Statistical characterisation of Grain-Size distribution in fluvial sediment of Kelantan rivers

Abstract

The characteristic of sediment, in particular the particle size distribution is important to be correctly determined for an accurate representation in sediment transport. This article reports the grain size distributions of soil samples taken from seven tropical rivers i.e. the Sungai (Rivers) of Sam, Galas, Lata Tunggil, Mei, Rek, Peng Datu and the major Sungai Kelantan catchment area which spanned about 11, 900 km 2. The Sungai Galas is a direct tributary, whilst the Sungai Sam, Sungai Rek, Sungai Mei and Sungai Lata Tunggil are the tributaries into Sungai Lebir which subsequently feeds the Sungai Kelantan. Each obtained sample was sieved and the soil type distribution was determined. Statistical analysis of the samples was conducted; including the median grain sized 50, mean grain size, standard deviation (sorting), skewness and kurtosis. Most of the samples have insignificant fractions of finer grains, where coarse sand and gravel were the dominant. All sediment samples are negatively skewed towards coarse sand, have very platykurtic kurtosis suggesting that the sediment has single provenance.