Impacts of forest cover and climatic factor to water quality of river ecosystem in Inanam Likas River Basin (ILRB), Kota Kinabalu, Sabah / Maziera Safiza Mansur

Forest cover and climate change may impact river water quality by affects the amount of sediment concentration, soil texture, precipitation and fluctuating water temperatures of rivers. The aim of this study is to determine the river water quality status in Inanam Likas River Basin ( ILRB ) and the future of river water quality which can be correlated to the effects of forest cover and climatic factor. This study focuses on the analyses of river water quality by determining the Water Quality Index Sub-Indices (WQIsub) on the basis of the physical and chemical parameters. Sampling was carried out three times which involving four stations along the ILRB. The sampling stations were labelled as Station 1, Station 2, Station 3, and Station 4. The parameters water temperature (°C), pH, salinity (ppt), depth (m) were measure in-situ using an multiparameter YSI Model, Depth sounder, pH probe and Reffactometer accordingly. Determination of the concentration levels of total nitrate were measured ex-situ in laboratory using UVVis Spectrophotometer with wavelength 220nm. Therefore, sediment and soil texture also conducted in ex-situ while result for climate was from the secondary data. Overall, river water quality of ILRB was in class III , which has the value of WQTub 70.21 -and corresponded to classification of slightly polluted and average water quality. The value of air temperature and precipitation showed a change in the period of 2007 to 2016, while the sediment also show that station 1 has the highest sediment. From statistic test using SPSS I BM 21 shows that there is correlation between water quality level, forest cover and climate change variables, which sediment (r =0.144, p<0.05) and precipitation (r=0.096, p<0.05). Therefore, the fluctuation of forest cover and climate change variables of sediment and precipitation will affect water quality level.