Aminuddin Ab Ghani

Universiti Sains Malaysia | USM · River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC)

Constructed in 2001, the Bio-Ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) is a national pilot project located at the Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Pulau Pinang. It represents a drainage system to restore natural environment while maintaining river flow and controlling ground subsidence through an innovative and sustainable method.Th...

The current study aims at the development of an incipient motion equation and a self-cleansing design chart based on the critical shear stress approach for a rectangular channel. Data from previous experimental work on incipient motion for rectangular flumes were subjected to multiple linear regression analysis. Selected regression models were furt...

Information regarding sediment transport is essential to manage the river basin. Prediction of sediment transport is vital to design water-related structures (Constantine et al., 2014; Ghani et al., 2010; Harun and Ab. Ghani, 2020; Meshkova and Carling, 2012) and assess the environment's impact (Constantine et al., 2014; Rajaee and Jafari, 2020). A...

For decades, research on stable channel hydraulic geometry was based on the following parameters: river discharge, dimensionless discharge, the median size of bed material and the slope. Although significant research has been conducted in this area, including applied machine learning to increase the geometry model prediction accuracy, there has bee...

Rapid urbanization has an accelerated impact on catchment hydrology and geomorphology due to land use and land cover changes as a result of anthropogenic development activities, which take place in river catchment areas, a dramatic that causes increase in surface runoff and higher sediment yield, are expected. Using the Pahang River in Malaysia, th...

Introduction: Stormwater management is the effort to reduce runoff of rainwater ormelted snow into streets, lawns and other sites and the improvement ofwater quality, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When stormwater is absorbed into the soil, it is filtered andultimately replenishes aquifers or flows into stream...

This paper analyses experimental data on sediment incipient motion with varying sediment bed thickness (of d50, 5, 10 and 24 mm). Sediment particles (with sizes ranging from 0.5 mm to 4.78 mm) were used to evaluate the effect of deposited bed. Variation of shear velocity estimation was investigated where the critical Shields parameter was expressed...

Imidacloprid pesticide is commonly used in the agricultural sector to protect from pest attacks and avoid crop losses. However, the leak of Imidacloprid to the environmental system could result in dire consequences to the aquatic life and humans as the toxic contaminant produced by this pesticide may disturb the ecosystem through the pesticide cycl...

Local scour around complex abutment and pier is the main reason for bridges to collapse. Although the complex abutment/pier has been used in most rivers, there is limited research in the literature about the flow pattern and local scour at complex abutment/pier. In this study, a series of experimental test was conducted to predict local scour at co...

River discharge links the hydrologic and geologic cycles in addition to climate components; therefore, it forms an important source of hydraulic and hydrologic quantity. The ability to quantify river discharge accurately is very important for estimating water availability and distribution for better water resources management. In this study, the pe...

The investigation of sediment transport in tropical rivers is essential for planning effective integrated river basin management to predict the changes in rivers. The characteristics of rivers and sediment in the tropical region are different compared to the those of the rivers in Europe and the United States, where the median sediment size tends t...

This study explores the concept of hydraulic flushing gate with an automated control system as a flow control structure of the urban storm water system. The research team has implemented a flush gate with the automated control system to the flow of the water in a drainage channel. The flow control structure was used to determine the effectiveness o...

In this experimental work, laboratory channel was constructed to evaluate the hydrodynamics of flow through cow grass. Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) was used in determining the magnitude of velocity across various segments of the channel due to flow vegetation– interaction. The effect of vegetative roughness on flow velocity, Manning’s resista...

Bioretention is one of best management practices (BMPs) for stormwater quantity and quality control. To date, there has been a great deal of research on bioretention system. Many studies have been conducted on the performance of single bioretention in terms of water quality improvement. The aim of this paper to evaluate WQI of the treated stormwate...

Community engagement and involvement is vital for the success of urban water management. However, poor public engagement, cheap water tariffs, apathetic attitude and lack of public interest are identified as the main reasons for high water wastage in Penang State, Malaysia. The N Park Resort Condominium rainfall harvesting and water saving project...

Penang State is one of the most developed and urbanised states in Malaysia, but is a “water-stressed” state with limited water resources availability. In the light of global climate change and El Nino, prolonged droughts have resulted in water crises that are expected to be exacerbated. The objective of this paper is to examine various strategies t...

Swale with a subdrainage channel is one of the components in the stormwater management system for control at source facilities. This paper will discuss the performance of flow capacity in a single module of the swale subdrainage channel. Using the new design of the REDAC module as a subdrainage channel, an experimental setup was carried out in a si...

In terms of stability, the response of static cars in floodwaters has been widely investigated. However, the hydrodynamics of a non-static vehicle exposed to such events are less explored. Herein the study ponders the assessment of the hydrodynamic forces experienced by a non-static vehicle attempting to cross a low-lying flooded street. With that...

In managing stormwater, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) has promoted the control-at-source concept. This concept focuses equally on quantity, quality of stormwater and amenity as an integrated approach. Many components in SUDS have different purposes depending on design and location to implement. One of these components is green roof. The...

Swale with a subdrainage channel is one of the components in the stormwater management system for control at source facilities. This paper will discuss the performance of flow capacity in a single module of the swale subdrainage channel. Using the new design of the REDAC module as a subdrainage channel, an experimental setup was carried out in a si...

Rivers are important natural resources of a country as they provide a wide range of ecosystem services. However, the problem is that rivers in Malaysia are badly degraded due to mismanagement, neglect, pollution and abuse. River management in Malaysia is largely based on the government-centric top-down model which is sectoral-based. This model is i...

Assessments of a stable channel were done to evaluate the conditions of three rivers in Malaysia, using an analytical method that modifies the stable channel flowchart developed by Chang (1988) and Ariffin (2004). The analytical approach was selected to calculate the suitable dimensions for a stable channel, using equations that describe the physic...

The ecological subsurface module is the main part of the environmental system to manage storm water, pollution and runoff in urban areas. The novelty of this research is to consider total porosity (Pt) and the number of modules (mt) for estimation of Manning’s roughness in the modular channel. To consider the effect of blocks and backwater at the e...

Drainage modules are subsurface storage units for rainwater harvesting with basic functions of promoting ground water recharge, storage, reuse, quality and quantity control of surface runoff. Different methods of assessment of these modules were employed by past researchers to evaluate their performance including field, numerical and laboratory exp...

Understanding of rainfall characteristics is important in designing Best Management Practices (BMPs) facilities. Because of intermittent rainfall, many researches on hydrology employ the concept of rainfall events. The selection of appropriate rainfall events for treatment design is essential to ensure the effectiveness of BMPs systems. Thus, the o...

Water pollution is a major challenge in urban areas. The main source of water pollution is the runoff accelerated from impervious areas and agricultural land. In recent years, planning and designing of urban water management in Malaysia is moving away from the conventional thinking of designing for flooding to balancing the impact of urban drainage...

Large debris including vehicles when swept by floods could threat people's life and damage properties. Concerning vehicles in floodwaters, their stability remains a challenge to the research world, particularly the buoyancy depth and the parameters affecting them to float. Therefore, a detailed investigation of the forces and mechanisms leading to...

The occurrence of severe floods in recent years globally as well as in many parts of Malaysia is an indication of both climate change and human interference in land use change. This requires or an integrated flood risk management approach and a shift from conventional structural flood mitigation. Flood modelling is an important part of flood risk m...

Ecological subdrainage channel is one of the components in a sustainable urban drainage system whereby stormwater is allowed to infiltrate grass channel drain into the subsurface drainage flow. This simple process results in significant reduction on runoff quantity while at the same time promotes better runoff quality, both of which are beneficial...

Assessment of existing equations on predicting total bed material load was carried out by using data from past study DID (2009) covering Muda River, Langat River, and Kurau River. The sediment transport data from the three rivers were used to evaluate equations developed by Sinnakaudan et al. (2006) and Ariffin (2004) as well as Engelund & Hansen a...

The state of Kelantan in Malaysia is a flood-prone state exposed to seasonal Monsoon rains that bring seasonal floods resulting in significantly losses. Flood management in the state is modelled after the country’s predominant government-centric top-down approach focused on flood-control technologies via structural measures such as multi-purpose da...

Constructed wetlands (CW) are built to improve water quality while serving as an alternative sustainable habitat for aquatic life. In Malaysia, CWs are designed according to the guideline for Urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA 2 nd Edition) 2012. This study shall evaluate the performance of constructed wetland design as stipulate...

Research findings have shown that accurate estimation of performance and water surface profiles in hydraulic structures are cumbersome and time-consuming. Furthermore, investigating hydraulic variables experimentally required more money to conduct the field tests and to find the needed equipment. Additionally, laboratory measurements of the hydraul...

One of the best management practices (BMPs) for stormwater quality and quantity control is a bioretention system. The removal efficiency of different pollutants under this system is generally satisfactory, except for nitrogen which is deficient in certain bioretention systems. Nitrogen has a complex biogeochemical cycle, and thus the removal proces...

The flow resistance of the existing modules in the bio-ecological drainage system (BIOECODS) is high and may lead to flood instead of its mitigation. As part of efforts to enhance the performance of the system, the river engineering and urban drainage research center (REDAC) module was developed. This study modelled the hydrodynamics of flow throug...

This study examined the influence of soil properties on the hydraulic performance of bioretention system on a different configuration of soil mix design. Proportions of 50-90% sand and 10-50% topsoil of soil configurations were selected for this study. Standard constant head permeability test was conducted in the laboratory. It was found that Ksat...

Climate change is pervasive, bringing about heat and floods. To address these hazards, better coping, adaptationand resilience are needed. Cities all over the world suffer from heat and flood disasters that account for significant losses. This paper examines the incidence of heat andflood occurrence in urban areas, and examineshow sustainable urban...

This paper presents the results of an experimental study in which an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) was used to monitor the longitudinal velocity profiles and discharge proportions in a channel with a mobile bed and banks. The resultant channel bed elevations were also monitored. The physical model consisted of a channel with two branches and a...

Drainage Modules are considered as potential substitutes to the traditional hard concrete channel systems known to provide flow attenuations in the Bio Ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) and ensure eco-friendly drainage systems that will be more erosion resistant which can allow natural infiltration. Backwater mostly caused by bends, blockage, m...

This study explores the concept of hydraulic flushing gate with an automated control system as a flow control structure of the urban stormwater system. The research team has implemented a flush gate with the automated control system to the flow of the water in a drainage channel. The flow control structure was used to determine the effectiveness of...

Bioretention system is one of the stormwater best management practices (BMPs) that utilize plant, engineered soil media which consists of mixtures of medium soil, medium sand and compost to filter stormwater runoff and to reduce peak runoff flow rate. However, presence of compost in the soil mixture will give variation to the soil characteristic su...

The analysis of flow resistance due vegetation remains an issue in the hydraulic industry, although it has been systematically studied for several decades, accurate prediction of the resistance is still a challenge. This is because most of previous studies used synthetic vegetation to model flow – vegetation interactions. This paper presents the ap...

Subsurface drainage modules are important components of the Bio-ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) which is a system designed to manage stormwater quantity and quality using constructed grass swales, subsurface modules, dry and wet ponds. BIOECODS is gradually gaining attention as one of the most ecologically sustainable solutions to the frequen...

Subsurface drainage modules are important components of the Bio-ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) which is a system designed to manage stormwater quantity and quality using constructed grass swales, subsurface modules, dry and wet ponds. BIOECODS is gradually gaining attention as one of the most ecologically sustainable solutions to the frequen...

Self-cleansing is a design criterion for drainage systems which mitigates the continuous deposition of sediments at the channel bottom. In recent decades, in order to improve the knowledge for determination of self-cleansing conditions applicable for drainage system design, laboratory experimental studies on sediment transport in rigid boundary cha...

Previously numerous equations were developed using conventional methods to estimate vegetal drag coefficient by treating submerged and emergent vegetation independently, there is need to derive a generalized relationship that can be applied irrespective of the vegetation submergence with respect to flow depth. In this regard, the present study uses...

This study investigates the performance of artificial neural network in predicting the incipient motion of deposited sediment in sewers. Two neural network algorithms, i.e. feed forward neural network (FFNN) and radial basis function (RBF) were employed to estimate the critical velocity over varying sediment thickness, median grain size and water d...

In recent years, urbanisation and land development have led to an increase in river sand mining activities. These activities have given rise to various problems including: river bank erosion, river bed degradation, river buffer zone encroachment and deterioration of river water quality. Excessive removal of sand may significantly distort the natura...

Hydraulic flushing is the most widely used method for sediment removal in sewer. However, open storm sewer tend to have longer flushing duration as compared to closed conduit sewer. This is due to storm water could enter more directly and rapidly into open storm sewer especially during rain events. The current study aims to determine the effect of...

This paper studied flow resistance through subsurface drainage modules which can convey runoff and allow natural infiltration in waterways such as ecological swales. In this regard, experiments were performed using a new design of three (3) number single subsurface drainage modules arranged in parallel within a rectangular channel. The hydraulic pe...

Accurate estimation of scour depth at complex pier leads to an economic and correct design for level of foundation. Due to technical and economic reasons, complex piers (pier including foundation) are more general for bridge design. In this study, two robust techniques, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and Gene Expression Programming (GEP) were em...

Current design of infrastructure is primarily based on precipitation Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves. For this reason, the accuracy and reliability of the hydrological analysis relied on the quality of the rainfall data used. Rainfall data should be checked and tested for its reliability and homogeneity before being used for further analy...

The progressive development in urban area has drastically changed land use and deteriorated the quality of source water. The contribution towards higher intensity of rainfall will also increase the problem and affects the quality of water, social and financial situations of the country. The installation of BMPs has been the alternative approach in...