Education for Sustainable Development: The STEM …
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Sustainable management of a small lake Tasik Harapan (TH) within campus provides an example of ESD research activity. A small lake of about 1.5 acres with an
averaged depth of 1.0–1.5 m, TH was constructed in 1990 to reduce the frequency
and intensity of flood in USM by holding the excess surface runoff for temporary
storage in the pond after a heavy rain. Since then, TH has been observed to exhibit
signs of eutrophication with high algae content and wild diurnal fluctuations of dissolved oxygen (Mansor et al. 2004; Teh et al. 2008). To advance the goals of ESD,
the authors initiated two water-related research projects for developing and sharing expertise on: (a) analysing the effectiveness of TH as a flood retention pond
and (b) assessing the status of eutrophication in TH, aiming to provide mitigation
measures for controlling eutrophication. The expertise and social capitals acquired
in these ESD projects were subsequently shared with other water-related research
projects nationally and internationally. The following sections will present these two
water-related research related to (a) storm water management and (b) water quality
management.
2.2.1 Storm Water Management
Since its inception in the early 1970s, USM has been gradually converted from a
former army barrack into a modern campus with paved roads, concrete buildings
and lecture halls, surrounded by captivating and enchanting greenery, an exquisite
example of a university in a garden. However, by 1990 it was realized that this
conversion from a rural to an urban setting has caused a substantial increase in
surface runoff, resulting in occasional flooding in the campus. To overcome flooding,
the flood retention lake TH was constructed to hold excess runoff after a heavy rain
for temporary storage to reduce the frequency and intensity of flooding. This study
examined the adequacy of this retention lake as a flood mitigation measure, by means
of flood management models. One model used is the WIN TR-55 (USDA NCRS
2009), developed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS) of the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The second model is SWMM
(Rossman 2015), developed by the USEPA. Any ESD project should begin with
a methodology that is simple to use and is readily applicable to other sites and
universities. For this purpose, a simple hydrological model WIN TR-55 is chosen
to examine the adequacy of TH as a flood retention lake for the campus of about
200 acres. WIN TR-55 is appropriate for TH basin (200 acres) flood simulation as
it is developed to assist in the design and construction of flood retention ponds for
small urban basins of a few hundred acres or less. However, to extend application
to flood analysis for large basins such as the Sg Pinang Basin (51 km
2 equivalent
to 12,600 acres) in Penang, an advanced flood simulation model such as SWMM is
also chosen to complement the capability of WIN TR-55. SWMM is an enhanced
physically-based hydraulic flood management model developed to provide detailed
and enhanced analysis of storm water routing over large basins.
A basic universal concept in flood management is to retain excess runoff on site
(ASCE 1975). For this purpose, the hydrological model WIN TR-55 is chosen to
573
Sustainable management of a small lake Tasik Harapan (TH) within campus provides an example of ESD research activity. A small lake of about 1.5 acres with an
averaged depth of 1.0–1.5 m, TH was constructed in 1990 to reduce the frequency
and intensity of flood in USM by holding the excess surface runoff for temporary
storage in the pond after a heavy rain. Since then, TH has been observed to exhibit
signs of eutrophication with high algae content and wild diurnal fluctuations of dissolved oxygen (Mansor et al. 2004; Teh et al. 2008). To advance the goals of ESD,
the authors initiated two water-related research projects for developing and sharing expertise on: (a) analysing the effectiveness of TH as a flood retention pond
and (b) assessing the status of eutrophication in TH, aiming to provide mitigation
measures for controlling eutrophication. The expertise and social capitals acquired
in these ESD projects were subsequently shared with other water-related research
projects nationally and internationally. The following sections will present these two
water-related research related to (a) storm water management and (b) water quality
management.
2.2.1 Storm Water Management
Since its inception in the early 1970s, USM has been gradually converted from a
former army barrack into a modern campus with paved roads, concrete buildings
and lecture halls, surrounded by captivating and enchanting greenery, an exquisite
example of a university in a garden. However, by 1990 it was realized that this
conversion from a rural to an urban setting has caused a substantial increase in
surface runoff, resulting in occasional flooding in the campus. To overcome flooding,
the flood retention lake TH was constructed to hold excess runoff after a heavy rain
for temporary storage to reduce the frequency and intensity of flooding. This study
examined the adequacy of this retention lake as a flood mitigation measure, by means
of flood management models. One model used is the WIN TR-55 (USDA NCRS
2009), developed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS) of the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The second model is SWMM
(Rossman 2015), developed by the USEPA. Any ESD project should begin with
a methodology that is simple to use and is readily applicable to other sites and
universities. For this purpose, a simple hydrological model WIN TR-55 is chosen
to examine the adequacy of TH as a flood retention lake for the campus of about
200 acres. WIN TR-55 is appropriate for TH basin (200 acres) flood simulation as
it is developed to assist in the design and construction of flood retention ponds for
small urban basins of a few hundred acres or less. However, to extend application
to flood analysis for large basins such as the Sg Pinang Basin (51 km
2 equivalent
to 12,600 acres) in Penang, an advanced flood simulation model such as SWMM is
also chosen to complement the capability of WIN TR-55. SWMM is an enhanced
physically-based hydraulic flood management model developed to provide detailed
and enhanced analysis of storm water routing over large basins.
A basic universal concept in flood management is to retain excess runoff on site
(ASCE 1975). For this purpose, the hydrological model WIN TR-55 is chosen to