ESTABLISHMENT OF SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE DEMONSTRATION PILOT PROJECT ON RESTORING AND MANAGING LANGAT RIVER, MALAYSIA FOR FUTURE Dr. Rahmah Elfithri Senior Lecturer Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA (UKM) [email protected] PROJECT TEAM 1. Dr. Rahmah Elfithri (Project Leader) – LESTARI, UKM 2. Prof. Dato' Dr. Mazlin bin Mokhtar – LESTARI, UKM 3. Prof. Dr. Mohd Raihan Taha – LESTARI, UKM 4. Prof. Dr. Md Pauzi Abdullah – Faculty of Science & Technology, UKM 5. Prof. Dr. Mohd Ekhwan Toriman – Faculty of Science , UKM 6. Prof. Dr. Ruhizan Md Yasin – Faculty of Education, UKM 7. Mr. Jasni Yaakub – LESTARI, UKM 8. Ms. Rd. Puteri Khairani Khirotdin – LESTARI, UKM 9. Mr. Mohamad Mahathir Amir Sultan – LESTARI, UKM Introduction • Sustainability science as a new emerging field can be a tool to solve a complex environmental anthropogenic issue by: – Promoting an integrated approach of various disciplines – Multi scale – Across stakeholder • It is a problem driven and solution oriented approach in creating a sustainable society requires the problem solving skills. • Sustainability Science promotes “innovations in knowledge” that organize our vast knowledge so that integrated solutions can be found to complex issues. • New, innovative research and educational programs should be developed and nurtured to provide education to support the development of such integrated approaches. River Restoration Restoration is the holistic medicine of environmental policy. Under ecological perspective, restoration refers to the return of an ecosystem to a close approximation of its condition prior to disturbance. It might be river ecosystem or terrestrial ecosystem that forms the basin of the river. Ultimate goal of a restoration intervention should be devoted to returning damaged ecosystems to a condition that is structurally and functionally similar to the pre-disturbance state. River Management • Successful Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) implementation is said to be participatory, integrated, adaptive, and ecosystem based. • Including through participation of stakeholders at lowest appropriate level via learning approach that was conceptualised as social learning • Learning by doing together; continuously, any issue that prevails in a society; • balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches beyond informative or consultative participation • Co-designing and co-deciding the mechanism • It also highlights Decision Support System (DSS) implementation in Langat River Basin. Objectives of Restoration and Management Restoration Management To reduce man-made land degradation To manage water demand with and soil erosion available supply To arrest habitat degradation/loss and To protect and enhance river-related rehabilitate habitats where feasible, and sites for recreation and tourism to conserve and enhance bio-diversity To prevent water quality degradation To provide for and enhance and improve degraded water quality navigational use of river channel To mitigate severity of floods and reduce To initiate, develop and implement frequency of flooding more effective governance systems and management support programme. To rehabilitate eroding river banks and beds To manage the river sand abstraction Sustainability Science Demonstration Site Project Implementation UNESCO RESTORING AND MANAGING STAR LESTARI Local LANGAT UKM Stakeholders RIVER, MALAYSIA JFIT FOR FUTURE Project Project Implementer Project Demonstration Site Funder/Initiator Establishment of Sustainability Science Demonstration Pilot Project at Langat River Basin • LRB is a unique and special basin in Malaysia because it lays within three (3) different state administrations, which are Selangor State, Negeri Sembilan State and the Putrajaya Federal Territory. • LRB comprises of four (5) main districts: Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat, Sepang, Putrajaya and Seremban. • It is situated approximately 27 km to the south of Kuala Lumpur (the capital city of Malaysia). The catchment of the Langat River is about 2,350 km2 with a length of 200 km flowing from Klang Valley to the Straits of Melaka. Why Langat River Basin? • LRB Malaysia has been recognized as one of the UNESCO HELP River Basin since 2004 (during the implementation phase of HELP) and was classified as Evolving HELP Basin, out of 91 catchments from 67 countries in the world. • It is located in the mid-western part of Peninsular Malaysia and lays across two states and one federal territory as mentioned above. • This initiative led by Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Langat HELP River Basin What is HELP? • HELP is a cross cutting and transdisciplinary initiative of the UNESCO led by the International Hydrological Programme (IHP). HELP has created a new approach to integrated catchment management through a framework for water law and policy experts, water resource managers and water scientists to work together on water-related problems (UNESCO, 2010). • The objectives of HELP are to deliver social, economic and environmental benefits to stakeholders through sustainable and appropriate use of water by directing hydrological science towards improved integrated catchment management basins and also implementation of research through collaborations between scientists, managers and stakeholders (UNESCO, 2004). HELP Category Currently there are 91 HELP basins across the globe (in Australia, Asia, Africa, North America and Latin America to demonstrate how HELP principles can be put into practice. The current HELP Network consists of 67 Member States of UNESCO. Category Description Group D: World Demonstration This is seen as demonstrating best practice in HELP and IWRM, and serves HELP Basin as a model or demonstration basin for other basins - with something to offer other basins. Group O: Operational HELP Basin This is an established basin which may become a World Demonstration Basin in due course. It is implementing the HELP philosophy in an integrated manner and is involved with stakeholders in basin management. Group E: Evolving HELP basin This is a basin which is not yet fully operational, but Well-developed plans conforming to the HELP philosophy which are beginning to be implemented. Group P: Proposed HELP Basin Additional information is needed to re-classify this basin. Further work is required to develop plans and activities in an integrated way that supports the HELP philosophy. Overview of Langat River Basin • Transboundary river basin – covers 3 states Selangor (78%) Negeri Sembilan (19%) Federal Territories of Putrajaya (3%) • Situated approximately 27 km to the south of Kuala Lumpur (the capital city of Malaysia) • Total basin area – 2,350 km. sq. & 200 km long • Population - 1,184,917 million in 2000, Growth rate 7.64% • Geographical location - located at latitude 02o50’ 48’’ N and longitude 101o40’ 48’’ E with the highest peak being at 820.8 m (2691 ft) and almost 75 percent of the catchment is hilly terrain with average slope 6- 9’’ and another 25 percent of the areas are less than 6’’ while some swamps along the river. Langat River Basin – Socio-Economics • The Langat River Basin is currently the fastest developing area in the country, where a number of large scale social-economic projects have either currently taking shape or are already completed in the Basin: The new township of Putrajaya (new Federal Government Administration Center) The Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) for the information technology industry Cyberjaya (the paperless electronic village and township) The Malaysian BioValley project for biotechnology research/industry The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) The Formula One Grand Prix Circuit at Sepang Several institutions of higher learning including universities THE LANGAT RIVER BASIN The management focus on IWRM and IRBM implementation at catchment level UPM Putrajaya Cyberjaya UKM Sepang F1 Circuit KLIA Langat River Basin Total Length: 200 km Total Basin Area: 2,350 km2 HELP River Basin Networks Showing Langat River Basin in Malaysia Out of 91 RB in the World & 26 RB in AP & 3 RB in SEA Langat HELP River Basin, Malaysia Establishment of Sustainability Science Demonstration Pilot Project on Restoring and Managing Langat River, Malaysia for Future Objectives: 1. To gain knowledge on the interrelations between urban conditions and the state of waters and the instruments and techniques for their management; 2. To identify ways to standardised sustainability science methodologies and to identify potential sustainability indicators; 3. To increase resilience to climatic extremes in the Langat river basin; 4. To develop rehabilitation plan of the degraded urban waters based on ecohydrology principles included in sustainable science principles 5. To develop urban storm water management tool based on ecohydrology principles included in sustainable science principles; and 6. To produce and disseminate a document summarizing the key findings and recommendations. Water Pollution Water pollution has become one of the main problem in the Langat Basin and increased water deficiency has worsen the situation. (Mokhtar et al. 2012) PROJECT ACTIVITIES Collection of Baseline Qualitative and Quantitative Data No. Organization Type of Data Collection 1. Department of Irrigation and Water Quality Drainage (DID) Flood Event Annual Rainfall Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) Plan 2005 Urban Stormwater Manual (MSMA) 2. Department of Environment (DOE) Pollution Prevention and River Water Quality