Implementation of project based learning for civil engineering students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Implementation of Project Based Learning (PtBL) in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) as part of Outcome Based Education (OBE) framework have faced various challenges (i.e revamp on the undergraduate co-curricullum, required high commitments from academicians & faculty and facilities to cater PtBL activities). This paper discusses the effectiveness of PtBL teaching method in an effort to develop the students’ soft skills in tandem with the technical or professional competencies; and problems, challenges and potential improvement in the course. The Survey Camp course which is offered at year one of a four years civil engineering degree programme in the Faculty of Civil Engineering (FKA), UTM was chosen for this study. It is a ten days fieldwork in which the students will carry out an engineering survey project from field to finish in groups of five to six students supervised by the academic staff. Assessment of the technical aspects was based on the students ability to meet the minimum engineering surveying’s standard whereas the assesment of soft skills was conducted during various sessions of the survey projects. Survey questionaires were given at the beginning and the end of the course as part of evaluation of the course effectiveness. The research has found that the technical aspects were achievable though with lesser degree for the engineering design. However, on the soft skills, students demonstrated an overall improvement of competency but it was difficult to determine the levels for the average students while the best and poor performers were easily observed

A non-instrumental method to determine hydraulic heads on low-lying coastal aquifer

The technique introduced in this paper is to provide an alternative method to determine hydraulic heads in an unconfined coastal aquifer. The heads could be established within a study area without the needs to use any instrument, such as a theodolite. Instead, a less costly small-diameter transparent tube is used to produce a horizontal plane, formed by a balanced water level in it. Such planes are used as reference levels between two wells on an area, which is relatively flat. Current tidal heights are required in order to calibrate the measurements obtained from the reference levels to the mean sea level. The application of this method at field as a case study has revealed the reduction and critical condition of h in the phreatic aquifer of a small island, due to the frequent pumping of the wells

Regional climate scenarios using a statistical downscalling approach

The climate impact studies in hydrology often rely on climate change information at fine spatial resolution. However, General Circulation Models (GCMs), which are among the most advanced tools for estimating future climate change scenarios, operate on a coarse scale. Therefore the output from a GCM has to be downscaled to obtain the information relevant to hydrologic studies. The results presented in this report have indicated that it is feasible to link large-scale atmospheric variables by GCM simulations from Hadley Centre 3rd generation (HadCM3) outputs with daily precipitation at a local site. Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) was applied using three set of data; daily precipitation data for the period 1961-1990 corresponding to Endau rainfall (Station no. 2536168) and Muar (Station no. 2228016) located in Johor at the Southern region of Peninsular Malaysia; The observed daily data of large-scale predictor variables derived from the National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and GCM simulations from Hadley Centre 3rd generation (HadCM3). The HadCM3 data from 1961 to 2099 were extracted for 30-year time slices. The result clearly shows increasing increment of daily mean precipitation of most of the months within a year in comparison to current 1961-1990 to future projections 2020’s, 2050’s and 2080’s considering SRES A2 and B2 scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Frequency analysis techniques were carried out using the observed annual daily maximum precipitation for period 1961-1990 and downscaled future periods 2020’s, 2050’s and 2080’s. Therefore, it does appear that SDSM can be considered as a bench mark model to interpret the impact of climate change

Hydrological and hydraulic study of water management system study for PT Bhumireksa Nusasejati, Sumatera, Indonesia

The hydrology and water management study in Bhumireksa Nusasejati Palm Oil Plantation was commissioned by the Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd. The objective of this study is to evaluate the hydrologic and hydraulic characteristics of the project area in relation to water navigation system of the existing canal. This study involved mainly field and hydrographic survey and investigation that include field data compilation and interpretation and hydraulic modeling exercise

Responses of stream water quality concentrations to vegetative cover variation in Muar River watershed

Analysis of the historical land-cover of Muar River watershed has shown that forest and agriculture are the dominant land-covers over the last three decades. This information was used to evaluate the relationship between the vegetative landscape variation to stream water quality concentrations which was to provide an insight for management of water quality under humid tropical climate. Three out of the six water quality variables simulated using the hydrological simulation program FORTRAN (HSPF) model are sensitive to change in vegetative land-covers which include; biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N), and orthophosphate (PO4) concentrations. However, total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO), and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) concentrations remain insensitive. Further analysis shows that patch density (PD) has a little impact on BOD, NO3-N, and PO4 concentrations compared to edge density (ED), largest patch index (LPI), and landscape shape index (LSI) under varied landscape conditions. However, large ED, LPI, and LSI indices in both forest and agriculture will result to increase in BOD, NO3-N, and PO4 concentrations. Therefore, adequate knowledge of the responses of the water quality concentrations to landscape pattern and its dynamics can serve as an alternative solution to stream water quality deterioration in an abundant rainfall region

First flush analysis of urban stormwater runoff from an urban catchment in Johor, Malaysia

An increase of pollutants that are present in the initial stage of stormwater runoff hydrograph compared to a later stage of runoff is defined as a first flush phenomenon. This study aims to investigate the occurrence of first flush from samples of urban stormwater runoff obtained from the grounds of a University in Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. In order to achieve the study’s objective; field investigations, manual sampling of urban stormwater runoff, laboratory testing and data analysis were carried out and the evaluation of the first flush phenomenon was calculated using concentration-based first flush (CBFF) and mass-based first flush (MBFF. A total of 90 stormwater samples were collected from six (6) rainfall events and were tested for total suspended solids (TSS). For each rainfall event, the pollutographs and the dimensionless curves of the cumulative pollutant mass versus the cumulative discharged volume were plotted. The first flush coefficient was also determined in order to evaluate the occurrence of first flush. The results indicated that the storm events demonstrated a weak presence of first flush

Framework of survey camp course in civil engineering program using project based learning

This paper seeks to present the framework of teaching and learning Survey Camp course using project based learning in enhancing engineering professional skills among civil engineering students. This study was conducted at School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The Survey Camp is designed as a package of ten days which consists of surveying activities such as levelling, traversing and detailing, and also introduces the usage of latest technologies of surveying tools in civil engineering projects. Project Based Learning is implemented as teaching and learning approach to enhance students’ content knowledge and professional skills development. Online assessments and feedback from students are used as tools to evaluate the outcome of the course. It was found that the learning environment has positively enhanced students’ professional skills as needed for engineer of 2020. The impact on teaching and learning will be benefited to student, educator, educational Institution and employee/Industry. Furthermore, it will produce high quality of graduates with the ability to integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes associated with the requirement in preparation as a future engineer. For commercialization prospect, this framework could be packaged and offered to other institutions through licensing, offer courses or workshop on the designing and conducting the survey camp and being as a facilitato

First flush analysis of urban stormwater runoff from an urban catchment in Johor, Malaysia

An increase of pollutants that are present in the initial stage of stormwater runoff hydrograph compared to a later stage of runoff is defined as a first flush phenomenon. This study aims to investigate the occurrence of first flush from samples of urban stormwater runoff obtained from the grounds of a University in Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. In order to achieve the study’s objective; field investigations, manual sampling of urban stormwater runoff, laboratory testing and data analysis were carried out and the evaluation of the first flush phenomenon was calculated using concentration-based first flush (CBFF) and mass-based first flush (MBFF. A total of 90 stormwater samples were collected from six (6) rainfall events and were tested for total suspended solids (TSS). For each rainfall event, the pollutographs and the dimensionless curves of the cumulative pollutant mass versus the cumulative discharged volume were plotted. The first flush coefficient was also determined in order to evaluate the occurrence of first flush. The results indicated that the storm events demonstrated a weak presence of first flush

Influence of physico-mechanical properties of tuff on penetration rate - a case study in Southern Johor Bahru, Malaysia

The relationship between physico-mechanical properties of tuff and penetration rate of air percussion drilling was investigated during an exploratory well drilling work at Southern Johor Bahru. The rocks were tested for weathering grade, average grain size, porosity, quartz content and point load strength test. The penetration rate was found to increase linearly with an increase in weathering rate, average grain size and porosity. Meanwhile, it decreases dlinearly with an increase in quartz content and point load strength index. The coefficient of determination, R2 between weathering grade, average grain size, porosity, quartz, point load strength index and penetration rate were found to be 0.4875, 0.1838, 0.0186, 0.0863 and 0.6324 respectively in simple linear regression analysis. The findings from a multivariate regression analysis showed good correlation (R2=0.79) between the tested parameters and penetration rate of tuff

Fracture characterization using downhole camera in deep boreholes at Southern Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Downhole camera is an effective tool to locate fractures and other geological features in boreholes although it does not quantify the characteristics of fracture directly. This study attempts to qualitatively characterize fractures in three deep boreholes, namely W1-W3 using downhole camera of R-CAM 1000 XLT as well as to investigate the geological features present at Southern Johor Bahru. The study area is underlain by Jurong Formation and Older Alluvium. Jurong Formation comprises of well cemented and consolidated volcanic-sedimentary rocks while Older Alluvium comprises of coarse, angular clayey sand with pebbles such as quartz, rhyolite, chert and argillite pebbles. The geological features encountered during the study are brecciated zone and veins such as quartz, calcite and pyrite. In addition, the fracture density in W2 (175/150 m) is found to be higher than W1 (79/165 m). Gently dipped (<20°), single set of joints with tight to open aperture (<0.1–4 cm) are dominant in both wells. Major orientation of discontinuities is north-east (0–90°) to south-west (180–270°) which is subparallel to bedding plane and lineament orientations. Meanwhile, no major structure is observed in W3. Thus, the study shows the importance of downhole camera survey in locating and characterizing fractures in rock mass qualitatively