Around the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan, Malaysia there are housing areas, educational institutions, schools, hospitals and even houses of worship that are categorized as sensitive recipients. They’ve been receiving noise from the airport for decades and they are still there. They may feel uncomfortable but have no choice, or are they no longer aware of the disruption they receive on a daily basis or they can already accept the noise with an open heart. To answer this question an informal conversational interview was conducted. A total of 120 respondents were selected, 40 respondents per contour (500m, 1000m and 1500m). Results of the survey found that 50% (60 people) of respondents said the noise effect of the flight was strong, while another 25% said that the noise effect was moderate (30 people) and low (30 people). Most of the respondents who said the noise impact from the airport are strong came from respondents who sited within 500m from the airport. Meanwhile, for those who answered moderate and low was from 1000m and 1500m radius from the airport. As a conclusion, people who are leaving within 500m from the airport was badly affected by aircraft noise, So it needs to be rectified to avoid permanent hearing damage and stress problems for the residents.

Land use along the river will determine the substrate size and distributions. Substrate particle size will influence aquatic life because substrate is one of the main components forming aquatic habitat. This aquatic habitat is very important in determining river water quality as well as river health. Therefore, identifying the sediment size distribution based on land use is very crucial in river maintenance. The objective of this study is to determine the particle size variation between upper reach and lower reach of the sampling station as well as variation from different land use cover at different sub-catchment areas. The pebble counts was conducted at upper reach station and lower reach station by applying the Pebble Count Protocols developed by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Wolmen Pebble Count Procedure. The average median (D 50 ) for Dengar River ranged between 4.5 mm for upper portion and 2.4 mm for lower portion. Similar observations were found at the Mengkibol River, where particle size ranged between 3.0 mm for upper portion and 2.4 mm for lower portion. As for Madek River which represents land use area for logging activity, the results obtained were different in which the upper portion the particle size was smaller (D 50 = 4.5 mm) than the lower portion (D 50 = 41.5 mm). The finding of this study will be a basis for river catchment management study and can be used by river management authorities in the country for river management planning. © JASEM http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v20i3.3

A physicochemical survey of water quality and benthic macroinvertebrates at two rivers namely Sungai Dekong and Dawai in Lojing Highland was conducted on 23 and 24, January 2014. Three stations were selected for physicochemical water quality, one station at Sungai Dekong and two other stations at Sungai Dawai. On the other hand, benthic macroinvertebrates were collected at nine stations, i.e. three stations at Sungai Dekong and the other six stations at Sungai Dawai. Result shows that, Station 1 (Sungai Dekong) recorded Very Poor Biological Monitoring Working Party, BMWP (2.0–12.0), Poor Average Species per Taxon, ASPT (2.0–4.0), Poor Citizen Monitoring Biotic Index, CMBI (2.0–2.3), Fairly Poor Family Biotic Index, FBI (5.3–6.0) and Poor Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera or EPT Index (0.0). However, the Water Quality Index WQI (70.01) falls into Class III which can be categorized as Slightly Polluted River. On the other hand, Station 2 (Sungai Dawai downstream) recorded better Biotic and Ecological Index but lower Water Quality Index as compared to Station 1. It recorded Moderate BMWP (26.0–84.0), Very Good ASPT (5.3–6.5), Good CMBI (2.7–3.2), Excellent FBI (3.4–4.3) and Moderate EPT Index (2.0–5.0). However, the WQI (54.99) falls into Class III, and can be categorized as Polluted River. Finally, Station 3 (the most upstream station at Sungai Dawai) recorded almost similar Biotic and Ecological Index with Station 2 but in terms of WQI revealed a significant difference. Station 3 recorded Poor BMWP (34.0–46.0), Very Good ASPT (6.5–6.8), Good CMBI (2.9–3.1), Excellent FBI (3.1–3.9) and Moderate EPT Index (3.0–4.0). However, it’s WQI (84.48) falls into Class II which could be categorized as Cleaned River. As a conclusion, physicochemical river water quality was not the only contributing factor to the Biotic Index at the highland rivers as per other factors such as river substrates, river discharge, aquatic plants, river riparian and river canopy.

Overall, small holder of fish farmers in Kelantan in particular does not monitor their pond water quality to maintain fish health due to tedious and expensive work. Hence, this study was proposed to identify the assemblages of benthic macroinvertebrates at the fish pond for potential as a tool for water quality assessment via biological indicator. The study area was in one of the small holder fish pond at Gua Musang, Kelantan, Malaysia. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected monthly from March to August 2021. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected by using a heavy-duty D-frame dip net combined with a bag-shaped. The ecological indices were calculated (Shannon diversity index, Margelef’s richness index, Pielou’s evenness index, and Simpson’s dominance index). Results showed a total of 356 individuals from 27 taxa of aquatic insects were collected. Corixidea (Hemiptera) recorded high abundance in July 2021. Even though there were differences in the abundance of benthos for monthly sampling, the season was only a part of the factors that might contribute, however the other factors cannot be neglected such as food availability, water quality and substrates composition conditions. Hopefully the findings could be used by the small holders to assess their pond water quality effectively with minimum cost.