Environmental Consideration in Flood Mitigation and River Restoration

Abstract

One of the fundamental section of sustainable improvement in river basin systems and has multifunctional targets is river restoration. The targets of river restoration are to minimize the physical degradation and recover river elegance value, pollution manage and good ecosystem with biodiversity. River restoration is a multidisciplinary task in which engineer, hydrologist, geologist and ecologist can work together to enhance river environment. In decades ago, Malaysia was exposed to fast evolution and subsequently extreme flooding has happened especially in urban territories. In order to minimize flood damage, the flood mitigation measures were taken and channel improvement is mainly utilized for this goal. Due to the insufficient available river reserve and perhaps the absence of environmental awareness, previously, the consultant engineers usually advised a wider and deeper rectangular concrete river channel to mitigate the flood damage. The replacement of the natural river channel with a concrete channel outcomes are increased physical degradation and lowering of aesthetic and recreational values of rivers. Lately, there is a strong confirmation to take into account the environmental effect in rivers canalizing. Malaysian experience in restoration of the urban river will be focused on in this study, with a particular emphasis on environmentally friendly materials utilized for flood mitigation goals.