Morphometry of major river basins in the island of Penang

Drainage morphometry is used to describe the characteristics and geometric parameters of a river basin. The use of such parameters will increase the levels of objectivity and meaningfulness of the study. The present article is aimed at obtaining information and analysing morphometric characteristics of four river basins in the island of Penang namely Teluk Bahang river basin (A), Sungai Pinang river basin (B), Sungai Relau river basin (C) and Sungai Putih river basin (D). Information on morphometry of the river basins can later be used as a basic for future references. A study on the four major river basins was carried out by employing topographic map and field observation techniques. The study focused on selected morphometrical aspects of the river basins namely drainage patterns, stream order and drainage density. Results of the study showed that all river basins have drainage density of less than 2km/km2 respectively. The highest drainage density is 1.89 km/km2 recorderd at Sungai Relau river basin (C). Most of the rivers in the study area have a dendritic drainage pattern and Sungai Pinang river basin (B) has 5 stream orders which is the highest in the area.