a b s t r a c tRecent years have seen a surge of interest in assessing water withdrawal in the agricultural sector which has been experiencing an increasing concern with sustainable environmental requirements. Like other highly water-intensive crops, rice production systems rely on an ample water supply, thus posing a serious threat to water availability. This study estimates the water use of rice cultivated in the off-and main seasons in Malaysia. The water withdrawal of rice was estimated based on the monthly climatic data of 30 y (1983-2013) and a 10-y (2002-2011) average annual crop yield. The water stress index (WSI) of the 16 major watersheds in Malaysia was also derived to assess the water deprivation. We found that the blue water use for rice cultivation in the off-and main seasons ranges between 619 and 1,421 m 3 /t and 504 and 1,031 m 3 /t, respectively. The results also showed that the average WSI for 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia is 0.08 with a total water deprivation of 97 million m 3 H 2 O eq/y. This study can serve as baseline information for the government in identifying the areas that need to be conserved and the recommendations that should be drawn toward sustainable management of water resources in Malaysia.

Finding locations suitable for disposal of solid waste is one of the fundamental challenges facing municipal cities and environmental stability. The present study aims to identify the most suitable solid waste disposal site using Geographic Information System (GIS), remote sensing, and the multi criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique. In addition, the study compares the proposed method for suitability with the traditional analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach. A new validation approach was applied to evaluate the accuracy of the AHP and Fuzzy logic methods based on the selected solid waste locations. Remote sensing data (ASTER GDEM) and field/reference maps were used to derive 12 conditioning factors required to produce a suitable location for solid waste disposal. The result shows that the accuracy of AHP, based on the consistency index (CI), is acceptable (greater than 0.1). However, Fuzzy logic was shown to be more accurate than AHP. The total surface areas of suitable locations based on AHP and Fuzzy models are 4.4 km² and 13.35 km², respectively. This study showed that AHP, Fuzzy logic and GIS can be integrated for waste management decision issues related to site selection to reduce negative effects on the environment and inhabitants.

A study on water quality status of Tekala River, Selangor, Malaysia was conducted at two sampling times. A total of six sampling stations were selected along the river representing the upstream (S1 and S2), the middle stream (S3 and S4) and the downstream (S5 and S6) of the Tekala River. In this study, in-situ and ex-situ analyses were conducted to determine the quality of Tekala River. Physical, chemical and biological parameters included biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (SOD), ammoniacal nitrogen, total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, temperature, total dissolved solid (TDS), salinity, conductivity, Escherichia coli, coliform and macroinvertebrate. According to the result obtained from this study, Tekala River is classified under Class I and Class II based on water quality index and National water quality standard. Two-way ANOVA showed a significant difference between parameters (ammoniacal nitrogen, BOD, pH, temperature, conductivity, DO and TDS) of sampling station. Significant difference was found between ammoniacal nitrogen, pH and temperature with sampling time. The correlation test revealed that there is relationship between Escherichia coli with ammoniacal nitrogen, temperature and DO. There is also relationship found between coliform with pH and BOD.

Langat River is one of the main sources of water supply for Selangor state. This study was conducted to determine the water quality status of Langat River in Selangor based on WQI and INWQS. Water sampling was conducted at ten stations for two seasons; dry season during February 2016 and wet season during November 2016. Parameters included in this study are temperature, pH, DO (Dissolved Oxygen), Conductivity, TSS (Total Suspended Soil), TDS (Total Dissolved Oxygen), BOD (Biochemical Oxygen demand) and Heavy metals. The laboratory analysis was carried out according to the HACH and APHA methods. This study found that the water quality of Langat River is classified in class III for both sampling times. Reduction in WQI value in the river was observed mainly due to human activities such as industrial and services building producing wastes. Based on results and statistical analysis, the values of pH, COD, Conductivity, TSS and TDS in the study area were influenced by the nearby industrial constructions. In dry seasons, low volume and stagnant water could create entropic conditions in the river. Water quality which classified in class III were considered as slightly polluted. Langat River can be used as supply if only conventional treatment was done. Water quality which classified in class III were considered as slightly polluted. Langat River can be used as water supply if only conventional treatment is carried out.Cite this article as: Alfarooq O. Basheer, Marlia M. Hanafiah, Mahmood J. Abdulhasan (2017). A Study On Water Quality From Langat River, Selangor. Acta Scientifica Malaysia, 1(2):01-04.

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In the present study, the Water Stress Index for selected watersheds in Kelantan state, Malaysia was derived. Water Stress Index was derived based on the ratio of water withdrawal to availability serves as an indicator to assess the status of water scarcity in watersheds. Water consumption for the domestic purposes includes the daily water used for drinking and cleaning for household, while the non-domestic water used includes sector such as agriculture (paddy and non-paddy), industry and livestock. Estimation of water availability was obtained from 39 rainfall stations located in the Kelantan watersheds and the climate data was obtained from year 2005 to 2014. The water stress index is presented in a range of 0.0 -1.0. The result shows that the Water Stress Index value for Kelantan River was obtained at 0.01 implying low level of stress at this watersheds. Kelantan is the second state in the Peninsular Malaysia that received the highest amount of rainfall after Pahang state. In conclusion, we found that Kelantan watersheds have a low amount of water consumption in ratio to the water availability. This is due to the low water consumption by the non-domestic sector in Kelantan. Apart from that, Kelantan also holds the third largest water catchment area in Peninsular Malaysia after Pahang and Kedah which influence the total amount of water availability in this state.

Waste generation in smart cities is a critical issue, and the interim steps towards its management were not that effective. But at present, the challenge of meeting recycling requirements due to the practical difficulty involved in waste sorting decelerates smart city CE vision. In this paper, a digital model that automatically sorts the generated waste and classifies the type of waste as per the recycling requirements based on an artificial neural network (ANN) and features fusion techniques is proposed. In the proposed model, various features extracted using image processing are combined to develop a sophisticated classifier. Based on the different features, different models are built, and each model produces a single decision. Besides, the kind of class is determined using machine learning. The model is validated by extracting relevant information from the dataset containing 2400 images of possible waste types recycled across three categories. Based on the analysis, it is observed that the proposed model achieved an accuracy of 91.7%, proving its ability to sort and classify the waste as per the recycling requirements automatically. Overall, this analysis suggests that a digital-enabled CE vision could improve the waste sorting services and recycling decisions across the value chain in smart cities.

We assessed the blue and green water consumption for cultivating barley in the Thi-Qar province, Iraq. CROPWAT 8.0 model was used to compute the total crop water use for both crops based on the meteorological data such as rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature, wind speed, sunshine and humidity as well as the soil and crop characteristics. The Penmann-Monteith method has been applied to calculate the evapotranspiration rate. The results showed that the ranges of blue water consumption for barley for10 years were between 761 m3/ton -2,275 m3/ton. Whereas the green water footprint for the same years was ranged from 47 m3/ton -1,235 m3/ ton. The results of this study can provide valuable information about water consumption and water availability in the Thi-Qar Province and serve as a guideline to solve or reduce water scarcity problem, thus help the relevant authorities to adopt new water strategies for Thi-Qar Province, Iraq. INTRODUCTIONFreshwater has always been a life-essential resource to human beings and important for the agriculture sector to irrigate and supply water for crops cultivation. However, international law concerning cross-national freshwater resources is poorly developed, viewed as contradictory and often unenforceable [16]. Unlike any other commodity (such as oil), there is no substitute to water [15]. The increasing water scarcity due to rising water demands and a changing climate is seen as a main issue for many countries. Cooperation and initiative from various relevant agencies such as government, private sector and public are urgently needed to achieve sustainable water management [9]. At the same time, several indicators suggest that water scarcity will become an even worse in the future. In addition, access to water will be reduced because of increased demands (population growth and industrialization), reduced water quality (resulting from pollution) as well as uneven distribution of the resource and climate change [12]. Climate change, water pollution, high water demand and overuse of water are the main causes lead to water shortage. While water crisis is defined when there is not enough clean potable water for a given population. Two mechanisms are involved in water scarcity, i.e. physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity occurs when natural water resources are inadequate to supply a region's demand, while economic water scarcity is when the sufficient available water resources are poorly managed.The largest consumer of water across the region is from the agriculture sector where it accounts for more than 70% of water demand [8]. Therefore, the water shortage issue cannot be addressed without a detailed consideration of agriculture sector [17]. Water scarcity is one of the serious problems facing the Arab region. Iraq comes first on the list of countries that suffer from this problem for many reasons [1]. It is about time to assess the sustainability of freshwater consumption by agriculture sector using a water footprint approach. The water footprin...