A study on the changes of beach profile and sediment characteristics at Setiu Coastline

Abstract

A study on the changes of beach profile and sediment characteristics has been conducted along the Setiu Wetland Coast. This study was divided into 8 main stations which is Station 1 to Station 8. Two sampling were done on September 2006 and February 2007. Beach profile shows drastic changes on all stations especially in February 2007. This is due to the Northeast Monsoon period. From the profiles, we may get a picture of varied strength of the physical factors with time. For having an accurate results, Benchmark data (Batu Aras) were collected from Jabatan Ukur dan Pemetaan Malaysia (JUPEM). Leveling was conducted along the coastal to bunch together with beach profile data. A sea floor mapping (Bathymetry) will also be conducted to get the latest beach slope. All of above data will be combined together to get the most precious data accordingly to JUPEM standards. The statistical analyze shows that the changes monthly at each stations. The statistical analyze include the values of min, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis. This analysis data also can be used to determine the Net Shore Drift (NSD) directions. The Northeast Monsoon also affects the statistical values. However, there exist some similarities and differences between all the stations, either during the monsoon period or in normal weather condition. This is caused by several factors such as waves, winds, currents, tidal circulations and the differences on the environment.