Influence of wind magnitude and direction to the variability of Pahang River plume distribution

Degradation of coastal water quality has become an issue as far as the fishery sector is concerned. River discharge is one of the environmental threats in coastal area. River discharge induces river plume containing high concentrations of suspended matter, various phytoplankton pigments and coloured dissolved organic matter. The distribution of river plume in coastal environment varies widely over time and space. Variations in plume events will be affected by a number of factors including magnitude and direction of wind stress, storm and seasonal cycle, bathymetry and exit angle. The objective of this research is to examine the effects of the magnitude and direction of wind stress on the variability of Pahang River plume. The results showed that the wind speed is highly variable throughout the six years study period. The lowest wind speed was observed at 2.00 ms−1 in June 2005 and the highest at 5.20 ms−1 in January 2010 with average annual wind speed for the six years was 2.90 ms−1. In this study there w...