DOI: 10.5176/2251-3701_2.1.45
Authors: Syed Muzzamil Hussain Shah, Khamaruzaman Wan Yusof, Zahiraniza Mustaffa and Ahmad Mustafa Hashim
Abstract:
The magnitude of soil erosion by water remains high in the tropical regions. The construction activities further
worsen this process which leads to the undesirable effects. The newly constructed highway embankments usually remain bare and are considered to be the prime agent of soil loss. The soil surface with an appropriate cover helps restricting the soil detachment for which many agronomic soil conservation practices have been used. This paper integrates that why a simple grass cover has been recommended to cope with this inevitable issue. It further assimilates the results obtained from a full scale test conducted in the Perak State Malaysia under the simulated rainfall condition of 40 mm/hour (average rainfall event) for which the rainfall data was obtained from the Meteorological department Perak State, Malaysia from the year (2005-2011). The volume rate of water flow and sediment transport was observed at different time intervals for three plots i.e. (Plot-I) the fully grass covered surface, (Plot-II) the bare soil surface, and (Plot-III) 50{6e6090cdd558c53a8bc18225ef4499fead9160abd3419ad4f137e902b483c465} of the grass covered surface with an area of 2 meters by 6 meters having a slope angle of 30°. The results obtained showed maximum water discharge and soil loss for (Plot-II) the bare soil surface, which was found to be 5.78 x 10-5 m3 sec-1 and 500.9 g m-2 respectively.
Keywords: Bare soil, Grass cover, Soil detachment, Volume rate of water flow
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