaArmanPFKA2017.pdf
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id	my-utm-ep.79451
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spelling	my-utm-ep.794512018-10-31T12:39:21Z The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment 2017 Arman, Nor Zaiha TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) Economic and industrial growth in this country has led to environmental problems which in turn affect the quality of human life and nature. Particularly, the management plans for river rehabilitation are less effective in addressing issues related to rivers in Malaysia. To date, most of the efforts undertaken focused on evaluating physicochemical properties of water whereas biological evaluation in determining the health of a river ecosystem is given less attention. Therefore, this study aims to integrate assessment tools of physical, chemical and biological approaches by highlighting benthic macroinvertebrates as key indicator. This study was conducted at four rivers in the state of Johor, which represents different gradients of land use, namely Sungai Ayer Hitam Besar, Sungai Berasau, Sungai Mengkibol and Sungai Melana. In-situ and ex-situ monitoring were carried out with ten (10) sampling frequencies for each river, starting from 2010 to 2013. Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled using rectangular dip-net with frame dimension 0.5 m x 0.3 m based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency Rapid Bioassessment Protocol whilst water samples were analysed according to Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. River habitat assessments were also conducted concurrently with the sampling of benthic macroinvertebrates and water quality whereas, secondary data such as rainfall, land use plans and maps of catchment area were obtained from various agencies. Assessment results varied among study sites. Non-parametric statistical analysis, Spearman correlation coefficients was also conducted to measure the correlation between biological and environmental endpoints, hence the selection of most suitable and effective indices for the development of macroinvertebrate-based multimetrics of Index Biotic Integrity (IBI) and the preliminary establishment of the biocriteria. Integration of six potential metrics within three categories (taxonomic richness, taxonomic composition and tolerance and intolerance index) had produced four-level discriminatory biocriteria for river health assessment. The re-scored result showed that water quality of Sungai Ayer Hitam Besar was in non-impaired condition with excellent water quality. Both Sungai Berasau and Sungai Mengkibol showed slightly impaired water quality, whereas Sungai Melana was moderately impaired with fair to poor water quality. The validation of IBI was conducted using different data thus demonstrated that the establishment of IBI and biological criteria could provide indispensable information in managing river ecosystem more effectively. 2017 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79451/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79451/1/NorZaihaArmanPFKA2017.pdf application/pdf en public phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Civil Engineering Faculty of Civil Engineering
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TA Engineering (General) Civil engineering (General)
spellingShingle	TA Engineering (General) Civil engineering (General) Arman, Nor Zaiha The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment
description	Economic and industrial growth in this country has led to environmental problems which in turn affect the quality of human life and nature. Particularly, the management plans for river rehabilitation are less effective in addressing issues related to rivers in Malaysia. To date, most of the efforts undertaken focused on evaluating physicochemical properties of water whereas biological evaluation in determining the health of a river ecosystem is given less attention. Therefore, this study aims to integrate assessment tools of physical, chemical and biological approaches by highlighting benthic macroinvertebrates as key indicator. This study was conducted at four rivers in the state of Johor, which represents different gradients of land use, namely Sungai Ayer Hitam Besar, Sungai Berasau, Sungai Mengkibol and Sungai Melana. In-situ and ex-situ monitoring were carried out with ten (10) sampling frequencies for each river, starting from 2010 to 2013. Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled using rectangular dip-net with frame dimension 0.5 m x 0.3 m based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency Rapid Bioassessment Protocol whilst water samples were analysed according to Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. River habitat assessments were also conducted concurrently with the sampling of benthic macroinvertebrates and water quality whereas, secondary data such as rainfall, land use plans and maps of catchment area were obtained from various agencies. Assessment results varied among study sites. Non-parametric statistical analysis, Spearman correlation coefficients was also conducted to measure the correlation between biological and environmental endpoints, hence the selection of most suitable and effective indices for the development of macroinvertebrate-based multimetrics of Index Biotic Integrity (IBI) and the preliminary establishment of the biocriteria. Integration of six potential metrics within three categories (taxonomic richness, taxonomic composition and tolerance and intolerance index) had produced four-level discriminatory biocriteria for river health assessment. The re-scored result showed that water quality of Sungai Ayer Hitam Besar was in non-impaired condition with excellent water quality. Both Sungai Berasau and Sungai Mengkibol showed slightly impaired water quality, whereas Sungai Melana was moderately impaired with fair to poor water quality. The validation of IBI was conducted using different data thus demonstrated that the establishment of IBI and biological criteria could provide indispensable information in managing river ecosystem more effectively.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Arman, Nor Zaiha
author_facet	Arman, Nor Zaiha
author_sort	Arman, Nor Zaiha
title	The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment
title_short	The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment
title_full	The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment
title_fullStr	The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment
title_full_unstemmed	The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment
title_sort	potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Civil Engineering
granting_department	Faculty of Civil Engineering
publishDate	2017
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79451/1/NorZaihaArmanPFKA2017.pdf
_version_	1747818229442543616

The potential use of local index of biological integrity for tropical river assessment

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