Erosion and Sediment Control Best Management Practices in Agricultural Farms for Effective Reservoir Sedimentation Management at Cameron Highlands

Abstract

For many years, lands in Cameron Highland have been opened and leveled for agricultural farming and intensive crop production. Land-disturbing activities such as agricultural operations that are conducted on regions with steep slopes leads to a high potential of soil erosion, sedimentation and landslide occurrences. As a results, this phenomenon producing large amounts of sediment transported and deposited to the receiving waters or reservoirs. The development of best management practices (BMPs) for agricultural activities is an important step towards minimizing the amount of soil erosion and landslide incidents in Cameron Highlands. Therefore, this Erosion and Sediment Control Guideline for Agricultural Activities in Hilly Area aims to minimize erosion and sedimentation from the agricultural area in Cameron Highlands especially in the scope of reservoir sedimentation management. There numbers of steps taken in order to establish this guidelines. The first step is to define the scope with the purpose of the guideline and conduct a literature review. In order to assess the quality and feasibility of the study to formulate the frameworks, engagement with stakeholders was conducted. Lastly is to undergo review and update based on the recommendations by related stakeholders. Finally, before the establishment of guidelines, all recommendations by related stakeholders are take in account that consists of Best Management Practices components which will be applied in the agricultural area to mitigate issues and problems especially in erosion control and reservoir sedimentation management. The Erosion Control Measures are including agronomic measures, soil management, mechanical methods and Rainwater Harvesting Techniques. Subsequently, these measures are used to apply in open or sheltered farming to control the erosion and sedimentation issues based on the erosion risk level. As a conclusion, this guideline will be useful for the stakeholders especially to local community, dam owners and local authority to mitigate and solve the issues related to erosion and sedimentation in hilly agricultural area.