Assessing the impact of water pollution on the productivity of natural coastal resources

摘要

The degradation of Malaysia's coastal environment through removal of mangrove forest,rncoastal reclamation works, deterioration of river and coastal water quality and trawlersrnencroachments are attributes and causes for the decline in fish catches. The trend in fishrnlandings or catches in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia over the last decades have shownrna steady decline and should be reflected as a concern in the national food security. Over arnsimilar period, the Depar?ent of Environment Malaysia have reported a similar trend inrncoastal water quality degradation.rnOne of the most common use tools to gauge changes in the capacity of the environment isrnthrough the use of indexes. As such NAHRIM has embarked to develop a method to assessrnthese changes and to determine the risk faced by the coastal environment through therndevelopment of what is known as the Coastal Resources Risk Index (CORRI)?.rnCORRI? is based on the concept of Environment Sensitivity Index (ESI) with three majorrncomponents that is existing conditions, productive resources and disturbances. It is linked to arnGIS based decision support system. The pilot development of CORRI? was carried out between 2005 till 2007 over three river basins in the northern part of peninsular Malaysia thatrnis for Sg. Kedah, Sg. Peris and Sg. Perai Basin. Its application will be further tested in the eastrncoast of peninsular Malaysia and for the Sarawak and Sabah.