Development and Land-Use Change in the Semenyih River Basin and Their Impact, Selangor, Malaysia
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Research Note / Note de recherche Development and Land-Use Change in the Semenyih River Basin and Their Impact, Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/14/2/205/1449176/arwg_14_2_n77q5l737w724662.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Selangor, Malaysia Muhammad Barzani Gasim, Salmijah Surif, and Sahibin Abd Rahim School of Environment and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Ainon Hamzah School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Md. Fauzi Abdullah School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Mohd. Ekhwan Toriman School of Social, Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Mazlin Mokhtar Institute for Environment and Development, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia Wannor Azmin Sulaiman and Mohd. Ismail Yaziz Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environmental studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia Introduction Land-use change and population in Malaysia are reported by the Statistical Department and the Agricultural Department every 10 years, and local authori - ties typically publish 20- to 30-year development plans. A report from the Majlis Daerah Hulu Langat (MDHL 1996) reveals that the population of Hulu Langat District, which includes Cheras, Hulu Langat, and Hulu Semenyih, was 78 063 in the mid-1990s. Land use is highly variable in form, structure, and composition. Land has many potential uses, which can be classified in different ways for different purposes (Davis 1976). Nelson and Shubinski (1975) have shown that there are The Arab World Geographer / Le Géographe du monde arab Vol 14, no 2 (2011) 205 -214 © 2011 AWG Publishing, Toronto Canada 206 Muhammad Barzani Gasim, Salmijah Surif, & Sahibin Abd Rahim closed relationships between human activities and land uses in different land- use categories. The study area, Mukim Semenyih and Hulu Semenyih, is located in the District of Hulu Langat in Selangor Darul Ehsan, between latitude 02°53’50”N and 03°07’10”N and between longitude 101°50’5”E and 101°57’15”E, about 30 km south-east of Kuala Lumpur (see Figure 1). The new Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/14/2/205/1449176/arwg_14_2_n77q5l737w724662.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 government administration is located in Putrajaya, 20 km from Semenyih town and only 30 km from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Access roads have been improved (as proposed by HLDC 1987), which has encouraged more people to relocate to Semenyih and nearby areas (Gasim 2003). Development can occur smoothly when it is planned and controlled; however, uncontrolled development can lead unavoidably to pollution, erosion, and the spread of disease. Land uses in the study area are divided into seven categories: (1) forest, (2) agriculture and horticulture, (3) settlement and industry, (4) mining, (5) rubber and oil-palm plantations, and (6) swamps and bodies of water. The whole of the study area is drained by the Semenyih River, which flows from upstream at Genting Peras (600 m) and passes through Semenyih Town to join the Beranang River before merging into the Langat River. The upper part of the catchment is occupied by Sg. Lalang Forest Reserve, the largest forest reserve in the basin. As noted by Kenneth P. Davis (1976), forests have many functions: they can help to clean the air, build and hold soil, and produce a wide variety of goods and services. The practice of forest management is based on watershed protection, wild life, recreation, and erosion control. Forests are extremely effective in watershed protection and maintain - ing sustained water yield from streams, lakes, and underground aquifers; forested land is highly valuable to the ecosystem in the study area. Agriculture and horticulture are strongly influenced by soil classification, which defines the capabilities of agricultural land; grouping of soil series is generally carried out to gain soil information for use in agriculture and many other purposes. Surface mining results in destruction of vegetation and reshaping of the land surface, including changes to the land surface and subsurface drainage pattern (Detwyler 1971). Rubber has been and remains a very important sector in Malaysia since its introduction during the British colonial period; because of decreased demand for rubber and increased demand for palm oil, many former rubber plantations have now been converted to oil palm plantations. Swamps and bodies of water in the study area are categorized as (a) fish - ponds, (b) swamps/wetlands, and (c) rivers, dams, and lakes (unclassified land). The objectives of this study are: to identify land use category in the study area; 2) to determine land use change and 3) to relate the impact of land use change to Semenyih River. The Arab World Geographer / Le Géographe du monde arab Vol 14, no 2 (2011) Development and Land-Use Change in the Semenyih River Basin 207 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/14/2/205/1449176/arwg_14_2_n77q5l737w724662.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 FIGURE 1 Location of the study area Materials and Methods Land-use maps at 1:50 000 scale were derived from the Malaysian Agricultural Department. Five series of land-use maps (1966, 1974, 1990, 1997, and 2006) were evaluated for the study area. Current land use is the result of previous activities, and land-use changes could be used as an indica - tor for evaluating the impact of human activities on the environment of the Semenyih River Basin. At least seven categories of land uses have been iden - tified in the study area. Topographical maps of the study area were derived by combining four sheets (nos. 94, 95, 102, and 103) of topographical maps at 1:63 360 scale. Site observation was carried out to confirm the impact of land- use changes, especially based on physico-chemical characteristics of the Semenyih River. The Arab World Geographer / Le Géographe du monde arab Vol 14, no 2 (2011) 208 Muhammad Barzani Gasim, Salmijah Surif, & Sahibin Abd Rahim Results and Discussion Forest Changes in forested areas based on Forestry Department data between 1978 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/14/2/205/1449176/arwg_14_2_n77q5l737w724662.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 and 1994 show that logging has cleared more than 1.39 million ha of forest reserve in Malaysia (“Tackling Root” 1996, 2–6), converted to other land uses such as agriculture, townships, reservoirs, highways, and/or golf courses. In the study area, forest covers the mountainous region in the upper part of the river basin (mainly at Mukim Hulu Semenyih). At least three categories of forest/vegetation cover have been classified: (a) grassland, (b) scrub forest, and (c) forest. The total area of forest coverage in 1966 was 16 815.50 ha; this had decreased to 15 835.012 ha by 1974. There were three significant forest harvests in this catchment area during that period, in 1971, 1972, and 1982 (Abu Talib 1995). In 1985, when the Semenyih Dam was under construction, about 360 ha of forest was cleared for the impounded reservoir. Total forest area was 15 174 ha in 1990, a significant decrease of about 661 ha compared to 1974. This decrease was due to several factors such as development of Sg. Tekala Forest Recreation, construction of the Semenyih Dam in 1985, resettlement of Orang Asli in Kg. Pening-Pening, and extension of palm-oil plantations. By 1997, the total forested area left in the study area was only 14 872 ha, about 600 ha less than in 1990, as a result of the extension of agricultural areas and of oil-palm and rubber plantations and of forests’ being cleared for manu - facturing, settlements, and logging activities. The total forested area in 2006 was 14 472 ha, about 400 ha less than in 1997 (see Figure 2a). Forests now occupy 50.91 % of the study area, and this forested area can be maintained as long as no illegal logging activity takes place; agricultural land or abandoned unused land can revert back to forest, especially in the catchment area, to maintain the water resource of the catchment. Settlement and Industry There are three categories of human-settlement interactions in the study area: (a) urban and associated areas, (b) estates and associated areas, and (c) newly cleared land areas. A gradual increase of population in certain places is normally based on better facilities (e.g., water supply, electricity, road systems) and developments in the vicinity such as manufacturing and industry. In early 1966, the total area occupied by settlements and industry was only 228.22 ha in the study area, with a population of 19 880 (Md. Arof 1988; Detwyler and Marcus 1972). By 1974 the had increased by almost 100 %, to The Arab World Geographer / Le Géographe du monde arab Vol 14, no 2 (2011) Development and Land-Use Change in the Semenyih River Basin 209 453.46 ha, but the increase in area was not synchronized with an increase in population (22 776, based on projections). Semenyih’s industrial sector is presumed to have started n the early 1970s. According to the Hulu Langat District Council (HLDC 1987), at least 14 manufacturing industries had been set up in Semenyih town by 1983. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/14/2/205/1449176/arwg_14_2_n77q5l737w724662.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Certain schemes have been carried out by the state government to protect the land title of the Bumiputra and Orang Asli for future generations and reser - vation purposes. By 1990, the total area for settlements and industry had increased to 951 ha, and the total population to 34 313 (Khoo 1995).