River impoundments continue to cause changes to the hydrological regimes of its host river. Thus,
assessment and development of tools for better understanding of the sediment dynamics and
riverbank erosion downstream the dam will be of great benefit to researchers and policymakers.
The present research employs the use of field techniques and estimation models to improve the (i)
prediction of suspended sediment concentration, (ii) monitoring riverbank erosion, and (iii)
development of Riverbank Erosion Index (RbEI) for downstream Kahang Dam. This research used
the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and ANN with Autoregressive (AR) (NNETAR) in
predicting suspended sediment concentration using sediment concentration, discharge and water
level as inputs. Similarly, erosion pins were installed on four transects to monitor the riverbank
for thirteen months. The results obtained for sediment concentration prediction clearly show that
the R2 for NNETAR (0.885) have better value compared to ANN (0.695) even though the
relationship between discharge and sediment concentration was weak, it outperforms the ANN.
While based on the sediment rating curve (SRC) results, the same pattern was exhibited where the
R2 for NNETAR show a greater value than ANN and SRC with R2 values of 0.695 and 0.451,
respectively. Based on the observed results of quantified riverbank erosion, the most active
transect eroded 1.747 mm/yr- while 0.657 mm/yr- is the least eroded. furthermore, the result
reveals the maximum and minimum sediment contribution to the fluvial system from riverbank
eroded to be 0.00743 tonnes/yr and 0.00148 tonnes/yr respectively. Lastly, by using discharge and
percentage soil composition (sand and clay), a RbEI was developed by the adopted Equation 4.7
to estimate the status of riverbank erosion of River Kahang. Moreover, five classifications of
erosion status were proposed, which can be used to describe the status and severity of the riverbank
erosion. In conclusion, the estimates by the RbEI is expected to serve as basis for analysing and
adopting river stabilisation and restoration design, which will be of importance to dam operators
in making informed decisions regarding early warnings on the riverbank stability. Also, reliable
sediment concentration estimation will assist in the development of catchment sediment budget
which will give an insight into the effect of situating a dam on a river in terms of sediment supply
and riverbank erosio
