Rainfall Runoff Model Evaluation for Lebir River, Kelantan, Malaysia

Abstract

On January 5, 2015, the National Security Council (NSC) confirmed the massive flood that hit Kelantan was the worst in the history of the state. According to the council’s report, the water level of Kelantan River at Tambatan Diraja which has a danger level of 25 meters, reached 34.17 meters. The Kelantan River basin is located in the north eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia between latitudes 4° 40’ and 6° 12’ North, and longitudes 10° 20’ and 102° 20’ East. The river is about 248 km long and drains an area of 13,100 km². It divides into the Galas and Lebir Rivers near Kuala Krai, about 100 km from the river mouth. The Lebir River itself has catchments area of 2430 km². This current paper investigates a calibration and confirmation method of hydrologic model using HEC-HMS (Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System) applied in Lebir River. General speaking, the degree of confidence of hydrologic models prediction will normally depend on how well the model can replicate and imitate the observations recorded data. The stream flow data used in this analysis is obtained from station 5222452 at Kg. Tualang with a duration period from years 2004–2014. The results of investigation revealed that the observed and simulated discharge hydrographs in the calibration and confirmation exercises were reasonably close.