ASSESSING MIKE-11 MODEL FOR BOD AND COD TRANSPORT IN BERTAM RIVER, CAMERON HIGHLANDS

The aim of the study was to model the discharge and biochemical and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD) loads in each cross section of Bertam river in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Cameron Highlands form the headwater catchment for two major rivers of the lowlands; Pahang river and Perak river. On the other hand, Cameron Highlands is undergoing rapid development as a popular tourist destination and an area exploited for growing of temperature vegetables, fruits and flowers. However it is also a mountainous area subjected to torrential tropical showers. The condition of the Bertam River as one of the main rivers in Cameron Highlands has degraded over the years in terms of water pollution and river environment. Therefore, MIKE-11 a one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation program was utilized to model stream flow transport and water quality processing in the river system. The model was used to generate the river outflow and simulate BOD and COD concentrations in each cross section of Bertam river. Hydrodynamic Module (HD) which uses an implicit, finite difference solver was applied to calculate water level and flow for the river. Next, Rainfall-Runoff Module (RR) which is include unit hydrograph method and lumped conceptual continuous hydrological model was used to combine the meteorological data of the study area to MIKE-11 simulation system. Finally, Advection-Dispersion Module (AD) was used to transport and spreading of BOD and COD concentrations. The comparative analysis between measured and simulated data showed that MIKE-11 is able to predict sufficiently accurate BOD and COD loads at the catchment outlet.