Evaluation of total infltration and storage capacities for diferent soil types in Sarawak using SWMM

• Main Authors: Kuok, King Kuok, Chiu, Po Chan, Md. Rezaur, Rahman, Khairul Anwar, Mohamad Said, Chin, Mei Yun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2023
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/46181/1/Evaluation%20of%20total.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/46181/; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43832-023-00042-0; https://doi.org/10.1007/s43832-023-00042-0
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Climate change and irresponsible urbanization practices are anticipated to further exacerbate food risk. The diferent soil types’ physical, chemical, and biological characteristics signifcantly impact surface water movement, porosity, permeability, and infltration potential. Therefore, soil infltration is perhaps the most challenging and crucial process to characterize on a feld scale. Various methods have been developed to measure the infltration rate empirically and theoretically. However, the relationship between diferent soil types and infltration rates in Sarawak remains unknown as no previous study has been conducted. This study uses the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to evaluate the infltration rates for fve diferent soil types: clay, clay loam, loam, sandy loam, and sand. 30 samples of various types and soil depths were examined at intervals of 0.5 m, 1.0 m, 1.5 m, 2.0 m, 2.5 m, and 3 m. The study was carried out using a standardized slope of 0.7% and an impervious land of 25% with a catchment size of 2 acres. Extreme rainfall data on the 5th and 6th of December 2021 was input into the infltration model. Results showed that the diference between initial and fnal water storage of all the investigated soil depths for clay, clay loam, loam, sandy loam, and sand was found to be 48.42 mm, 51.20 mm, 58.01 mm, 66.96 mm, and 115.54 mm, respectively. The fndings demonstrated that clay has the lowest water storage capability, followed by clay loam, loam, and sandy loam. Sand could store a comparatively large amount of rainwater. In contrast, sand has the highest infltration rate with 2.541 mm/h, followed by sandy loam with 1.835 mm/h, loam with 1.432 mm/h, clay loam with 1.039 mm/h. Clay has the lowest infltration rate, with 0.852 mm/h. This research concluded that sandy soil could signifcantly reduce surface runof and help reduce food risk in urban regions.